AITA? My Horn Vs. The Guy Who Almost Ran Me Off The NYS Thruway

I've been talking about this a lot on the air lately, and I feel like I'm not alone here...have you noticed that people have been driving pretty insane lately?

A few months back I jotted down a few of my thoughts after experiencing some dangerous road maneuvers on Hudson Valley roads that had me questioning humanity.  People weaving in and out of Rt. 9 traffic where we are all going to end up stopped at the next red light together, passing on the shoulder, it's been like something out of a video game or a Fast and the Furious movie. I found myself in another situation just yesterday on the NYS thruway and I need to know, AITA here?

You Deserved My Horn After Almost Running Me Off The Road

I had an early appointment on Tuesday morning and decided to take the thruway one exit, from 17 to 18, Newburgh to New Paltz.  Now I've driven this road a thousand times before given I grew up in Fishkill and went to SUNY New Paltz.  Just after I got on at exit 17, I noticed that traffic was fairly light and everyone was kind of spread out between the two lanes.  As I came up, in the right lane, towards the car in front of me, a white KIA, I noticed they were hugging the shoulder a bit on the right, and hit those bumps, or rumble strips a few times.

After the third or fourth time, the car hit the rumble strip and then jerked back over I decided it was time for me to move it along.  I signaled, hit the gas, and moved to the left lane accelerating to get around this person.  As I was passing, I of course had to look over and found the driver looking straight down into his phone which he had cradled in his hand against the steering wheel.  As I was trying to pass, he began to drift left in my direction and came inches from my car, so naturally, I laid on my horn, which definitely got his attention.

What I did not expect, was for this man to go from whatever he was engaged in on his phone to IMMEDIATELY flipping me the bird and screaming at me through his closed windows. Time out - you've been swerving back and forth out of your lane for more than a mile and when you almost hit me and I honked my horn, YOU are giving ME the finger?  No sir, not in this lifetime.

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What Would You Do

I don't consider myself a really aggressive driver, but I do get angry when people do stupid things on the road that put others in danger.  Before I got close to this guy I was worried something was going on medically, or maybe he was dozing off while driving and that was causing him to swerve, but when I saw that he was on his phone, and heading in my direction I definitely got angry and went for the horn, but I don't think I deserved the bird and the yelling.  Would you have done the same with your horn?  AITA here or is he? My vote goes for him.