How Do You Deal With Tailgaters?

[MossRoad]

I slow down and I pull pull to the right as soon as I can to let them pass, most of the time I can pull over far enough that I don't need to stop.

I will admit that I was a tailgater in my youth, I was always in a hurry for no particular reason.

Let's just say that I never had to worry about tailgaters back then.

Today I am much different, I still like to drive fast, but I am never in a hurry. If I come up behind someone that is going slower I leave plenty of room, at minimum a 3 second gap.

It also annoys the piss outa me when people get on my A at a stop light. I have a manual shift, when they do this I generally let my car roll back just to scare the piss out of them.

That's one thing I like about our adaptive cruise control on the wife's Subaru. At full distance, it'll leave us about 3-3.5 seconds behind the vehicle in front of us, no matter what speed we're going. At half distance it's about 2 seconds, and at least distance, about 1 second.

 

[not2old]

The ones that really bug me are when you are in the right lane and they tailgate with no other traffic in sight. I very slowly slow down until they pass in the left lane and then speed up to match their speed about two seconds behind after they usually pull back into the right lane. My wife can't figure out how I constantly attract this type of driver.

 

[RB5]

Sometimes there is a real reason to drive faster. Most of the time it appears to be some idiot just wanting to go faster than everyone. It is best to just let them pass. The only time it upsets me is when they almost hit me or almost cause a wreck. It sometimes get annoying when there are cars lined up in front of me and nowhere to go even if they got by me, and I keep seeing their hood too close to my rear window in the wife's car. I'm not holding up traffic. They need to chill out and drive.

Maybe they have to take dump real bad? I know out here there are no places to stop for more than 10 miles in many places. Who knows. This could devolve into road etiquette so I will avoid that. We already had another thread on that.

 

[CloverKnollFarms]

I used to brake moderately and watch them struggle. Now I drive so slow they pass

Others may be in a hurry, I'm not. I'm 5mph under most of the time. Their urgency is not my issue

 

[QRTRHRS]

The rear seal leaks on my van. I slowed it a tad by going from 5-20 to 5-30 and adding an additive but it's not totally sealed. Anyone that tailgates me will know when they clean their windshield.

Else I maintain speed and if I get hit then I will stay in my seat and complain of back and neck pain, real or imagined.

 

[MossRoad]

The ones that really bug me are when you are in the right lane and they tailgate with no other traffic in sight. I very slowly slow down until they pass in the left lane and then speed up to match their speed about two seconds behind after they usually pull back into the right lane. My wife can't figure out how I constantly attract this type of driver.

You need bigger fonts on your number stickers.

 

[MossRoad]

There's a problem with driving exactly the speed limit, and that is no one behind you can then go the speed limit. It's not possible.

 

[ConawayFarms]

Never brake-check, just brake straight if needed. Dash cam helps if they hit you.

 

[Bad Boy Biker]

Look in your mirror, if all you see is a truck grill, it's me, and I am yelling "get out of my way!"

 

[MattB4]

I despise people that ride my bumper. The worse one I ever had I did all that I could think of to get them to go around me. I drove faster when passing was not allowed (2 lane road) and than slowed down when a passing opportunity existed. I waved my hand to go around. Finally after several miles I see a pull off area and I make use of it.

The dang tailgater stopped on the road for several seconds just to the back of where I was pulled as I sat and cussed about it. The women in the car eventually drove on but to this day I have no idea what her problem was.

But I have others that not only tailgated but wanted to have fights about it. There are some really dangerous folks driving out there. Some become homicidal because you are impeding them in any way. Those pass when they can not see oncoming cars and flip you off as they narrowly avoid head on collisions.