Tailgating drivers everywhere

[mag2305]

I'm sure this isn't really something new and I might be totally wrong but since the pandemic, I feel like there's always cars sitting really close behind and often kind of agrressive, like swerving out slightly to created pressure I guess or some overtake. Has driving become more aggressive? Is it because people are frustrated? Is it just this area (busy area in Essex)?
Maybe it's just me noticing it more. I'm not a slow or fast driver, just stick to the speed limit. I've got a toddler and one of those baby in board stickers which might piss people off and make them tailgate even more, I don't know. I was always quite a confident driver as I used to drive in Central London regularly which can be interesting, lol! So I was never easily intimidated by other drivers. But the tailgating and overtaking is every day round here and I'm more nervous now on the road which I never felt before. Maybe it's also being a mum now too, just feeling more protective. Don't know.
Anyone else feel this?

there was a disparity between people who'd got complacent about doing their own thing on empty roads and emerging drivers who had lost confidence.

I agree with Bogroll on this. The roads have been quite empty for a while and we've got used to there being not much traffic, and now suddenly it's all back.

I also think that if you are being tailgated everywhere you go, then you need to look at your own driving. It suggests that you aren't keeping up with the traffic and they are all trying to tell you something. I've noticed in the last few months that people are driving a lot slower than usual and it's really frustrating when you've got someone pootling along in the outside lane at 35 and holding up all the traffic; if you want to drive well below the speed limit at least stay in the inside lane.

• To you, and to everyone who has commented on 'baby on board' signs.

The reasons for these signs is so that if you're in an accident, the emergency services know to look for a baby (could easily be missed in a crash when the car is a bit mangled).

It's not to show off that they can breed, or to make other drivers drive more carefully around them.

It's simply so that in case of emergency, the baby has the best possible chance of being saved.*

As an emergency services worker I can categorically say this is utter bollocks. Do you really think cops only check for other occupants of a vehicle if it has one of those signs?

Bold fail 🙄

The reasons for these signs is so that if you're in an accident, the emergency services know to look for a baby (could easily be missed in a crash when the car is a bit mangled).

So the car is so mangled that you can't see a baby or car seat but you can see a much smaller 4 inch sticker placed on a surface that's designed to shatter into tiny pieces in the event of impact? And the emergency services wouldn't consider looking for a child if it wasn't for the sticker? Why isn't mandatory to have one then? If course it's utter nonsense. It makes no sense.

Of that should say.

@Travellor

One answer for some tailgaters is a rear facing dashcam. Was being pressured by a car on the M11, until the front seat passenger saw the camera. I could see her pointing it out to the driver who suddenly dropped back. They overtook from a long way back a bit later.

What dashcam do you have? I'm tempted to buy one.

I'm not a driver but I live on a fairly busy residential road that runs between two main roads. Because it's residential, people park (legally) along it and it also curves AND is on a hill! So there is a lot of giving way needed to drive down.

The amount of aggressive beeping and yelling has risen gradually over the last 15 years- it was something that happened multiple times a day since we moved in. But this is the first year there've been actual traffic jams with someone refusing to give way and drivers eventually having to either turn around (obviously a feat in itself) or direct cars to pull onto the pavement, back up and so on until the idiot is able to get the clear run they feel they deserve. I'm fully anticipating fights once it gets really hot, which is when things really start kicking off every year.

So as an observer with no skin in the game, aggression seems to be rising year on year and this is just the next level.

Can I ask why so many people hate baby on board stickers? I know it's going off topic slightly. But if that's a reason why people would aggressively tailgate, I would consider taking mine off.

For me, it was done with the best intention for safety as I naively (it seems) presumed some drivers might be a little bit more respectful. Of course we should all be considerate of ALL people in cars, all ages. You wouldn't want to crash into anyone. But I guess the difference is that babies and children don't decide to get in a car themselves. The majority of adults (with some exceptions) know the risks of getting in a car and make that informed decision for themselves.

Over the last ten years or so the presence of traffic police has much reduced, for example a having of breath tests. Cars including Chelsea Tractors have become larger and more powerful, and getting one has become easier via PCPs (contracts). So you have a combination of more powerful cars and less enforcement of the very limited driving standards we have in the UK.

My pet hate is on the motorway, overtaking a lorry but sticking to the speed limit, car behind driving up your arse. On a stretch where I know there are speed cameras. Wait a few seconds until I can pull in, then you can fill your boots and get as many speeding tickets as you like in the next five minutes.

There is zero enforcement of anything around here. I see people weaving about on their phones, people with illegal number plates, illegally loud exhausts, that new trend for twats taking off their front number plate, illegal lights - and I don't even go out that much.
The general standard of driving and any idea of sticking to any kind of law has gone out of the window.
I never ever see a Police car.
When a kid up the road started annoying us by parking outside out houses to smoke weed, I looked his car up on DVLA - he had no tax or MOT. The Police could not have been less interested, really, and it wasn't just me telling them. In the end after I wrote to my MP to ask if I could stop paying road tax as well, a very angry senior officer intervened, but he was very upset at having to enforce the law.
The kid lives with his parents in recently built £650K house so it's not like they were pleading poverty - and he obviously has plenty of cash for weed. The MOT history when he got it done showed he had been driving it with dangerous brakes.

