To slow down when tailgated

[HoneyIshrunktheBiscuit]

Nothing annoys me more than arseholes who tailgate. When I was a new driver I found it incredibly intimidating and now I refuse to be scared by these road bullies.

Just been tailgated, right up my bum, on the motorway in the left lane. Plenty of space to overtake but not the guy was right up there. So I slowed down to about 65 - I couldn't have gone much faster anyway as there was a car only a little in front doing just under 70. When I pulled off on tothe exit junction he was effing and jeffing and gesturing at me.

instructor said the best way to deal with tail gators is drive as you always do.
Exactly!
All this stupid braking, tapping your brakes, slowing down to annoy them, waiting till you're at lights/roundabouts and then interacting, fog lights on, hazards on etc just makes the person doing it as irritating as the tailgater.

And I'm with other posters on people going excessively slow on country roads and the making it difficult for others to do a perfectly safe overtake. But then again, this thread plus another one shows that there's a lot of people who get a bizare sense of achievement in preventing people overtaking/hoping that someone who overtakes gets slowed down again.

I put my hazards on.
HATE tailgaters!!

My dad was a civil engineer managing road building sites mostly. I've never forgotten how upset he was when one of his men was killed by someone speeding through roadworks so I am careful to stick to the limit in those circumstances. I was once doing so through a long stretch when a man came up behind tailgating, flashing lights and gesticulating, which I ignored. As soon as we got out of the roadworks he was off past me like a rat out of a trap. I have him a friendly wave just down the road as he was chatting with the police, karma. I love average speed cameras.

Bad formatting there the average speed camera bit should be a new paragraph, nothing to do with he stoty😊

The story

When I was learning to drive, my driving instructor said it's safer to slow down when being tailgated. It gives the other driver more reaction time to respond to what you're doing.

I never interact either. Too many people nowadays seem more bothered about what the other drivers are doing rather than just getting on and driving their own car.

I drive 20,000 or so miles annually. Tailgating someone in the inside lane of the motorway or on a road where there is easy overtaking is not on. However, slowing down on purpose due to the tailgating is also wrong.

Just carry on driving as you would and ignore them or keep an eye on them for safety.

The reason people do get cross is the number of dreadful drivers on motorways who sit doing 69 in the middle or even worse the 3rd lane and refuse to move over even when the lane to the left is clear. Lane discipline in this country is dreadful and motorway lessons for newly passed drivers should be mandatory.

So don't slow down carry on as you are but please make sure you keep left unless overtaking (and that means driving faster than the car to your left, not sitting along side for miles!!!)

To all those posters who enjoy winding up tailgaters by slowing right down, or smiling and waving at them when they go past are taking a hell of a chance. All you have to do is wind up the wrong person you know; it's no good smuggly telling yourself that you were the "safe" driver when the tailgater has smashed your face in and you've developed PTSD so bad you no longer drive! Never do anything that can deliberately wind up already irritated road users, it's madness!

I can't be doing with tailgaters, it's so stupid. Some people do drive more slowly than I'd choose to, but I always assume that they're driving at the speed they're capable of, and that pushing them to go faster is just going to make them more dangerous. Also, it's much better to sit back if you want to overtake - better view of the road ahead, and get most of the accelerating done before you cross the white line, thus ensuring you minimise the time you spend on the other side of the road. I don't slow down or speed up, it's their job to pass me if they want to (I do pull in if I feel unsafe).

My best one was the person who decided to tailgate me on a fairly windy country road covered in snow and ice so you couldn't properly see where the edge of the road was, in freezing fog, in the dark. I pulled into a gateway and let them past. Kind of surprised I didn't pass them in the ditch later on.

Excellent post Spudlet. Give people driving slower than you the benefit of the doubt and be aware that we don't all have vehicles with the same capabilities or handling. I've been driving a lot on an A road that I was initially completely unfamiliar with recently. After a few trips I became familiar with its foibles and knew which stretches were safe to go at the speed limit and which bends were not as tight as they looked on first sight. So now I drive a bit faster in places (I was never crawling along). Then I drove it in DH's sporty car rather than my Fiat 500 - its a different road; the bends feel different because of the car's better handling. That doesn't mean I have the right to try and make the Fiat 500 in front of me go faster when I'm driving the BMW though.

