My Anti-Tailgating device works :)

The BBQ Pit
61

And here’s the first post I could find where I responded to Alice:

Alice: lukwarm The Road to the Sun highway in Montana fits the criteria of a road that has large stretchs where it would be impossible to pass.

Lucwarm: I looked at the photo, and it seems to me that if the car in the foreground pulled as far to the right as possible and slowed to a stop or near-stop, the car behind it would be able to pass by crossing the double-yellow. Just MHO of course.

IMHO, my post was nothing more than a very polite expression of disagreement.

Feel free to disagree, but I frankly have no idea why you see this as “using my opinion like a club.”

62

Forgive me, but we were having a little fun talking about tailgaters and how we’d like to deal with them. Could you, like, open a pit thread and get after each other there?

63

Then I can’t help you.

Hey, all I did was suggest two people might have better things to do than getting into a debate with lucwarm. He could have just ignored me.

Trying to reason with him is pointless, I’m out of here. “Browbeat into submission” you might say. Game, set, and match to lucwarm.

64

No, you’re not, but perhaps your vehemence is hurting more than helping.

I remember the first thread and this thread is turning into a carbon copy. I remember (and I’m more than willing to admit incorrect rememberances) two things from the first thread:

  1. lucwarm is a lawyer (that was established, right? I’m not just talking out my ass here, am I?).
  2. The most heated discussion centered upon the feasibility of pulling over to allow a lawbreaker to pass.

While I relate my opinion I would like to remind the reader that lucwarm is a lawyer. What I know about the law I’ve learned from The (original) People’s Court and Judge Judy, but I’m pretty sure that lawyers have to take some sort of oath about upholding the law in the jurisdiction to which they are assigned. I’m right, aren’t I?

And even if I’m not. lucwarm seems to be all pissed off that someone who does the speed limit on a two-lane road is doing something wrong.

I’m well aware of minimum speeds on interstate highways. I know that in some places the local culture indicates a common speed limit five to ten miles over the speed limit. I know that in some places a person doing the posted speed limit in the left lane on a multilane highway can receive a ticket for impeding traffic flow. And, still, I don’t know what lucwarm is trying to say.

It is my responsibility as a citizen to obey laws. They taught me that in first grade, for pity’s sake. But here a lawyer, an officer of the court, is telling me that if the speed limit on a rural two-lane highway is X, and I am travelling at X+7 (or, for that matter, X-2 - the speed limit is the limit, not the minimum), it is not only my duty but also my responsibility to pull over and let a lawbreaker pass me. Because…what, the lawbreaker’s destination is more important than mine? Because there is a driveway or field entrance into which, while travelling at 65 MPH (in a 55, may I add), I can instantly and magically note, slow, stop, and take refuge?

What code tells me I am supposed to do this? It can’t be Federal as certain amendments say so. There may be state laws, but I doubt it. City/county/township laws are a possibility, but I won’t hold my breath waitin for sites/cites.

There are some who may be ready to jump my shit, and I really don’t care. I usually drive speed limit + 7. If that ain’t fast enough for you, fuck you; there’s a straightaway coming up.

I’d like to invite lucwarm and those who think like him to my neck of the woods during the planting and harvest and haying seasons, just so I can see them rail against the corn planters and combines and grain boxes travelling along 55MPH roads at tractor speed and failing to pull over because county and township roads not only have no shoulder but are also so narrow that they take a lane and a half - and normal traffic pulls over for them.

lucwarm and those with attitudes similar to his are more than welcome to jump into Mayhew Lake, into which they would most assuredly find themselves if they carry their “PULL OVER!” attitudes into my real life.

As for tailgaters, I’m still holding out for affordable flamethrowers. :smiley:

65

Sorry, I thought that since the OP and and many of the other posters here were talking about slowing down in response to tailgaters that you were refering to slowing down as retaliation. Must have misread something there.

No problem :slight_smile:

66

I try very hard not to reward rudeness. Thus, I do not buy anything from telemarketers, as the sales method is inherently rude. Nor will I pull over or even off the road because some asshole thinks that he has a constitutional right to go 20 miles over the speed limit. For one thing, I’m likely going a few miles over the speed limit in an attempt to stay with the flow of traffic myself. For another, if I DID pull off the road, I’d never be able to get back on the highway, due to everyone else zooming along.

In recent years, the interstate highways between the DFW metroplex and Springfield, Missouri, have been under constant construction. Miles and miles and miles, (I believe it’s 50 miles or so) of two lane traffic. I think that it was on I 69, though I’m not sure, and the construction MAY be over by now, I haven’t been up to see my folks in a while. By two lanes, I mean one lane going one way, and one lane going the opposite way. These lanes are separated by physical barriers, and there is NO shoulder to pull over. I don’t know what would happen if someone got a flat. And yeah, it’s a royal pain when Grandpa decided that 15 miles an hour is plenty fast enough for him, and screw all the people behind him, because there ISN’T any way to pass him for miles and miles. I can sympathize, a little bit, with tailgaters in that situation.