For the first time in my life I am seriously considering emigrating - we seem to have turned into a rude lawless arrogant nation of utter wankers.

@MKCH

Baby on board signs can also be used for a more serious reason: so that first responders are aware that there is a baby/child in the car who is potentially incapable of freeing themselves in the case of an accident, or should be in the car (as in hasn't been ejected). Apparently you really should remove it from the car when baby is not in the car. I'm not sure that's why they were originally created but I believe emergency services do take them seriously. They're not necessarily just showing off success in the baby making process!

Absolutely when the baby is not in the car they should be removed. They were invented to advise first responders to hunt for a baby in the vehicle. Anyway the signs are generally silly and indicate poor driving.

Also what is it with people who can't keep a constant speed. I drive almost entirely on motorways on cruise control. My speed doesn't change yet people speed up when I attempt to pass them and on the M25 round the western section the driving is so bad I overtake the get overtaken by the same car several times despite being on cruise control constantly.

Dynamo Kev
I hear you ! Same here too.
Lawless and reckless and the police turn a blind eye :(

@Whoarethewho OK, well with regards to the baby on board signs indicating poor driving, I can only say that I think my own driving is actually better since having a child, and I think it was reasonable before tbf but I've got an extra protective instinct that's kicked in now. I'm sure other parents must get this?!

I'm.not sure why all these drivers are in such a hurry, and you read so many threads on here moaning about people sticking to speed limits or cyclists slowing down the flow of traffic, just chill out

I can’t speak of pre vs post lockdown driving as I only started driving in the lockdown. But I will say there’s an awful lot of honking & overtaking round my way if you stick to the speed limit (mostly 20 mph as I live in a city), apparently not everyone is in agreement that 20 is plenty!

Also I think the reason baby on board signs irritate people is the presumption by the driver that people are going to automatically give you more respect on the road because you have one. I give all road users equal respect anyways, but because you’ve got a sign up, just for you I need to extra double check everything? It’s the presumption that everyone else has to presume your cargo as more valuable than everyone else’s cargo, as if your baby is more worthy than all other passengers on the road. It’s irritating. Let alone the fact you have to so close to read the sign in the first place, often too close!

@mag2305

Can I ask why so many people hate baby on board stickers? I know it's going off topic slightly. But if that's a reason why people would aggressively tailgate, I would consider taking mine off.

For me, it was done with the best intention for safety as I naively (it seems) presumed some drivers might be a little bit more respectful. Of course we should all be considerate of ALL people in cars, all ages. You wouldn't want to crash into anyone. But I guess the difference is that babies and children don't decide to get in a car themselves. The majority of adults (with some exceptions) know the risks of getting in a car and make that informed decision for themselves.

Maybe you’re experiencing tailgating as other drivers are trying to read what the ridiculous little piece of yellow says? You can’t actually read them from a safe stopping distance behind

@SilverDragonfly1

I'm not a driver but I live on a fairly busy residential road that runs between two main roads. Because it's residential, people park (legally) along it and it also curves AND is on a hill! So there is a lot of giving way needed to drive down.

The amount of aggressive beeping and yelling has risen gradually over the last 15 years- it was something that happened multiple times a day since we moved in. But this is the first year there've been actual traffic jams with someone refusing to give way and drivers eventually having to either turn around (obviously a feat in itself) or direct cars to pull onto the pavement, back up and so on until the idiot is able to get the clear run they feel they deserve. I'm fully anticipating fights once it gets really hot, which is when things really start kicking off every year.

So as an observer with no skin in the game, aggression seems to be rising year on year and this is just the next level.

Sounds like the road I live in plus more learner drivers

@JudgeRindersMinder so you're saying that having a baby on board sign makes tailgating justified? And that anyone with any sort of sticker on their car deserves to be tailgated?

@LemonSwan @JudgeRindersMinder are you parents? Just wondered.

I don't have a baby on board sticker and have experienced the same as OP in the same area.

Its definitely worse here, especially in the 20mph areas that have been recently introduced here. There's ALWAYS someone up my bumper. I don't like the speed limit either FFS!

My dashcam is a Mio Dual (I think a 645). The particular model is possibly no longer made but they still do other dual cameras.

I don’t understand why ‘baby on board’ stickers annoy some drivers so much. It actually doesn’t affect you at all. Any more than fish stickers put on the back windscreen by some Christian drivers.

It certainly doesn’t justify tailgating, which can be very dangerous.

Where I live there are signs at the ports saying our roads are 'different'. They're really not, same rules apply to the rest of the UK, but it does mean that in the winter you can drive about happily but in the summer it takes twice as long because tourists pootle about frankly quite terrified of our 'different' roads!