Bloody tailgaters...

[Jaggerdagger]

Picture the scenario:

Single carriage stretch of road, 30 minutes drive in total from one town to the next. It's a well used commuting route with a mixture of national and 40/50mph limits. Constant stream of traffic in front of me, all going at a reasonable speed.

Suddenly! A wild prick in an Alfa Romeo decides to sit so close behind me that I can't see his bumper. Even if he overtook me, there was so much traffic in front that there was nowhere to bloody go anyway. I kept a safe distance between myself and the car in front, yet because of this, it seemed to piss the tailgater off even more!?

I went into defence mode and sprayed my back window washer as a warning 😂⚠️ I felt like an angry skunk. It worked for a bit but he was sitting on my bum again within 2 minutes.

I know I'm not being unreasonable here, but I came to discuss why the fuck people do this?! I'm interested in the psychology behind it. Maybe I'm thinking too much in to it and they're all mindless pricks, but thought I'd give them the benefit of the doubt....

Wall of pendantry is missing a brick.

it's "brake" not "break".

YANBU. My work friend was in a three car pile up on Friday because of a twat tailgater. Car looks like a write off. Luckily she only(!) has whiplash and bruising.

The brake light tap can have a knock on effect though , if the driver 2 cars behind you sees the red light then they will react and you get a stream of braking for no reason.

I am too old and jaded to let them get to me .
I know if there's a queue in front of me .
And unless I can evaporate , where the feck do I go .
They can overtake me when safe , I'd much rather they were in front of me than up my back .

I've done the Angry Skunk a few times

This is my response too. If nothing else, it allows them to overtake me if the opportunity arises. I'm ashamed I did this, and was incredibly lucky we didn't have a crash, but I have slammed my brakes on once. I shocked myself, never mind the driver behind me. Not advisable and I'm truly grateful it didn't result in an accident. I just hope the woman who was behind me took her awful experience as a lesson and drives more safely now. It's really not worth it....

Quite a few bad drivers on this thread. Why you've all not been in accidents with your behaviour is surprising!

I hate tailgaters. Such a needlessly stressful experience with someone you will likely never come across again

There is a dual carriageway near me with a 50mph speed limit. It then reaches a large junction with a slipway onto the motorway. No one seems to drive 50mph so you are tailgated virtually every time you drive there. I often see people complaining on Nextdoor about people driving "dangerously slow" and it always makes me wonder if those people don't realise its a 50 due to proximity to the motorway or if my speedometer is wildly inaccurate.

Ha , you could slow to leave a gap , wind your window down and do the "Overtake" hand signal , incorporating a finger gesture

Sort of "Yes , I know you are soo important you cannot wait with a Fucking overtake me you wanker^ for good measure .

Obviously safe over taking is their motoring decision.

When people drive on my bumper, I slow down because I think, if I needed to brake suddenly, I would rather the car behind hits me at a slower speed.

I agree about needing to do things that are probably not Highway Code but seem necessary to prevent rear ending.

1. put rear fog lights on and off again about 10 seconds. They sort of look like break lights but then people realise they aren’t but do know it’s a deliberate signal to back off


2. or, if that fails, indicate turning right- only if there is no possible room for them to try to undertake if I was going to actually turn right. Most people instinctively slow down if car in front indicates right on single carriageway.. I only signal for a couple of seconds, turn it off, and maybe repeat of they’re being particularly dense.

I had similar, OP, was driving at 60, the limit for the road, when a dickhead in his works van, logo emblazoned all over it, with his teen DS in the passenger seat decided it would be fun to tailgate me all the way to the junction.

It was a pretty intimidating experience tbh and I wish I’d had a dash cam as I would have contacted the police. I was also tempted to post on our local Fb page, as once stopped at the junction I noted down the company and when I got home searched it and that’s how I knew it was a local company and that his DS went to the same school as my DS.

Alas, I didn’t/couldn’t do any of that but after the junction there is a pull in to my estate so I indicated left, slowed right down so they passed me on the right and a give them the middle finger! His DS flipped one back, CF!

Can't stand them.
I live on a main road, where the speed limit is 40 but within 300 metres, turns to a 50, so some people are just revving to go faster right as we get to my driveway. I regularly have people beep me for having the temerity to want to go into my driveway (indicating appropriately). I ignore it, but DH is ready to reach out of the car and yank their heads off as they speed past!

You drive at a speed you regard safe for those road conditions, up to the limit. The limit is just that A LIMIT its not an instruction to drive at that speed.
I'm not a particularly slow driver, but I recently had an absolute prick overtake me on a bend on a country lane, presumably because he was of a similar mindset.
What Mr boy racer in his BMW regards as an appropriate speed limit and Mrs driving for 20+ years regards as appropriate for a road might differ. Patience for the different kinds of drivers is what's needed, as well as understanding of basic highway code.

