Modern Tailgating

[sierraman]

I've seen this a lot recently, people in cars a few years old or less, hanging about 4 inch from your bumper, in the idea that as their car has TCS, ASC and several hundred airbags, it's ok to be up your arse. Not one to take red mist I grade down to a glacial pace when this happens, I'm genuinely sorry for the others on the snake pass but if the curtain ring salesman behind me could have dropped back a few metres then I wouldn't have had to start dropping down to 10-15 mph on the bends. Are new cars that good at stopping?

[Bren]

No. They cannot overcome the laws of physics - not even German ones.

[Des]

How good any car is at stopping is down to the twat behind the wheel, I'm not sure there's any thought process going on in most tailgaters minds to justify their actions, they're just unaware, majority of drivers seem to display the same level of attention as a disinterested shopgirl scanning barcodes. The tailgaters acting with intent will usually have approached rapidly and/or display a weaving pattern.

[Lacquer Peel]

Rear foglights are good for dissuading tailgaters.

[hairnet]

kiss the brake enuff to move the switch on without actually braking

[RoadworkUK]

If I was an unmarked police driver I'd have a bulging warrant book every day of the week.

 

But probably no friends.

[vulgalour]

@Lacquer:  You'd think that, but they're not, they just ignore them usually because they're that close to the back bumper they can't see it.

[Split_Pin]

I have a sticker that says "YOU GET CLOSE, I GO SLOW" so 3 things happen. They either hang back and we go at the speed limit, become enraged and blast past or otherwise we all go so slow that time goes backwards. 9mph is my record. Best quid or whatever I have ever spent.

[vulgalour]

It's the ones that tailgate you close enough you can't see their headlights (all four hundred and twelve watts per bulb of them) in your rear view mirror but you can see nothing else in your door mirrors that are the real problem.

[DSdriver]

I hate people driving too close in front of me. 

[beko1987]

The radar brakes scare me, the golf has it as a big square at the grille, one errant leaf could cause carnage.

 

I love it when a car in front is going slow, on a road I know so there's no point overtaking etc, Mr vag wanker behind me nosing out to overtake, up my are etc. Car in front turns off, Mr vag goes wahey, then I go like fuck and leave him wondering what happened, and why he now sees a cloud of clag!

 

Or I go slow too, depends on my mood

[HMC]

Strangest thing I see occasionslly is a tailgater that looks to overtake Whereever they can, often on dubious bits of road, then a very short distance after signals and goes off onto a minor road. WOT IZ POINT?

[rantingYoof]

Eddie the S60 has a vicious looking towbar fastened to a massive metal girder under the rear bumper which (will hopefully never have to) ensure that any tailgater who isn't able to stop in time regrets it far more than I do.

 

 

But I'm looking at getting a dashcam in the new year just to prove to people that I do indeed see tailgating multiple times per commute and I see at least two light jumps. My commute is a heady 9 miles.

[richardmorris]

Had that happen to me this morning. I was doing 40 in the 40 limit with some sour faced woman in an Audi trying to use MY rear view mirror to do her makeup. Swerving around across the centre line and almost hitting the kerb at other times. Then slowed and turned in at a petrol station.

 

Nearly wiped out by a Bentley on my way back from Thursley ( footballer's type two door rubbish not mr xxx's gentleman's conveyance) who was about two feet across the paint in the middle of the road heading towards me on a 90degree bend. Also about 20mph over the speed limit.

[LabRat]

It's quite a common theme here in sunny Oldhamshire too- usually some window licking cock womble who has either borrowed daddy's bmw/audi/merc or hired it...

 

I just ease off the throttle and watch them have a coronary, or laugh as they bin it into a wall whilst trying to prove that testosterone makes them a driving god.

 

 

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[hairnet]

It's quite a common theme here in sunny Oldhamshire too- usually some window licking cock womble who has either borrowed daddy's bmw/audi/merc or hired it...

 

I just ease off the throttle and watch them have a coronary, or laugh as they bin it into a wall whilst trying to prove that testosterone makes them a driving god.

 

 

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cough no comment lees cough cough no comment

[LabRat]

Can't say it's much better in watersheddings to be honest, just a different class of scrote I suppose...

 

 

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[HH-R]

I really don't know what goes through people's heads, but it's clapped out old shit as well as moderns that are driven by morons. Had some prat so far up my arse on Friday night I couldn't see them at all, yet there was a perfectly clear lane to the right of me to use if they wanted to go faster. Sometimes giving them a few flashes of the hazards and holding out your hand as to say "what the fuck do you want" works but success is limited TBH, the van driver I did that to a while back got even closer then eventually got bored of not going as fast as he wanted to and used the 2nd lane of the dual carriageway to turn around and shout obscenities at me (that I couldn't hear through two panes of glass) when he could have just, I dunno, overtaken in the first place? Anyway this cock on Friday is so far up my arse that I can't see them properly, and you have to move over to the right hand lane because the left turns into a bus lane. Had to come to a complete stop because I thought he/she was just going to drive into me if I moved over, they had gone into the right hand lane but of course wouldn't overtake and were three inches behind. They flash me out, all courteous yet drive are trying to shove me out of their way. I'd rather they had just barged their way through.