But in most cases, tailgating is simply an act of aggression and rudeness. I won’t make life easier for tailgaters. I’ve found that when I do let them pass, they zoom right up to the next car and kiss that car’s back bumper.

And lucwarm and Jeff Olsen need to get their own thread, or their own room.

67

No need for that. That brick wall is giving me a headache. :slight_smile:

I officially return you to your regularly scheduled thread.

68

Most freeway road rage is caused by cruise control and laziness.
Those that are so numb that they spend 5-15 minutes in the left lane passing the car - truck - that is going 1/10 of a mile an hour different because of their own cruise control and are therefore impeding me with my cruise control which is set 1/2 mile and hour higher than either of them and that they are so lazy as to not push a little harder on their accelerator and dare to cause me to have to tap my brake or otherwise change my cruise control deserve to be shot, blinded, racked and raped and other wise harmed because they are too lazy to do anything but zone out and refuse to use their signals and furthermore the turn signal is about intention and not a request and so the next time you all can’t get off or out of your drug induced commas and drive your cars, you will feel the wrath of a true berserker who will fix your little red wagon no matter what color it is …

Cruise control should be outlawed.
All cars should have to be equipped with black boxes and checked by Big Brother and if I find that anyone was not doing it right I will lock them in a bus and let Cheech or Chong do all the driving.

69

Well, here’s a suggestion: Re-write my posts. Show me how I could have and should have expressed my disagreement in a way that is not “using my opinion like a club.”

**

And you could have just ignored me. It takes two pal.

**

Nonsense. In the very first post you cited of mine, I made a concession to my opponent. That’s more than I’ve seen from you.

**

Goodbye. Now please just let this thing go.

70

Just noticed this. Agree. Jeff, instead of posting in threads where I’ve posted just to attack me, how about starting a pit thread about me?

71

That’s correct, for what it’s worth.

Actually, I believe that the most heated discussion – as is typical in pit threads – was the meta-debate over who said what; what they meant; whether their tactics were appropriate, etc.

I believe so, but an attorney’s obligations might not be quite what you think they are. Read on.

Under some circumstances, yeah, doing the speed limit on a two-lane road is wrong wrong wrong.

Here’s an extreme example: An ambulance is behind you, siren blaring and horn honking.

My main point is that it’s generally a bad idea to retaliate against tailgaters. My secondary point is that it’s usually a good idea to just let them pass. No matter what speeds are involved. Clear enough?

Because . . . it’s not necessarily for you to enforce the law. (And by the way, I’m not claiming that you have a legal duty to pull over for tailgaters.)

You might be interested to know that, as an attorney, I am have dealt with many folks who have committed serious violations of state and federal law. Both clients and adversaries. In many cases, I am duty-bound NOT to report these violations.

Yes I’m an officer of the court, but I’m not a law enforcement agent.

The question of whether you CAN pull over for a tailgater is different from the question of whether you SHOULD pull over for a tailgater. The vast majority of the time, it is possible to pull over for a tailgater.

A little statute known as “common sense.” Actually, I do believe that there are jurisdictions which have laws that say one must pull over to allow a certain number of cars to pass you. But it doesn’t really matter as far as my point is concerned. I’m not saying that you are legally required to allow tailgaters to pass. I’m saying that it’s usually a good idea.

I’m not sure what your point is here. Yes, I’d be frustrated and annoyed to be stuck behind a slow moving vehicle. No, I wouldn’t tailgate. What this has to do with my point, I have no idea.

72

That’s my experience too. But then tailgater is out of your life, or at least where you can keep an eye on him.

Agree. I will no longer continue that discussion in this thread.

73

Enough squabbling, lets get back to the point of the thread, thinking up elaborate, overdesigned, potentially dangerous, and humorous ways to get tailgaters to back off :slight_smile:

my next idea;

“The Reactive Bumper with Proximity Sensor” (TRBWPS)

basically, mount the rear bumper on high speed hydraulic rams, and have a proximity sensor act as the trigger mechanism, a tailgater gets too close, the rear bumper shoots outward, mashing in the front of the tailgater’s vehicle, higher end models would have specially designed spikes designed to puncture the tailgater’s radiator and increasing the chance of the tailgater’s engine seizing due to lack of coolant

there would be a warning label on the back of the car, alerting other drivers that “This Vehicle Equipped With Reactive Rear Bumper, please Stay Back!”, as well as an LED signboard in the rear window showing the status of the RB

“you’re following too close, stay back”
“Reactive Bumper Armed”
“Target Acquired”
“Reactive Bumper will be deployed in 10…9…8…”
“Firing”
“System Reset”

if the tailgater backs off, the system will shut down, however, if the tailgater starts tailgating again, the system will resume from it’s last status point, that way, the tailgater won’t be able to tailgate then back off, tailgate, back off, etc…

74

Hm. It might be illegal to mount a chunk of scrap metal to your car, but that gave me a great idea.

