No, I’ve seen someone post on a message board who says that. I have yet to ever actually encounter a tailgater who drives that way on the road. I don’t have any reason to doubt you, but even if that is the way you drive then you are in a very extreme minority (and I still don’t think it’s safe.)
So does your post. Your point? And yes, I really sent this email. Got a reply too, so you were wrong.
I was also wrong.
From the (Un)Official State trooper page.
I also want to appologize to you Diane, I should not have blown up and said things like bitch, etc. THAT was immature, and well… idiotic. My temper gets the best of me, and as much as I try to control it, I can never seem to master it.
I was in the wrong, but I have learned from this. I know I say this every time I fuck up (which is more often than I like), but I hope the next time it doesn’t happen, and I have gained some modicum of control over my temper.
My father does it also, so there’s at least two of us. And other dopers have attested to tailgating responsibly.
I am much more likely to pass than be passed, but if I see somebody coming up behind me I try to move out of the way. If traffic does not permit me to move out of the way it is because there is no more room! Therefore, the car coming up fast has no place to go. If the chump then tailgates me, a few flashes of the brake lights, without lifting on the gas to keep the speed steady, has good results.
If they keep on tailgating - why? - I don’t have a better answer other than brain damage or possessing an asshole personality.
I will get a little close and move around within my lane to try to get a slow moving drivers attention, if that does not work I’ll just back off and maybe offer a flash of the lights. If somebody has not got the skill or confidence to drive at least the speed limit they should not drive! If there is no place for the slow car in front to go then there is no reason to do anything other than hang back. Of course one then risks the ass from behind - it ain’t my fault! That is when the windshield washer that is sort of not properly aligned comes in handy. Also, a down shift that gently slows the car or truck without brake lights is usually a wake up for the offender. NOTE: this is not a rapid dangerous slamming on the brakes type maneuver. Everything I mentioned is designed to enlighten the other drivers.
A fine rule:
lead, follow, or get the ---- out of the way!
Thats what I’m talking about.
Well said.
When I said I get close, it is only temporary AND I keep my left foot hovering over the brake.
Well, I’m old, drive an old multi colored 1980 Dodge Ram Charger with big honking black steel bumpers and a brush grill on the front.
I have a beard and am ugly. I don’t have much trouble with tailgaters.
On multilane highways I get out of the way when I can. Most folks don’t want to get up close and personal at 90MPH with my old rig. he he he. If I am going the speed limit they don’t then either. :: don’t know why but so far so good.:::
My boy was in Germany for a while, he saw some of the remains of 100KLM + crashes. Better you than me.
Anyone who says they are as safe drivers at 90 -100 MPH as they are at 60MPH is either uninformed or lying.
I don’t care about you doing that in the same lane as I, but when you are the oncoming traffic, you are very much my business. You blow a tire or anything happens and I want those who say they are GOOD drivers to have a NASCAR safety course certificate to prove it. Who all here has one of those?
On empty roads , who gives a rats ass?
Now, what seems to be really missing here is that 99% of the blocked lanes on interstates and limited access roads is not about diving fast or slow, it is about LAZY. Everybody is on cruise control and are too lazy to change anything , not even to press on the pedal to monetarily speed up to get around folks that are ½ of an mile per hour slower. Then here comes the guy at 92MPH sitting on cruse control and he is pissed because he has to slow down because it takes you 15 minutes to pass the other guy.
In rush hour 6 lane parking lots with silly lane hopping - tailgating - pushy assholes, why any damage that can be done to them, is okay in my book. Packed bumper to bumper traffic on freeways is not safe or there would be no 50 - 100 car pile ups. There are so that means that people can not stop in time.
Also being a rider of motorcycles, I would like to point out that an amazing number of people will deliberately try to crowd a motorcycle off the road for no reason. And an amazing number of the people who do are youngish women in my experience. I do not understand unless it is a fear / they have the bigger vehicle type thing. Paybacks for being pissed at being a woman? I don’t get that one. I live with a ruined shoulder do to it but hey, motorcycles should be banned seems to be the average drivers creed. :: shrug :::
I drive very defensively. Old, remember, I’m not in that big of a hurry, I like to go fast but I have seen too much blood to risk yours without just cause. All I can say, is when you are doing the things you all seem to be so proud of, remember the old saying,
“To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it.”
Might ought to stay away from old folks with big old 4 X 4’s and a ‘tude’.
Politely and safely are the only rational ways to make traffic flow smoother and safer. Tailgatting is neither. Even for a few seconds.
YMMV
No, no, and NO. On all counts.
Other drivers can have all kinds of excellent reasons for not driving as fast as you want…or even the speed limit. Their only resposibility is to be in control of their vehicle at the time.
