Exactly what happened to me. Early winter evening, dark but lots of traffic. The car ahead surged ahead and as I looked left it seemed I had time to merge too. I hit the gas and never saw the woman ahead had changed her mind and didn’t go! I hit her rear bumper but as she didn’t move far I didn’t do much damage.

To make matters worse she hopped out of her car as the traffic behind us tried to get by us to the right! I tried to explain that we needed to pull over to the edge of the circle to let traffic flow but she thought I was going to bolt. English was not her first language and perhaps in China where she was from that’s a common tactic? (She was a UNH grad student?)

I was worried about my son in the back seat getting slammed into so I went around her and pulled out of the way. The cops came, essentially no damage and I never heard any more about it.

Like you said. Watch for your opening and be decisive. Too many shit drivers but it helps traffic flow … IF the drivers aren’t idiots.