Picture, if you will, a fake plastic machine gun mounted to the roof of your car. The kind of gun isn’t important, but I think a nice, big, Doom-style chain gun (or, if you must, a 1920’s style death ray) would be the most effective.

The gun is angled down, aimed at a point about ten feet from the front of your car. The mount has a small electric motor in it.

So when Mr. or Ms. or Mrs. Tailgater pulls up behind you, you can simply flick a switch and the gun slowly rotates to point at the offending vehicle.

I imagine that would deter any but the most determined tailgater. (Hell, I think most of them would think twice before tailgating any vehicle with a great big mounted weapon.) However, for the most determined idiots on the road, the gun is also equipped with a low-powered laser. If a machine gun putting a red dot on your hood doesn’t encourage you to either slow down or pass, then you probably shouldn’t be driving in the first place.

75

This thread’s already got at least three hijacks in it and I have something against starting new threads unless absolutely neccesary, so…
So I’m driving home, and the route I take it’s more fun (and, if the traffic is light, faster) to go on this two-lane scenic byway (read- no chance of construction, ever, and it takes years to get a new stoplight installed due to the “enviromental impact”). The only problems with this byway are that 1-The limit is about 20-30 MPH below the safe speed 2-There’s only two legal places to pass, within three miles of eachother, of which one is actually long enough you don’t need to be going 20 MPH faster* than the other guy to pass him and the other is flat enough that you can see ahead of you, and 3- The only spot where you can pass, besides that, is a patch of flattened grass between those two spots, whereas everywhere else would put in into a guardrail or through it into a river. Except for these, this is a little 15 mile stretch that’s still fun to drive after doing it every day for 8 months.
On one of the two stops signs on the entire road, where bridges cross between it and the congested highway that is my other choice, there’s a mutually understood system of the two people opposite eachother going at the same time, then waiting their turn, and if somebody needs to turn, they’re halfway into the intersection before they turn on their signal because they’re bastards. But that’s not (quite) what I’m here to complain about.
On Thursday, somebody who had been sitting still for the past five cars decides to go as fast as he can and try to fit in behind the current runner. I go forward, not noticing him until he slides just between me and the guy across from me, turning into my lane as we both slam on our brakes and he runs a stop sign at 30. Oh well, I figure, he’s probably in more of a hurry than I am. But no, he continues to go 30, in a 45 and later 55 zone, after all the possibilites of passing him without trying to pass against a double-yellow line are gone.
If you’re going to run a stop sign and almost run into my driver’s side door to cut me off, at least have the courtesy to speed afterwards. Just because I’m not willing to die to take my rightful place ahead of you doesn’t mean I’m not in a hurry.

And, my current low-tech solution, having one of those cars with a not-quite-separate trunk (back armrest slides down)-stick a thin piece of metal through the crease in the armrest, scotch-tape a plastic baggie of milk (like in elementary school) to the lid of your trunk. When someone tailgates, first offer to speed up 5 mph, then slow down if they don’t, then hit the pop-turnk lever while pressing down on the metal thingie (to push it up as it pops). The scotch tape can just barely hold the weight of the milk, so it “falls” onto their car and pops, doing no real harm but making about 90% of them slam on the brakes. Make sure to pull the metal back up so the weight of the trunk closes it, and you’re not driving around with an open trunk.
I’m working on a way to have that reload mid-drive so I can offer warning shots, but I have no engineering skill and very little free cash. For reference, I’ve done this once, ever, on a guy that pissed me off every single day for about 3 months by attempting to be everywhere on the 25-mile stretch of road on the way to school at the same time.

*this is what keeps me from tailgating- room to accelerate.

76

:: wiping tears from eyes :: Ah, featherlou, thank you; that was beautiful.

MacTech, your idea is great, but I’m afraid it would lead to an arms race. The tailgaters would mount hydraulic rams in their front bumpers, angled so as to flick the offending slowpoke off to the side. Then where would we be? Besides in a ditch. :smiley:

77

Damnit, Jeff and lucwarm, Lynn warned you! Look what you did to the poor hamsters!

78

Yes, won’t someone please think of the hamsters?

(How does it get all bold like this, anyway? This is so weird.)

You’re welcome, Eddyetc.. Don’t cry; they’ll get out of the ditch in a day or so when a towtruck can get around to them.

My idea for preventing tailgating would be proximity sensors mounted on front and rear bumpers on all cars, which are electronically tied into the speed controls. When your car senses that you are too close to the bumper of the car in front of you, it automatically reduces your speed for you.

79

Naw, that would make waaaaay too much sense to ever be adopted.

Besides, some moron would file a lawsuit contending his God-given right to tailgate was being unconstitutionally abrogated. :wink:

80

Here’s an even simpler, yet similar idea…

powerful electromagnets in the bumpers, set to negative, all cars will have their electromagnets set to negative, making it impossible to get within tailgating distance, since like poles repel each other, each car would have it’s own “repulsion field” , making it impossible to tailgate

have sensors linked to the electromagnetic field, when it senses a like field, it reduces engine power to stay outside the magnetic zone