This article appears in Dec 4-10, 2008.
campaign against tailgaters
There is a big problem in Halifax/Dartmouth with tail-gating. The problem seems to be getting worse with every year. Almost daily now, someone drives so close behind me that I barely see their headlights. This is not because I am going too slow. Tailga
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If you drive super slow when this happens, and I mean super slow, like 35 in a 70, 25 in a 50 most people will get the hint and back off a little. Another thing you can do is time the lights. When the hand at the crosswalk starts flashing it will flash 10 times and then the light goes yellow. So essentially what I’m saying is slow to almost a crawl when approaching lights and when the light nears a change you go through leaving the guy behind you stuck. This trick works best when turning left. You could always resort to the brake touch but this is amateur-ish at best and in light of the accident and subsequent trial in Ontario recently you could end up spending time in jail.Be creative here, if they want to fuck with you, turn it around and find ways to fuck with them!
You call it amateur, I call it effective. Stock up on your insurance and the next time a tailgater gets under your skin HIT THE DAM BRAKES. Brace yourself and let him plow right into you. There’s no lesson learned like a hard lesson learned and, sorry, I don’t think the most basic of driving skills needs an awareness campaign funded by my tax dollars.
Thats right Kay, suggest an action that could see the sudden braker charged under the motor vehicle act. A rear end collision can be contested if the operator of the second vehicle can question the need for the fist car to make that brake application. Slamming on the brakes for a person who suddenly appears is fine and easily proven in court, slamming on the brakes for an imaginary animal is another story and will change the outcome of the incident.You mention ‘your’ tax dollars but remember that for every insurance payout, including one as a result of your suggested action, you as an insured pay a bit towards the insurance company’s effort to recoup their payouts. I’d rather see the motor vehicle branch run a good campaign on safe driving habits compared to contributing to the obscene profits of insurance companies.
Yes, purposely put yourself in a position to have your insurance go up. And possibly injure yourself. And fuck up your car. Brilliant.And Amber wtf? It’s illegal to go WAY below the speed limit, just like it’s illegal to go over it. Way to create a hazard. Just ignore the bastards, or help them get past you and the fuck off your ass.
If you are being tailgated, odds are that you are driving too slowly for the conditions. Granted there is always some yahoo who thinks he is a Formula One driver and always wants to drive too fast, but most of the time traffic finds its own pace based upon road and traffic conditions. Or perhaps you are one of the “Neighborhood Pace Car” yahoos who thinks they know better than the rest of us how to drive. Those cars are always an invitation to tailgate. Or maybe you are related to the guy I see some days driving the burgundy-color Grand Am with the signs plastered on the back : “Rear-ended 3 times! Hit me again — I need the money”.If you feel you are being tailgated wrongly, turn on your 4-way flashers. That usually sends the correct message.
If you are driving the legal limit and in a safe manner and someone is tailgating you (god happens to me especially in bad weather for some reason) then the only thing you can do is drive defensively. It sucks but no sense injuring ourself for some asshole. There is right and there is dead right…
Hey Swamp, but it’s less likely to cause major damage to you or your vehicle. Plus it really, really, really pisses people off when they are being pricks. Might not be right but it seems to be safer for me to do than jamming on the brakes and eating my ass for lunch.
I agree with this bitch completely. Something should be done about tailgaters but it never will. I get tailgated all the time and I usually drive 5-10 over the speed limit so that I won’t piss anybody off. I used to speed up so I could get away from them or slow down so they would get away from me, both options making my chances of getting into an accident more likely but then I thought, I pay 80$ a month insurance and I have had my license less than a year, I’m not letting no one screw that rate up for me because I rather like it, So now I drive my 55 and just deal with it. It is dangerous though, I was coming through the Passage one day and this van had rode my ass for a good 5 mins when a dog ran out in front of me. I would have had enough time to break safely if the guy behind me hadn’t been so close to my ass that I could see barely anything but his windshield in my rearview. But instead I had to hit the dog. I still see that dogs face in my dreams and hear the sound it made in my head and this happened in September…….the damage to my car wasn’t very pretty either
I love the going with the flow of the traffic comment. I hear it all the time. Pretty sure that there are speed limit signs posted all over. If its 50 and everyone else is going 90, I’m still gonna go bout 55, you guys can speed all you want but have fun telling the officer that pulls you over that you were “just going with the flow of traffic”
Aw ipes, that sucks 🙁 It wasn’t your fault.Tailgaters are nerve-wracking not only for the tailgated, but also the people who are passengers with the tailgater. As far as what is going through the tailgater’s mind, who knows. I wouldn’t expect a change anytime soon. It’s as my friend said last night as we were driving around Bayers Lake in the Christmas rush: there’s a hell of a lot of people who just don’t know how to drive. It’s impatience and a devaluing of the rules of the road.
