**Oh, bullshit. Unless “very low” fatality equals “none,” where do you get the balls to decide this is an acceptable risk? Tailgating accidents are completely avoidable and attributable to the stooge doing the tailgating.
I care what’s happening behind me because it’s kind of hard to control my vehicle when some jackass is colliding with me from behind. Last December, I was at rest and at the end of a string of traffic stopped for the stop light in front of us all when a woman decided she had to pay more attention to her phone call than to driving and rear-ended me. Most important thing I learned on an aircraft carrier: “Keep your head on a swivel.”
Two things:
First thing: I always pull over when I’m on a one-lane road and even one car is behind me. I go up to Yosemite annually (usually) and the road up there is twisty, speed limit is usually between 25-35 mph, and it really needs to be that low. It’s a scary, twisty mountain road. But, since I’ve gone on that road so many times, I can often get away with going 5-10 mph over the speed limit. And yet still I will get a “tail” sometimes. And when I do, BAM! I pull over at the next turnover. No hesitation about it. I hate being stuck behind some tourist who is riding their brakes at 15 MPH and I sure as hell am not going to do that to someone else (even though I am able to go much faster than 15 mph).
Second thing: I hate, (hate hate hate) tailgaters. I will still pull over for a tailgater on a one-lane road because I’m just programmed to do that, but I hate them with a white-hot passion of a thousand suns. I hate tailgaters.
There is no damned excuse. I don’t drive slow. I usually go over the speed limit. Too much, in fact–I’m trying to work on that because I don’t want to get speeding tickets. In the rare case that I am driving too slow and someone starts getting on my ass, yes, I will speed up to a “respectable” speed.
As mentioned before, I will always pull over on small one-lane roads. Multiple-lane roads are another matter. DON’T tailgate me. I don’t give a rat’s ass how busy you are, or how late you are. I am a chronically late person who is always frantically trying to make it to this or that place on time, and I don’t tailgate or behave like a complete ass to those around me. I at least take responsibility for my bad time-management skills, and don’t blame anyone else. (Well, I may mutter under my breath, but I don’t tailgate.)
Bill H, this whole “stealing my time” line is complete bullshit. I can’t believe you are serious.
The world is full of (get this) OTHER PEOPLE. And, when you GO OUT INTO THE REAL WORLD, you will encounter these other people. These people do not live to cater to your schedule, to part like the Red Sea to let you pass–these people are not obligated to give one particle of a damn about you. The world is full of people who are not destined to care about you. They are in their own little worlds, and basically their main obligation to you is to not do something to endanger your life. And sorry, driving the speed limit on a road is not endangering your life. On the other hand, tailgating may very well endanger their life, or others on the road.
No matter how much you huff and puff and no matter how obnoxious you are with your tailgating, you still can’t make people give a damn about you. They didn’t care all that much before you tailgated, and it’s a funny thing, but rude behavior rarely makes people care more. It’s just one of those Real Life things that you should’ve learned by now. But I guess you (and all the other tailgaters out there) didn’t.
I am annoyed by the clueless person who insists on driving too slow. I curse and mutter when I get stuck behind an old beater car or a shiny new motor home riding their brakes up the scary, narrow roads in Yosemite. They drive me nuts as much as the next person. But being jmore of an ass as they are being by tailgating is no solution, and there’s no excuse for it.
I’m a new driver, I just got my permit. Maybe 200 miles under my belt.
I drive on the Trace a lot. The Trace is a long, narrow, twisty scenic route. No shoulder to speak of. Lots of deer to speak of. I drive at or ~5 mph below the speed limit. This is what I’m comfortable with. Should I speed up on a windy, twisty road just because the person behind me thinks I should?
I drive a big, top heavy van. Should I take sharp curves quickly because I’m afraid the person behind me will rear end me if I don’t?
I never speed up when I come to a passing zone even though it’s nice and straight. I always try to let people pass when they can.
I don’t need the distractions a tailgater poses. I’m a poor enough
driver as it is. Am I being a terribly inconsiderate driver? Would you punish me by tailgating?
You feel that several feet is a safe distance on a highway? At what speed?
Do the laws of physics not apply to your car?
I am sorry…It looks like my above post was responding to Bob Cos. It was Bill H who posted that he tailgated safely with only a few feet between the cars.
yosemitebabe wrote
yosemitebabe, I’m very serious. But if you read all of my stuff above, I think you’ll find that I would never tailgate you. People who pull over to let others go by, don’t clog the fast lane, and are generally courteous get complete courtesy from me.
It’s only the inconsiderate time-wasters that get my attention.
In Conceivable wrote
The laws of physics certainly apply to my car. Good reflexes and strong driving skills don’t equate to a physical impossibility.
