To still be upset about this dreadful driver?

[Netcurtainnelly]

Mr net Curtain and I were driving down a country road on Friday and realised we were being tailgated.
I looked round and the driver was featuring us to go faster. We did not as we were already driving to the speed of the road

We just ignored him and carried on. Next thing he or someone behind him starts blasting the horn furiously obviously trying to get us to go faster
We did not eventually the driver turned off

It really unnerved me and made me nervous. I can't believe that people are prepared to cause a crash on a road just because they want you to hurry up.

Has this happened to anyone else? have experienced tailgaters before but never someone blasting their horn etc. So dangerous.

ODFOD - this was along a five and half mile stretch of road. There was nothing to merit going as slowly as that driver.

I sincerely hope you are not a driver if you don’t know the difference.

You said it’s rarely unsafe to drive at speed limit. That’s bullshit. My driving is advanced and defensive.

It is rarely unsafe to do so, unless the road is unclassified. The two are exclusive. I’m not saying it’s rare on an NSL/unclassified. I’m saying unless it is.

Two issues here - maybe OP was going 'too slowly', but we can't judge because we don't know what the road was like and the general conditions.

But nothing excuses dangerous, bullying behaviour which breaks the rules about stopping distances and harrasses another driver. It's just wrong in any circumstances and could cause an accident.

The advice from driving instructors about tailgaiting is to slow down slightly.

All roads are different. I've been on some country roads with a high speed limit which consist of a series of blind corners with high hedges. I drove to work for years on one like this and if I'd been doing the speed limit and not hugging the hedges, I'd have had a prang every week because of oncoming idiots in the middle of the road doing 50 round the blind corners.

The other issue with making a blanket declaration that everyone should drive at the speed limit all the time (Ja, Mein Fuhrer!) is the state of some roads.

Several roads around here have such awful potholes, or crumbling edges, that it forces people into the middle of the road. You can't drive at speed in conditions like this - you wouldn't have time to take evasive action. And I'm talking about the kind of holes which would stop a vehicle.

Driving at the speed limit at all times is NOT the most important consideration.

I do know the difference. I’m asking if the OP does.

Do you take this level of aggression into the car with you?

When I had to take my speed awareness course one thing that cropped up was "what do you do about a tailgating driver". The answer they wanted was "you let them pass". Okay. But a small part of me was thinking, "Okay, so I let him pass me, he continues flying up the road and hits a child because he's speeding - maybe my child. Why shouldn't I continue to keep the bastard behind me?"

No, I didn't say any of this. Stupid I am not. But should we facilitate dangerous driving?

People think they are ‘good drivers’, like racing car drivers, if they speed up coming from around corners.

All hail Tom clarkson. Except so is mine and I drive for a living. It’s not bullshit. How many roads that aren’t unclassified country lanes do you drive on, that in good weather, you can’t safely reach the speed limit?

I always slow down to piss them off more. They usually back off.

There is no aggression from me, I just dislike sanctimonious responses. The guy behind me was certainly very impatient at one stage and manoeuvred to overtake when he couldn't see there was this very slow car in front. That is one reason why not driving to the speed limit when the conditions allow is so dangerous.

I find ‘fuck off’ slightly aggressive, but there we go. Seems we are destined to disagree. I shall bow out gracefully.

I really don't understand why narrow country roads are 60 mph. But what also amazes me, is that people do not have the intelligence to drive at an appropriate speed on the lanes. Just because the speed limit is 60, doesn't mean it's always safe to do so.

Sometimes you can't. If I drive to neighbouring town I go on a 40 mph road and often get this sort of behaviour but there isn't anywhere to pull over for miles. Id much rather do that if it's possible.

Op - just say how fast you were driving!!

Hasten to say I'm not a slow driver, before anyone makes that assumption, but I do adhere to speed limits.

But - things have most definitely changed since I passed my test years ago (not surprising in some areas, but in this one I think it is odd). In those days the instructor emphasised that it was a limit, not a target or a compulsory speed, for that road. Obviously you didn't go on a motorway and drive at 40, but if you wanted to drive at 45 on a 50 road, or a 25 on a 30 road, that wasn't seen as a crime. Now it seems to be, though. I do sometimes have a problem getting my head around this change of attitude.

It doesn't seem to be beyond reason for someone to say 'I'm happy at 45, even though the speed limit is 50 here'. I honestly don't see what the problem is with that. Personally, I don't think it IS a problem...the problem is that most people see 50 and actually drive at nearly 60 which makes a quite reasonable 45 seem very slow. This is my experience. I usually do 50 on a 50 road if conditions are good, but I won't do more and of course I get the occasional tailgater who wants to break the limit. I don't feel bad about them in the big picture but I confess they do distract and wind me up in the moment, which is dangerous.

Does anyone know what I'm getting at here? Not advocating really slow driving but doing 5 miles under the limit isn't the crime of the century - or it never used to be.

I regularly have to drive in a 30 limit all the way home from my hobby class and usually end up behind someone doing 20, so I'm not advocating that!

Neither do I. Satnav took me down an almost single-track country lane last week with lots of sharp blind bends and the limit was 60. I don't think any planners had actually assessed that road. 60 would be suicidal/homicidal on that lane.

Crazy and inconsistent.

I was driving home the other day from somewhere 5 hours away from where I live - the roads were awful and i was definitely going slower than a lot of people, I pulled over when there was a queue behind me as some clearly knew the roads better than i did.

I dont understand why people dont do this??

My experiences are worsening. More tailgating and bullying. I drive on many country roads.

I'm getting better at staying calm and pulling over and let them on their way. That's always the best reaction.

It frustrates me as I have a small car, single female looking car. I do wonder if that ever feeds into brazen bullying.

I do drive to the speed limit not under.

It's not always easy or even possible to do that. I would do it if I could.

It's not always safe to drive at the speed limit, at least around here. In the New Forest the general speed limit is 40 and through the villages it's 30. Despite that, it's not safe to drive at 40 when foals are near the road, when the stallions are out, or at twighlight in places where the deer are active. Or when the roads are salted and animals may be standing in the middle of the road licking it. Or indeed where you know there is a huge pothole the other side of a blind bend. I don't expect visitors to know about these kinds of hazard but I do expect them to ackowledge that conditions change and there might be a good reason for someone going more slowly than they expect.

Absolutely loads of them. Every single day. I no longer drive for a living but I have been a response driver in the past. We have multiple rural B roads where the doing the speed limit of 60mph would kill you, and probably others. This is not at all uncommon.

A rural b road with a national is exactly the road I’m on about where you may have to drive slower. Not enough deaths have occurred there to lower the speed limit. We are saying the same thing.