Please keep in mind that very few driving venues other than posted freeways have minimum speeds. They’re there for a reason, along with restrictions on speeds for semis, etc. Oddly enough, speed limits (mostly) aren’t capricious. They’re based on road grades, projected traffic, the physics of driving that most drivers blithely discount.
Ever had to drive someplace with wonky tire/fuel pump/unstable load* and just hoped, sweating, your fellow drivers would cut you some slack until you could get home?
Why the assumption that aggression trumps the use of public roads for all, with speed trumping common sense and courtesy?
- aquarium, newborn, sick dog, frail parent, imperfectly stuffed college boxes, groceries with an usual number of breakable bottles, etc. etc.
Most roads are used by all kindsa people, for all kindsa uses. Most of 'em (us) are just getting where they need to go. Most of 'em (us) haven’t the slightest intention of annoying fellow travellers.
So why is something so trivial as a few minutes–at most–compared to common sense and responsibility?
I don’t get it.
Power isn’t speed. It’s competence and responsibility.
Veb
WRONG!!! So wrong!!!
It is your responsibility to make sure you and your car are safe to operate. If your tire is messed up or your load is not properly secure you should not be on the road you are a hazzard.
Many roads are used by drunks and incompetent drivers. Just because they are “not intent on annoying fellow travelers” does not mean they should be on the road.
Many of the speed limits were posted when people were diving 4 wheel manual drum brake 70’s sloppy cars, many of the limits are painfully slow. Also, I did account for traffic and road conditions.
One point. Since it would seem logical that people who tailgate are comfortable with less room around them than I am, if there’s no room for the person tailgating to pass on the right, chances are pretty good that I will think there’s no room to move over. Yes, it takes more room to pass than move over, but I’d prefer to do so in such a way that I don’t wind up tailgating or being tailgated.
CJ
The thread title is “why do people tailgate”.
So far, the consensus answer is something like “because they are lunatic assholes”.
Well and good.
Tailgaters and lane-hogs both annoy the shit out of me, too.
One driver at least has tried to explain why he or she will try to signal to the driver in front to move over, by closing up behind them as a last resort.
If someone did that to me, I wouldn’t even consider it to be tailgating.
Yet the response has been “you are a lunatic asshole too!”.
I know that this is the pit, not GD, but why ask the question in the first place if any attempt at explanation is dismissed out of hand?
Damn. GQ not GD.
Oh! Why didn’t you tell us that your father did it? That makes it okay then. If you dad does it then it must be responsible and safe!
:rolleyes:
http://scholar.lib.vt.edu/VA-news/WDBJ-7/script_archives/01/1101/112301/112301.a.htm
http://www.sacbee.com/content/news/traffic/story/1233202p-1301671c.html
http://quickstart.clari.net/cgi-bin/qss/cban/story/wed/ch/Vhighway80-reopened.RhK2_CDA.html
Thus does In Conceivable demonstrate my point.
I understand her explination of why she tailgates Desmostylus. I disagree with her assertion that it is okay and safe.
Epimetheus, thanks for posting a copy of their reply and thank you for the apology.
I too am sorry for being a snark asshole.
I regularly wave loaded guns at people. I’ve heard some other people do it. I haven’t had an accident so if done properly waving loaded guns at people is completely safe…
…oh wait. I don’t do that. I don’t do it becuase only fucking dangerous idiots do stupid stuff like tailgating and waving guns around.
Richard Feynmann said it: Everything seems fine, and then you have a little accident.
If traffic is so crowded that you can’t get around the guy to the right, then a) it’s equally difficult for HIM to move to the right, and b) even if he did, you’d be right up against the car that was in front of him, so what would you gain?
Sorry, you are just incorrect. Tailgating is ALWAYS dangerous, it is NEVER safe. That stupid argument that “people drive close to each other at high speed in rush hour every morning” means nothing. People do stupid and dangerous things all the time, and that’s supposed to prove that they’re safe? Moronic argument, used by children, and shot down by their parents every day. (“But mom, everyone does it!” . . .)
How many times have you seen tailgating (perhaps not the same as temporarily getting a little close in order to get the SLACKERS attention)? - for me it is at least several times every time I travel.
How many times do YOU see people waving guns around? - for me it has been NEVER
I don’t cause problems on the road where somebody wants to run me off the road “because only fucking dangerous idiots do stupid stuff like [that].”
The whole point, as I understand, was that it is possible for somebody that is aware of their surroundings to get close enough to the other driver to try to WAKE-UP the other driver. I my experience, when one gets an opportunity to look at the “other driver” that driver seems to be disconnected from their surroundings - either stoned, scared, and/or stupid.
If everyone jumped off a bridge would you do it too?