I’m currently teaching my DS to drive. We live rurally on a road where there are no safe overtaking areas. He is great at pissing off tailgaters, particularly the ones who don’t know the road. He has perfected the art of cornering safely and frequently leaves them for dust.
The one thing he has learnt from the experience is just how annoying tailgaters are so religiously sticks to the 2/4 sec rule.
I suspect most tailgaters are people who rarely drive outside of built up areas where the speed limit is 30 and traffic is heavy and slow so they are used to driving nose to tail. They just apply the same rule to faster rules unfortunately.

I can’t believe that there are still mnters who think that it is ok to always drive at the speed limit.
Speed awareness courses should be compulsory for every driver every 5 years ( a bit like CPD in most professions). The first thing they teach you is driving according to conditions. The limit may be 60 but if it is not safe to do so then you should drive at a speed you feel is safe.
Also if someone is continually on and off their brake you are probably too close to them.
I must try the skunk spray technique. But driving a 3L car means I can usually burn them off if they become irritating.

Dh does like a fast car- on an empty country rd or motorway. Fits into a lot of the tailgater categories.
He hates tailgating. If it's safe he'll brake check, if not he'll set his cruise control to 1mph under the speed limit until they get the point.
Anyone is fair game once you can't see their number plate in your rear view mirror.

No, you are not supposed to "drive to the speed limit".

You drove to the conditions - of the road, your vehicle, the weather - and within the speed limit.

It's a limit, not a target.

A couple of months ago, I was driving along a rural road, lots of sharp bends, there was signage saying that there was gully cleaning going on ahead, so at the next sharp bend I reduced my speed right down, because I didn't know exactly where they were going to be and they are big and stationary when doing their job.

Bloke behind is furious, but had been driving so close to me he probably hadn't seen the signage or realised about the potential hazard we were approaching. So he overtakes me just before the bend, zooms off and 2 minutes later I drive past the gully cleaner and him stuck on the opposite verge with his bonnet in the hedge.

If possible I try and signal pull over to shake them off. If not I make sure I don't drive any less safely by speeding than if they weren't there.

Yeah I hate this. If anything I'll drive slower to piss them off more (still at or only a little under the speed limit though). It's aggressive driving because they think their journey is the only one that matters. Selfish pricks

@MontanaMountains

I live on a road with a 60mph limit and anyone attempting to drive at 60 would be dead. It is a narrow single lane track with hairpin turns, it is used by horses and walkers more than cars. This is the reality in many parts of the country.
Surely, driving at an appropriate speed with consideration for others should be the aim, not reaching the speed limit.
The police are more than welcome to arrest me as I creep around corners at 20mph.

@XVGN

Funny. I can overtake fine thanks but it’s not always possible is it on bendy roads etc which some roads are like that the whole journey? I’ve overtaken one of these people before - very safely, and been followed all the way to my midwife appointment and had a man scream in my face calling me a slut and raising his fist to me so if I’m honest I don’t really like overtaking.

When I first got a car, 1974 ish, I was driving to work on a long fairly decent road that had recently been resurfaced.

I was doing 40mph the limit and a twerp behind me was itching to get past and was driving really close which was making me a bit nervous.

Just before a bend in the road, he overtook and roared past me and disappeared from sight.

As I got round the bend, he was pulled into the side of the road with a shattered windscreen, the tosser had obviously not taken any notice of the warning of loose chippings prominently displayed at intervals along the roadside.

Oh how I laughed as I drove by. 🤣

Because country lanes are the standard 60mph, and are sometimes single track roads with blind bends etc. 60mph would not be safe.

I live in Australia, full of really fucking horrendous drivers. They can’t merge(hence using the freeway every morning is a journey from hell). They love to tailgate, men, women there is no difference. I’m doing the fucking speed limit, I’m not getting a ticket cos little dick Pete behind me wants me to go faster. I think they do it because they feel like it’s their private road and they can go as fast as they like and you are just in their way if you don’t do likewise
They also have a penchant for indicating and cutting in front of you, with no notice, as well as going from the fast lane of the freeway across three lanes of traffic to use the exit ramp in the space of 50 metres.As I said, truly fucking terrible drivers. I live in an estate where the road is very long and very narrow, and no possibility of overtaking. Even tho I’m doing the limit people still want to get so close I can see their nostril hair, the closer they get, the slower I go. Fuck them, it always makes me smile.

I think it is! I used to drive a Honda Jazz and people would cut me up all the time, overtake round bends when there was a queue of traffic all doing the speed limit just to get in front of a Jazz. No one would let me out at junctions because no one wants to be stuck behind a Jazz. It was so frustrating.

Now I drive a big German car often driven by idiots (not me) and it barely happens. And I get let out at junctions all the time because nobody wants me behind them because I guess they assume I'll drive 3 inches from their bumper (I don't btw - am v considerate drivers. Use my indicators and everything!!)

A retired police driving instructor told me the best way to get them to back off, and it really works.

Just ease off the gas so you slow down, but don't brake. The tailgater won't notice you're slowing down straight away, and will have to brake sharply when they realise. It may not always work the first time, but it invariably does by the time it's happened twice. I think it shakes them up a bit, and it doesn't look deliberate the way brake checking does.