My worst tailgating episode was last winter on the M8 from Glasgow to Edinburgh when it had started snowing heavily. Traffic was moving slowly but steadily in the left hand lane, the right hand lane was covered in snow. Everyone was being sensible in other words. Then the lorry behind me decided I needed to go faster so came right up behind, so that I could see nothing in the mirror except the front of the lorry. This was a bit scary. He eventually overtook into the big gap that I had left between me and the car in front and did the same to them. I watched him go through this process a couple of times. Then I saw a car coming fast up the right hand lane, overtaking everyone, which is fine, not my problem. Then the lorry pulled out right in front of the car. How the car avoided him I will never know, all I can say is that Audis have amazing brakes, and that the driver must have needed clean underwear. I wish I had had a passenger to get the lorry's details because driving that way he's going to kill someone.

The reason why SOME white van drivers are in a hurry is because (and believe me I'm not defending them, when they drive terribly) their companies are making them work to an unrealistic timetable , not giving them a reasonable break or ANY break etc.

I don't like it when someone tailgates me but wouldn't go any lower than the speed limit. Imo you're asking for some idiot to get angry and possible cause an accident by overtaking when it wasn't safe to do so or even going in the back of you.

Because it is safer to have them behind me going at the speed limit rather than ahead of me going much faster? Not necessarily safer for me perhaps - but safer for all the kids walking to school down the narrow roads in the village. Perhaps not the approach to take on every road, but definitely on those with a 20mph or 30mph limit.

Oh, come off it. By that token you would have a duty to spend the entire day crawling along in front of the tailgater because, who knows, the minute you turn off and go about your personal business he'll put his foot down and mow down some pedestrians.

This morning my DH performed a perfectly legal overtake past a car travelling at 25 in a 60 zone. He overtook at about 55 and the fucking snail decided to hurl abuse and beep at us. Seriously it works both ways because some people are so inconsiderate of other road users especially in a tourist area. They act like people don't actually live there and have jobs to get to!

fuckingbubbling I grew up in a 'tourist' area and honestly people behave appallingly on the roads there including pedestrians. People just don't think they can get hurt whilst on holiday.

The fog light trick does sometimes work, but I only do it once - after that it is gradual slowing. I always have plenty of space in front anyway.

Idiot behind may then try to overtake, usually in a dangerous manner as the road is twisty and has lots of solid white lines. Hence big gap in front even more important, happy if they have a big crash but not for it to involve me or the innocent coming the other way.

I live in a tourist area but all the Darwin award candidate reports in the paper are locals. Usually crashed at 2am or rolled the car in a single vehicle incident. Good riddance.

nowthereistwo What if, yes, you are in the "fast" lane, and you are doing a legit overtake of a middle-lane slowbie, and the car behind tailgates because you are not overtaking quite as mad-fast as they would like?

This happened to me yesterday, and it made me rage. They were flying along at, like 90mph and I was in the middle of a legit 75mph overtake. I confess I did the wrong thing and tapped my brakes to make him panic and back off. He "lunged" his car at me when I had finished my overtake.

I HATE people like this. I am never sure what is the safest thing to do. I could not pull back into the middle lane as he wished me to, as the car I was overtaking was directly on my left.

Does anyone know what the recommended response is?

I believe it is to continue as you are and move back over when it is safe.

Sure but it is totally hair-raising to complete your manoeuvre with him two inches from your back bumper. I actually start to shake a little, it is so dangerous.

Not saying it isn't but nothing else you can do.

I slow down to let them go past.

On the other hand, I once had someone tailgate a taxi I was in. It was only when I arrived home, with the guy still behind us, that he berated the taxi driver for having no brake lights. Very scary.

I always take my foot off the accelerator a bit, just to try and increase distance off the car in front. Some idiot tailgated me today - I was on the motorway and it was stop/start, 40mph signs, accident signs, queue signs so I had left a lot of distance from the car in front and was happily driving along at 30 which was the fastest I could do. He was right up behind me and it's like "where do you actually want me to go?! There's 5 miles of queuing traffic!"

The only reason I slow is because I was rear ended on the motorway by someone tailgating and I didn't hit the car in front despite being shunted hard because I had left so much room - made the insurance claim slightly smoother!

specialsubject Yes it's often locals who drive dangerously ignoring obvious signs. My dm used to live by the new Forest where there are huge speed signs on the roads and by them (you can't not see them) it's to save the lives of the ponies etc. that often wander onto the roads.
They are often involved in crashes killing the livestock. When asked why they speed they say; why shouldn't they? They don't care.

That is horrible, just selfish.