I love slowing down to pull into my driveway (in a 50 zone) with the once-inawhile road raging asshole hot on my ass freaking out because I’m going too so slow. Its like this: I have to slow to almost a dead stop to turn into my driveway, I’m not going to cruise into it at 45km/h no matter how much you honk or how close you drive behind me, ok?
“If you are being tailgated, odds are that you are driving too slowly for the conditions…”; “…but most of the time traffic finds its own pace based upon road and traffic conditions…” Those are ridiculous and asinine statements Keith. Posted speed limits are put there for a reason. Next time you’re stopped by a cop for speeding, try telling him or her ” well officer, I was only driving with the flow of the other asshole speeders out here”.
Yes, Amber, because trying to piss people off for being jerks is the appropriate response whilst driving. You shouldn’t be jamming on the brakes either. Hello, defensive driving?
I get the impression that all the people who speed past me on the highway when I am, as usual, going the speed limit, also believe that I am going “too slow for conditions;” conditions being that they are cool with risking a ticket so that they can get to their destination ASAP (me, not so much – I’m not rich). The people who speed past me are 95% of the people on my side of road. Kay I would say the hardest lesson to learn is when you think you are being clever by slamming on your brakes for no reason and causing an accident (tailgaters or no, if you have no reason to stop it IS your fault) and then get whiplash because you’re being a shitty moron. Or the tailgater’s kid who has no seatbelt on crashes through their windshield. If we’re talking about hard lessons.
My point is that if you are toodling along in the left lane of the 102 at 100 km/h you are asking for people to tailgate you. The fact is that far too many drivers here are oblivious to what they are doing and while they may be “in the right” they cause far too many problems for others. Traffic is meant to flow. Don’t act like a slug.
Hmmm, by doing the maximum speed limit I’m just asking for you to crawl up my ass? Not likely and not the law.What? You didn’t see that cat run out in the street? What’s wrong with you?
Highways are different than regular roads, IMO. If someone is tailgating in the city or along country roads, pull over and let them by. How difficult is that? Suck it up and pull over, simple solution. I do it all the time.On the highways, if you are not passing someone; stay in the right lane. If you are in the left lane expect a tailgater, as there is no real way of telling someone to get the fuck out of the way while driving along the highway. An eXcellent way to cause a highway accident is to drive in the left lane. If you are in the left lane on the highway and someone pulls up behind you and you are not passing a vehicle then get in the right lane. Don’t be a fucking asshole with some stupid point to prove and stay in the left lane. People lives are at stake. Do not fuck around, we all know how many people die on the highways.
Novel idea: pull over and let them pass you ?! .. crazy, I know. I wish I had done it when the prick in the F-150 plowed into my trunk on a piss pouring rainy day. I honestly hope that fucker learned to back the fuck off. I had a GREAT time trying to track him down in the fucking phone book + explaining to my prof why I missed the final. 😉
I HATE it when people stay in the left lane for no reason. I still don’t think they should be tailgated, because it’s dangerous, but if they were being tailgated I wouldn’t have any sympathy. When people do that it makes me wonder what else they don’t know about driving.
Intersetingly enough, I never noticed this until I read these bitches – then yesterday, I got rear-ended by some jacka$$ who was driving so far up my rear-end that he missed the red light I was stopping at.
The safest way to deal with tailgaters is to slow yourself down (within reason). The reason for this is twofold. First, it sends the message to the person behind to back off (and failing that, 4-ways are good too), but more importantly, if a hazard should come up in front of you and you need to brake suddenly, it decreases the chances of you getting rear-ended. Other driver’s fault or not, dealing with an accident sucks.
If I am in the left lane cruising at 115 or so while passing someone, and then someone else comes up fast behind me but slows down and keeps a respectful distance, I will speed up to get the passing over with and pull back into the right lane as quickly as I can. He gave me the courtesy of giving me space, I’ll give him the courtesy of getting out of the way.If someone screams up behind me and sits right on my ass flashing their high beams and screaming at their windshield, they’re just gonna have to wait while I let me cruise control get me past the driver in the right lane…You reap what you sow, right?