Tailgating. Pull over or keep driving?

[Staffielove23]

I was driving on a country road this morning. It’s national speed limit so 60mph, and I drove at this speed for the straight bits slowing right down for the corners as it’s so bendy and I don’t want to end up over my line with a tractor oncoming or something like that. I had someone behind me, I think they must drive that road everyday, as they were getting right up my ass even on the bends. I mean I couldn’t even see their bumper and I had my kid in the back. So I indicated and pulled over to let them past as they were making me feel nervous. They lean on their horn and make some kind of hand gesture as they pass me. Was I being unreasonable to pull over?

I’m not having a go at you just highlighting this but it’s a common misconception. Speed limit is the maximum but the weather, condition me of the road etc. all determine what is considered safe should you be unfortunate enough to be in an accident.

Semi rural with vented disks and a decent car. Friend took out a deer with the same car. It's the wild deer you have to watch not the sheep! Impreza was the best car for country driving would be tempted by another one cornered like a dream and stopped in second when you wanted it. Could even put a roll cage in it if you want!

Credit to our local farmer I don't think he's ever had animals escape onto the roads and I've grown up here. Animals kept close the house and crop farming in the surrounding fields. Riding school can be interesting but that's only really within a mile of the farm and someone passing would get the horse even if it wasn't theirs.

It all relative risk to be fair, driving is a risk but it's also fun. Eating meat is a risk etc etc

It might be a 'fun' risk for you in your nice car. How about walkers, or cyclists? Obviously they don't count.
Honestly, having lived rurally, I am beyond pissed off with idiots who drive fast down country lanes.

Id have pulled over and blown kisses - that confuses their aggression

Friend took out a deer with the same car.

So, not driving safely.

When it’s safe. Most country lanes are NSL ie 60, which is way too fast for safety on many of them. It would be suicidal to do 60 on some of the little roads round here.

if you drive on Exmoor at 60mph then you'll kill yourself or some other poor bugger

I think the pp’s point was that you might get directly involved in an accident, in which case it wouldn’t be much consolation that it wasn’t your fault!

I would of slowed down to maybe 40 the whole way.

NSL doesn't really mean 60mph, it means it's up to you to drive at the appropriate speed for the road and conditions. If there is a horse or tractor likely to be around the bend you don't want to be going more than 20mph, or any speed that would allow you to stop quickly.

Same if the speed limit is 40mph. If it's foggy and icy you will likely want to be going a good deal slower.

That's just as irresponsible.

Even the way some cyclists plough down the country lane which I live just off they must have a death wish. One day I was going about 15mph in the car - most drivers do at that point - and a bike appeared doing twice that speed in the other direction, luckily just in a place where I could pull over. A few days later a cyclist was badly injured just slightly further back from there where it's more narrow and they had gone straight into a car going the other way and been thrown a distance from the bike.

@Grumpybutfunny usually talks rubbish so is at least consistent.😂

I pulled over for a tailgater last month. There'd been snow earlier in the day. The roads didn't appear to be gritted, and there was snow in the gutters and a glisten on the road. So I was going slower than usual. The couple of miles of rural road don't have safe places to pull over or overtake, so I knocked another 5mph off my speed because I like the shape of my car and don't want an impression of their bonnet in my boot because of their woefully inadequate stopping distance.

They then followed me into a built up area. Again, poor road conditions. They also went the same way past the next junction. By this point it was a safe enough road to indicate I was pulling over. I was only around the corner from home, they probably were too.

If it had been clear, optimal conditions we'd only have been home 2-3 minutes earlier anyway, but I am not playing games on poor, slippery road surfaces.

There is a special place in hell for the tailgaters on dual carriageways who go up your backside, you pull in to lane 1 to let them past and then the fuckers just dawdle through your blindspot until you catch up with a slower vehicle in lane 1. I was taught in pass plus to pull in when the overtaken vehicle is visible in your mirrors so you've given them their stopping distance. I'm not cutting up other vehicles to appease idiots with no spatial awareness, and that is not lane hogging. I'm happy to move left when there's a space for me and the other vehicles in that lane.

What an aggressive ungrateful prick! You were already doing the 60, AND you let him past! I wish all drivers were like you 🙌

You did nothing wrong by pulling over.

Every time I go out in my car, I always end up with some twat tailgating me, and 99% of the time, it will be a man.

You have better self-control than I do because I would never pull over, and I never speed up. I carry on driving at a safe speed until the person eventually gets the message that they cannot bully me.

I had a young guy today right up behind me, flashing at me to get out of the way. I was still overtaking several cars and was already slightly above the speed limit. As soon as it was safe, I moved over. He sped off like a lunatic, but I eventually caught up with him because of the heavy traffic ahead. So for all his aggression and desperation to get where he was going, he achieved very little.

A pity you could not have recorded his or her number plate, as it should have been reported to the police. They are unfit to hold a licence.

Wow. That’s so scary. Did you ever find out if they were ok?

@Staffielove23 , no, it was ages ago, before internet news everywhere, and I was going to my DM’s just for the evening, 60 miles away, so couldn’t even check local papers later. It must have been horrendous, though - the speed they were all going I don’t see how there could not have been a major pile up.

I go slower and slower if somebody is tailgating

I’ve taken from this thread to try and encourage them to overtake, and then pull over if necessary.

... very. very slowly....

Yeah that’s right let’s be a bigger arsehole than the tailgater
playing games like this on the roads causes accidents grow up ffs

I’ve taken from this thread to try and encourage them to overtake, and then pull over if necessary.

That’s what I do. Better to have them in front than behind.

I wouldn't go that far.

NSL doesn't really mean 60mph, it means it's up to you to drive at the appropriate speed for the road and conditions.

Very true, and due to the 10% over reading inaccuracy allowed with speedometers, many people who think they are driving at the speed limit actually aren’t.