Let me give you an AMEN here. You know how, statistically, 50% of all drivers are below average? We’re seeing that played out in this thread. I don’t think anyone here thinks they’re a dangerous driver, but I sure as hell do.
Yep, when conditions are good, I usually go around 5-8MPH over the limit, staying with the flow of traffic.
Good thing I’m not taking that risk. Nor am I trying to “teach a lesson”. I am trying to get the person to change lanes and go around me. It works.
The techniques i use are pretty simple and non-confrontational;
the aforementioned slowing down to at or just below the speed limit
for the insistent prats i’ll occasionally let my car slowly drift towards the side of the road where my tires kick up small pebbles and gravel to ding their precious paintwork/windshield
in the evening. i’ll casually reach over into the passenger seat where i have a very precisely aimed 10 Million candlepower spotlight aimed out the passenger window, when Mr. Tailgater sees that almost 3,000 Lumen beam stab out into the darkness, every one of them has slammed on their brakes and backed off…
bear in mind, the light is aimed out the passenger window, the 3000 lumen beam is perpendicular to the road, it’s not aimed forwards or backwards, it’s simply aimed out the passenger window, there is no risk to the tailgater’s vision
it sends a simple message to the tailgater;
1; I am psychotic and hate tailgaters
2; I could be an off-duty Cop, and that’s my duty flashlight (or one of the a-pillar lights commonly found on a police cruiser)
3; I have the ability to BLIND Mr. Tailgater if I choose to do so (i wouldn’t do it for safety reasons, but that’s on a Need-To-Know basis and Mr. Tailgater does not need to know
4; I may have other things in the car that may be even nastier than the spotlight
so, it’s in Mr. Tailgater’s best interest to BACK THE FRAK OFF!..
oh, and BTW, 95% of my driving is done on 2-lane country roads, if i’m travelling on a highway, the spotlight is NOT an option as it could affect other drivers in the other lanes
There are some major jerks/assholes/idiots in the world that I just absolutely don’t understand. A few weeks ago, I was driving to work in the RIGHTMOST lane of a freeway that had three lanes of travel in the direction that I was going. I repeat that I was in the RIGHTMOST lane, i.e. there were two more lanes in the same direction to my left, and this is in the US where the right lane is for the slower traffic. I was doing a couple of miles over the speed limit (which was 55 mph). Some guy in an SUV came up behind me and started riding my ass, maybe one and a half car lengths behind me. There were other cars on the road, but not so many that this guy didn’t have plenty of room to perfectly safely merge one lane over and pass me at whatever speed he wanted. Still, he sat on my bumper. So I took my foot off the gas for a few seconds, watched him get closer, and then resumed my previous speed. Still, he insisted on staying behind me, and still the lane(s) to my left were easily clear enough for him to get around me. I did the slowing down thing a couple of more times with no luck. Finally, after slowing down to probably under 40 mph, the guy FINALLY went into the lane to the left. But did he go on his way? No, he got up next to me and started flipping me off and pointing wildly at the freeway exit. I don’t know if he was telling me that I was such a moron that I shouldn’t be on the freeway, or if he was inviting me to a physical confrontation, but I yelled “Don’t tailgate me in the right lane!” a few times, and he finally sped off.
What the HELL was with that guy? If I had been in the leftmost (passing) lane, I would agree that he would be justified in being pissed at me, but I was in the RIGHTMOST lane, fercrisakes! And he had plenty of room to just pass me and go on! Why, oh why on Earth did it piss him off so much that I had the audacity to actually go the speed limit in the right lane? Why didn’t he just pass me?
Maybe he’s one of those people who think it’s dangerous to drive slower than the “flow of traffic” even when the flow is faster than the speed limit, and trying to teach you the error of your ways.
By pointing at the freeway exit, he might have been indicating that he was in the right lane to get off at that exit, and of course you having the audacity to do the speed limit in the right lane wasted a precious 45 seconds of his life. :rolleyes:
Of course, even if that were the case, he could have just gotten over one lane and passed you. But people like this think that the rest of the world owes them something, and expect others to cater to their wishes by immediately jumping out of their way. You know, because having to press down on the little lever to activate his turn signal might wind him or something. Merging into the next lane would require way too much effort on his part, he’d probably have to take a nap afterward he’d be so exhausted.
