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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

about tailgaters on country roads...

62 replies

ShorthandLongnose · 30/03/2015 09:30

Visited a friend this weekend in a part of the country I don't know. I'm a city/suburbs driver normally and admit I find the prospect of hurtling along bendy country roads at 60mph slightly unnverving, but I know it's irritating to be stuck behind someone doing a lot less than the speed limit so everywhere I went I tried to keep up with the limit (varied from 30 through villages to 60 - all single carriageways).

I am a bit Captain Sensible about 30mph limits and always keep to those quite strictly.

everywhere I went I was tailgated by (I assume) local drivers who know the roads and who seemed to think I should be doing 70 minimum, especially on the single carriageways. (No place for safely overtaking on these roads - blind bends galore).

Along the way I came across a really nasty crash - car completely overturned, someone still trapped inside, two fire engines and an air ambulance. (I think everyone was OK in the end although not completely sure.)

AIBU to think that people who try to force other drivers to go faster than the speed limit on roads they don't know should be strung up by their hair until they can recite the Highway Code blindfold?

OP posts:

Original poster

ShorthandLongnose · 30/03/2015 10:09

This has been genuinely useful in that I've learned I should pull over more and not speed up on straight bits so that people can overtake so thanks for that.

Not trying to start a fight mumblechum (honest, I had enough aggression over the weekend ) but I really don't think I was bimbling. I didn't do less than 50 at any point unless the bend was really sharp, and most of the time I was round about 60. ie doing the bleeding limit!

It does wind me up a bit when drivers think they have some sort of god-given right to break the law. Not saying you do but there are definitely LOTS of drivers who do. Do they have the same attitude to shoplifting or housebreaking?

OP posts:

ragged · 30/03/2015 10:10

I sometimes pull over & let them pass, safer to have them in front than behind me. It's morning commuters that leave me .

drudgetrudy · 30/03/2015 10:14

I live in a rural area-they're a f*ing nuisance but I've learned to ignore them and pull in to let them overtake if I can.

hiddenhome · 30/03/2015 10:15

I have this

Minus the hat hung up in my rear window so he looks at the cars behind. He's so ugly and unpleasant looking that I find people aren't up my backside any more

drudgetrudy · 30/03/2015 10:17

Want one!

iHAVEtogetoutofhere · 30/03/2015 10:19

I am in rural Scotland.

Single carriageway, twisty roads, lots of livestock (which escapes) and lots of tractors / tourist coaches / supermarket delivery lorries
as well as standard traffic.

There are a high number of fatalities on our local roads.

Combination of locals who 'know the roads' and visitors who don't.

Locals 'take the racing line' on the 'roads they know' and often drive pissed due to cost of taxis home (sod all public transport).

Visitors drive either too fast or too slow, looking at scenery not road, and are surprised by livestock / tractors / locals cutting them up.

I pull in for tailgaters.
My father died in an RTA and I don't want to join him.
I tend to do about 40/50. It's plenty fast enough around here.

Chickenschicken · 30/03/2015 10:21

Where I am people have stickers saying "the closer you get the slower I'll go"

Comingoutofhibernation · 30/03/2015 10:22

I'm with Eve on this, it worries me a bit that you felt you had to drive as fast as possible. I live in a rural area, and have to drive down a winding country road with a 60 limit to the stables every day. I also ride on the same road. I know the road like the back of my hand, and because of that I never go over 40 mph. I have seen many many crashes where people go haring round the corners, and hit someone coming the other way.

Just yesterday I had a near miss when I went round a corner and was met by someone coming the other way, at top speed, in the middle of the road. I only managed to avoid them because I was going slowly. I do agree with you though, the tailgaters are idiots, just don't let them pressure you into driving faster than is safe!

ElviraCondomine · 30/03/2015 10:23

The last part of my drive to work is along a narrow lane with two farms, a fishing lake, and a small industrial park (very small!) as well as three blind bends, one of which is on an incline and very close to the opening of a field, so always caked in mud and therefore treacherous.

Last week I actually had someone leaning on their horn as I slowed down for this bend, and how he missed going into the back of me when I braked for the cows crossing the road, I don't know. I heard his brakes. I was also almost hit by someone taking a bridge right in the centre of the road - it is wide enough for two vehicles, but not if you're driving like a bat out of hell.

In very poor weather I take the alternative route (town, a few miles longer, and you hit rush hour traffic) because last winter I saw three accidents on this stretch of road in as many weeks.

Sparklingbrook · 30/03/2015 10:26

This is one of the reasons I have ruled out Devon and Cornwall and most of Wales for holidays in the Summer. Narrow windy roads and loads of traffic.

I have to do a fair bit of rural driving around here and it's not much fun.

Original poster

ShorthandLongnose · 30/03/2015 10:26

Hopefully if I do more pulling in next time I won't feel under so much pressure to go faster than is safe. Agree that 40 felt plenty fast enough to me most of the way, I'd have been happy not to do more than that on lots of bendy stretches (and even slower round the bends) but felt so pressured by the person behind me.