DarkMika wrote
You’re being a very considerate driver. Please re-read what I’ve said here about courteous drivers and non-courteous ones and see if the question is still applicable.
But you still admit that you tailgate. There’s no excuse for that.
Look–I want to scream when I get stuck behind some motor home going 15 MPH up Highway 41 going to Yosemite (as they ignore multiple turn-outs and let their “tail” grow to 20+ cars). I can’t stand such drivers. But that still would not excuse me if I tailgated one of them. (Besides, at 15 MPH, I could get reasonably close without tailgating, because of the slow speed everyone would be going.)
But to tailgate at 40 MPH? 50 MPH? Even faster than that? Dangerous and stupid and completely inexcusable. I don’t care if you wouldn’t tailgate me, I think it’s wrong that you tailgate, period.
yosemitebabe: Let’s not forget that Bill H. not only tailgates, but he blames his victim for the tailgating!
Ok … slightly off topic … but, what’s up with the people driving at night, on an Empty highway with 3 or 4 lanes to choose from, who come Flying up onto my tail, and then sit there, tailgating me at 75 mph??? (got told in traffic school, by a Highway Patrol officer that they rarely ever bother anyone on a Calif. freeway who is 10 mph or less over the speed limit – thus “10 over” BeCame my speed limit chuckle)
What’s UP with THEM???
I drive a lot at night, and I’ve finally gotten to where if I see someone coming up from behind me, I’ll Change lanes to the Left to not be in front of them when they get to me!
Otherwise it’s bizarre! They come screaming up from behind me, CLEARLY doing At Least 15mph faster than I am, then, catch up with me, and Sit on my back bumper! For Miles! Open Lanes on either side of us, and there they sit, tailgating me! When I move out of that lane, they’ll sit there, at that same speed for a bit, then slowly creep up, then, gradually move back up to speed and disappear over the horizon!
Bizarre!
don’t even get me started on the nit-wits on Highway 5, with only 2 lanes in our direction who won’t sit behind the trucks, but when they get beside one, they get scared to complete their pass … and just sit there, Next to the Dang’d Semi, doing 20mph less than the traffic would like to go … Pacing the dang’d truck! Grrrrrrrrrrrrr!
My wife sometimes does the above. I mean, she’s coming up on someone who’s clearly going slower than she is, and she waits until the last possible second before changing lanes to pass the person. Can’t figure that behavior out for anything.
yosemitebabe wrote
Guess we’ll have to agree to disagree. As I said early in this post, I think it’s unconscionable for you to not tailgate those that clog the fast lane from others with greater need when there are reasonable alternative.
Oh my gosh.
There’s some sort of logic disconnect going on here. Or my eyes have finally failed me.
You are saying that it is an obligation of everyone to tailgate a mopey driver who is going too slow? It’s WRONG to not do it?
Would you mind finding some reputable cite, from a law enforcement source or driving safety source, that would back up your contention that it is the obligation of all drivers to tailgate the willful slowpokes? Can you find me a reputable cite that supports this method as the best way to deal with slowpokes, and supports the idea that tailgating is an effective and superior way of dealing with such a problem?
yosemitebabe wrote
No; I said
I also said that every time an inconsiderate individual takes a lesson and changes their evil ways, the world is a little better, and I build up karma brownie points.
Of course you know I don’t have that. Karma is rarely codified into law.
It is physically impossible for you to stop quickly enough to avoid an accident if you are only a few feet behind a car at freeway speeds. By the time your brain sees the brake lights and your foot finds the brake you will have already hit the car in front of you.
So either the laws of physics do not apply to your car, you have the reflexes of Superman, or you are needlessly risking stranger’s lives because of some warped sense of karmic duty. Which is it?
Luckly karma is a bitch and it will probably come back to bit you someday. I just hope that you don’t kill someone.
A cite? Well, it’s all a sliding scale here. I’m reminded of an article I read a long time ago in my favorite academic tome, the mighty Journal of Irreproducable Results - they did a study that found that the traffic death rate curve intersected the zero at the level of zero MPH. They had it all there, graphs, correlations and all. I couldn’t really argue with it but their proposed solution when the traffic had reached a complete standstill - getting out of your car and hopping, pogo fashion, from car rooftop to car rooftop itself seemed likely to produce further injuries and fatalities. Further research is obviously needed. Perhaps the residents of LA can provide at least anecdotal evidence for whether this method actually works or not. 
P.S. I hate cars, driving and all the rest of it myself, that why I personally speed. To get the hell out of the traffic insanity. I miss the DC metro and the New York subway the times I was there.
Can we put that on your tombstone?
yosemitebabe, why continue to feed the…um, what’s the word? Oh, well, whatever he is, I wouldn’t bother–he’s getting a real charge out of the attention. He gets a nice little tingle every time he senses somebody twitch over his nonsense. Why give him the satisfaction?