 

There's a few dual carriageways I have to use where the speed is 30 due to road works. Get tailgated through these daily, people think overtaking and going even 35 isn't OK but having everyone bunched up with 6 inches of stopping distance is perfectly fine. Yeah, doing 30 is shit, boring, dead slow and probably way over the top OMG SAFETY, but I'm not risking my licence on it.

[dieselnutjob]

Twice it has happened to me and it was a police car (but not a traffic cop).

[Junkman]

There usually isn't a car behind me for hundreds of yards. Especially in the UK, where people drive like zombies.

So no, I have no idea what being tailgated is like.

[Matt]

Strangest thing I see occasionslly is a tailgater that looks to overtake Whereever they can, often on dubious bits of road, then a very short distance after signals and goes off onto a minor road. WOT IZ POINT?

 

I fucking hate this, how dense do you have to be? Overtake then slow the person down. What the fuck. Literally zero seconds saved for them but a load of fuel wasted for the person they've gone past.

 

But I'm looking at getting a dashcam

 

From my experience this does wonders. The one in my rear window doesn't even work but a black rectangle with a lens in the middle and a wire hanging out of it stops people pissing about. Being tailgated is very much not the norm for me since I fitted it.  I'll be getting a proper working set up after Christmas too. If you're buying a 2-camera one don't skimp on the cheap ones as they're shit and the rear camera video quality isn't really up to it.

[bub2006]

You had a good idea when you towed ny saxo back junkman! Not many folk get up the arse of the van even though its dog slow. Has a towbar though so maybe that could be it.

[fordperv]

When I'm driving my saph if I look in the rearview mirror and a cars headlights dissappear under the tip of the spoiler they are too close, I politely back off the throttle and let my speed drop, if they don't back off pop my rear fog on, i have only had to do this a few times to be fair, only one person didn't take the hint so I actually stopped the car, years back I used to flicker my brake lights but I found it becomes a pissing contest then so stopped doing it

[stripped fred]

I used to 'brake check' tailgaters all the time but was a bit put off after I did it to a landcruiser loaded with pikeys who were driving about 3 foot off my back bumper. They overtook me and swerved in front so I had to stop. One of them came running out and tried to kick my passenger door in. Managed to get away just in time and they chased me for several miles. I was in my 2001 Audi A4 diesel. God knows what engine was in the landcruiser but it wasn't slow! Anyway it shook me up a bit and nowadays I don't get wound up at all. I just ignore them or flick my rearview mirror so I can't see them. I will also pull over and let them terrorise someone else if there's a safe place to do so. I did quite a bit of reading up on tailgating after this unfortunate incident and most people say the type of person who does this aggressively isn't going to get the message if you flash your brakes at them. Just let them pass by.

[HMC]

Something I haven't seen much of in the uk is tailgating on the motorway with the indicator on +/- a flash of the main beam. The indicators thing Seems fairly common in france/ Benelux countries. It just gets left on as they inch closer to the car in front ( often positioning the car as close to the central reservation as possible for maximum effect in the wing mirror)

[Tamworthbay]

Several years ago I had an idiot tailgate me for about ten miles down the M42, I just eased off to about 60mph and left loads of room in front. As I came to j10 there was a queue in front but nothing on the slip road so I just indicated and gently pulled off. The guy behind then realised that there was a queue, slammed on his brakes and slid sideways into the car at the back of the queue. I parked up on the slip road and went back to check everyone was ok and give my details to the car he hit. I was contacted by the police and he ended up getting done for driving without due care and attention. That muppet could have easily killed some one that day.

[dave21478]

Nobody takes pride in their driving anymore. Its a tedious chore to most folk - something to get over and done with as quickly as possible.

[stripped fred]

Nobody takes pride in their driving anymore. Its a tedious chore to most folk - something to get over and done with as quickly as possible.

...while catching up with Facebook on their phone

[MarvinsMom]

driving is the shitz, if i didn't have to do it i wouldn't.

 

and i much prefer to be a passenger, much to my other halfs annoyance cos if i can get out of driving, i will.

[richardmorris]

I was tailgated once I remember coming down the m40 just off the m42. Inside lane nothing else at all on the road, and this dozy idiot about 6ft behind me on the phone. I was in the cx DTR, so changed down and floored it- covered them in a cloud of smoke, but they didn't move. So I accelerated. Got to 100mph and they were still there, still nothing else about and she was still on the phone. So I gave up shaking them off and slowed down to about 50 before she gave up and passed. Still on the phone.