Just another reminder of why I hate people.
Once apon a time I built a “device” into the back bumper of my truck that could drop spike strips. The tailgate had a LED screen that could send messages. Most of the time it was set to Drive Safely or Have a nice day. Pushing a button would change it to Back Off. Used it a few times and it mostly worked. One time my passenger typed in, in responce to a tailgater “Spike Strips Ahead” when no backing off happened, my passenger, not me activated the “device” Found out from the State Police that four new tires where needed.
My passenger was a former Police woman.
Never reloaded. Never had a reason to.
I don’t see any problem with this course of action. If a driver behaves indistinguishably from a drunkard – erratic driving, aggression, apparent inability to guage distances – what could possibly be wrong with trying to inform the police of a public menace?
That’s a serious question, BTW – I’d like to hear the flip side of this one. Since symptoms of drunkenness at the wheel are often indistinguishable from symptoms of being an asshole, it would seem there could be no legal consequences for one who reports such a person, and, indeed, I’d consider such an act moral and altruistic.
I have fantasized about this very thing. My more tailgater-friendly version consists of the hydraulic bumper. Basically, you get an old rusty Buick or something similar (the crappier looking, the better), and rig it up so that you can hit a switch and the bumper drops about a foot and a half, looking like it’s about to fall right off of your car and into the lap of the tailgater. This would have the same effect as the slam-on-the-brake technique, but without risking your own safety. If they proceed to ride your ass, stage two makes the bumper contact the road, leaving a trail of sparks. Once they back off, the bumper lifts back to its stock position.
I have given considerable thought to making a “TOO CLOSE” light for the rear window. I could activate it with a button, so that I can repeatedly tap it as they get closer. It’s less aggressive than “BACK OFF,” and hits the nail on the head in regards to “teaching lessons.” My dream is to build one that is activated by a detector on the back in conjunction with a link to my speedometer. The faster we are going, the more following distance it requires.
Some tailgaters simply won’t learn though. A woman wrote to the consumer advocate of the local newspaper wanting compensation from the Department of Transportation because a line-painting crew got paint on her car. When he called her to get more information, she admitted she was tailgating the line-painting truck because she was late to an appointment. :rolleyes:
I have found one tactic which works at least half the time. If I’m being tailgated while stuck behind a slower vehicle or in slow-moving traffic, I’ll point at the traffic ahead of me. (Yes, I use my index finger.) The driver behind me usually gets the point and backs off or passes if it’s possible.
As for moving over, if I possibly can, I will. I’ve even been known to move over to the fast lane to let a tailgater in the slow lane pass me if traffic conditions allow. On the other hand, sometimes moving over simply isn’t possible either because traffic on one or both sides of me is solid or there’s no passing lane. I’ve even been tailgated on the on ramp to a bridge on a day when the radio was warning of icy patches. I was happy to move over and let him pass as soon as I could.
I sometimes point to the school or playground zone sign when I’m being tailgated through them (which is almost every time, if there is someone behind me). Yeah, I know there aren’t any cops with radar guns pointed at us at the moment, but that’s kind of beside the point, isn’t it? What’s the problem, your kid doesn’t go to THIS school, so you’re okay with blazing through the school zone?
I thought of that, except that once he finally passed me, he kept on going down the freeway, passing at least two more exits while he was in my sight. I really, really don’t understand what his problem was. I mean, I’m not trying to say that I’m some kind of an angel, I readily admit to having done my share of pissing people off on the road. But usually when I piss someone off, I at least know what I did, either deliberately or otherwise, to cause it.
My rule is this: if you’re in the left lane and you’re not passing anyone, get in the friggin right lane and let the tailgater pass you. You are not supposed to pass on the right. People passing on the right piss me off as much as tailgaters. If you’re in the right lane or on a one-lane road and somebody’s tailgating you, then I have no problem with you slowing down, tapping on your brakes, whatever to give the tailgater the message.
I do this all the time, and it almost always works - as soon as I’m out of the way, the tailgaiter speeds past me.
I have no clue why these people refuse to change lanes to pass me, but I don’t much care - I’d rather have them a mile in front of me than 3 feet behind behind me.