I'm very sorry about your dad iHAVEtogetoutofhere

The RTA I came across yesterday was really frightening. I think that's why I got so cross when I got tailgated the rest of the way - I wanted to stop the car and say 'do you know what I've just seen?'

OP posts:

WetFishAndOnionRings · 30/03/2015 10:26

YANBU.
I learned to drive in rural somerset and my driving instructor told me that the best way to deal with these people is to slow down rather than speed up. Works for me.

That said, I can't abide being stuck behind drivers who are doing 30 on a straight 60 road with perfect visibility then slow down to like 15mph when they enter a 30 zone.

If you can't drive safely, you shouldn't be driving, whether it be speeding, tailgaiting or going half the speed limit.

I particularly hate it when I'm doing 70 on a dual carriage way in the fast lane while overtaking a bunch of caravans etc., only to have some Audi pull up so close behind me I can not see his lights.

butterfly2015 · 30/03/2015 10:27

People tailgate everywhere and I hate it. I had a car so far up my arse once I was tempted to stop and ask if they wanted me to open my boot so they could get in.

pictish · 30/03/2015 10:31

Yanbu. But you mustn't let them bother you and stress you out...although that is difficult I know. Just tell yourself it is perfectly acceptable for you to take your time on a bendy road you don't know, and their impatience is their problem alone.

UghReally · 30/03/2015 10:33

Ugh... tailgaters... My favorite trick was to very very lightly tap on the brakes to cause brake lights to come on but not enough to actually stop if you know what I mean, They'd soon back off. I've since stopped doing it though as I'm aware of the possibility that I'll go a little too hard and end up rear ended

Sparklingbrook · 30/03/2015 10:36

Bit goady but gets the message over...

specialsubject · 30/03/2015 10:38

the maximum limit on single carriageways is 60, and it is a MAXIMUM.

I live in such an area, and even our bypass is mostly single carriageway and twisty. Tailgated yet again yesterday (doing about 50 knowing there was a bend and a 40 limit coming up). Little boy in his tatty Corsa tailgates then overtakes, followed by older man who should really know better. Actually little boy should know better, he's just passed his test.

up comes the next roundabout, and having risked their lives there they are just in front of me. This ALWAYS happens.

slow down when tailgated, pull in if you can - but if you are being tailgated you can't pull in because you haven't got enough gap to do so safely. So keep slowing.

BTW put on headlights too- this puts on rear lights which the stupid will think are brakes. That works too.

never a tree when you need one...

Original poster

ShorthandLongnose · 30/03/2015 10:41

Ooh I like that Sparkling

wetfish I get so many drivers round my way who can only drive at 37mph. 30 speed limit - they roar through it at 37. Changes to 40 or 60 - they stay at 37 (and this is on very straight suburban A roads). Drives me bonkers.

OP posts:

mummytime · 30/03/2015 10:46

I go slow for tailgaters too - if they are going to crash into me I want it to be as slowly as possible.

binspin · 30/03/2015 10:48

I'm rural and couldn't imagine driving in london.
I'd never tail gate but it does my head in when people brake at a leaf or a car coming in the opposite direction on a two lane road. Or when they speed up at any opportunity I have to over take safely.

HighwayDragon · 30/03/2015 10:52

I get annoyed with nervous drivers on roads, or the ones that just drive at 40 everywhere op if you were being overly cautious and then sped up so no one could overtake you are going to aggrivate people

peggyundercrackers · 30/03/2015 10:55

why don't you pull over and let them pass?

ChopperGordino · 30/03/2015 10:56

my friend was hit head-on by a driver overtaking on a blind bend (fortunately she was taking the bend slowly and no one was hurt). the overtaking driver shouted at her as he got out of his car "i drive along this road twice a day!!"

chemenger · 30/03/2015 11:02

I got tailgated on a wide, clear stretch of 30mph road a couple of weeks ago, on a Sunday morning. Just me and the van on it, going at 30. No reason for him to be glued to my rear. I think he got the message when he was too close to see me indicating for ages that I was turning left into where I work. I heard him skid behind me and he only missed me because I turned in faster than I would have liked. The worst thing about the whole story is that there are two lanes going in the direction we were going and he was so intent on tailgating me that did so rather than just moving into the righthand lane, which he needed to be in at the next junction.

0x530x610x750x630x79 · 30/03/2015 11:08

I usually find a gate way to pop into to let them overtake, then if they have a crash overtaking on a blind bend on a blind brow it isn't whilst overtaking you.
Or if a bit is slightly safe to overtake on (if you are a mad bastard) slow down to 30 so they can get past quicker.

These are my tactics so it is not me they bounce into when they have that crash.

My worst was i was doing 60, whilst being overtaken on a blind brow.

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