How Do You Handle Tailgaters?

[MNgopher]

Hmmm... how do I handle tailgaters? Easy... I ignore them and drive a reasonable and prudent speed for myself. Since I now have someone who isn't leaving adequate response time space behind me, it means I slow down sooner and watch further ahead.

And no, I don;t camp out in the left lane. Left lane is for passing.

Lots of tough guy, I have to police other peoples speeds, etc in this thread... And the slowing down and speeding up... sheesh..

 

[Vikas]

I love people who want to drive faster than me! I want them ahead of me and I do everything in my power to let them pass me but they better want to drive faster than me. I never understood the 90% mentality of blocking the faster drivers.

 

[javacontour]

Originally Posted By: MNgopher
Hmmm... how do I handle tailgaters? Easy... I ignore them and drive a reasonable and prudent speed for myself. Since I now have someone who isn't leaving adequate response time space behind me, it means I slow down sooner and watch further ahead.

And no, I don;t camp out in the left lane. Left lane is for passing.

Lots of tough guy, I have to police other peoples speeds, etc in this thread... And the slowing down and speeding up... sheesh..


Which is what we were taught in drivers ed. If someone is tailgating you, you INCREASE your following distances to reduce the likelihood you need to make a panic stop.

So instead of following 2 seconds behind, I may increase my distance to 4 seconds behind the car in front of me to account for the tailgater.

 

[Jetronic]

Originally Posted By: George7941
If I am in the right lane moving with the flow of traffic in the lane and someone idiot is tailgating me, I drop my speed just a tiny bit, a couple of miles an hour. If the tailgater doesn't back off, in another minute I drop my speed a bit further. Eventually the tailgater gets the message and either backs off or moves left and overtakes.

I think the worst thing you can do under the circumstances is to speed up to satisfy the tailgater. It just encourages bad driving by the tailgater.


use the windscreen washers... you'll wash his window aswell. Everyone I tried this with dropped back.

 

[Olas]

Depends on the situation - if there's another lane for them to pass me I'll stick to the speed limit and wait for them to pass.
If it's only one lane it depends in the car behind me; boy racers/ricers/other muppets will be kept at 5-8mph below the limit, credible/classic/otherwise cool cars are let by as soon as I can pull in safely, and distracted/otherwise ignorant drivers get hazard lights flashed at them, then I show them my brake lights in the hope of making them realise they're too close.

 

[KrisZ]

I recently came back from a family trip to Florida and I must say that most drivers were very courteous. I had no problem with people moving over from the left lane and nobody was tailgating me either. The drive was a pleasure.

 

[grampi]

Originally Posted By: Olas
Depends on the situation - if there's another lane for them to pass me I'll stick to the speed limit and wait for them to pass.
If it's only one lane it depends in the car behind me; boy racers/ricers/other muppets will be kept at 5-8mph below the limit, credible/classic/otherwise cool cars are let by as soon as I can pull in safely, and distracted/otherwise ignorant drivers get hazard lights flashed at them, then I show them my brake lights in the hope of making them realise they're too close.


I have found that "brake checking" not only doesn't work (it actually makes the tailgater even madder), but if you ask anyone in this site, they'll say YOU are the bad guy (and not the tailgater) if you brake check...if I slow down because someone is tailgating, I do so without braking (no brake lights)...this method seems to get the message across without further aggravating the tailgater...

 

[Olas]

Not 'brake checking', which I take to mean slowing down quickly and testing the tailgaters reaction time, I mean lightly brushing the brake pedal with my left foot whilst maintains constant throttle with the intention of illuminating the brake light bulbs but maintaining road speed.

The visual cue of red brake lights can be very effective to get someone's attention in the hope of making them realise th are too close. Note I only use this technique with 'ignorant/otherwise distracted' drivers.

 

[d00df00d]

Originally Posted By: Olas
Not 'brake checking', which I take to mean slowing down quickly and testing the tailgaters reaction time, I mean lightly brushing the brake pedal with my left foot whilst maintains constant throttle with the intention of illuminating the brake light bulbs but maintaining road speed.

The visual cue of red brake lights can be very effective to get someone's attention in the hope of making them realise th are too close. Note I only use this technique with 'ignorant/otherwise distracted' drivers.

This is a great tactic. Courteous and pretty effective. I like to do this by lightly tapping the brake pedal a few times to make a slow strobe effect with the brake lights.

 

[Mr Nice]

Originally Posted By: KrisZ
I recently came back from a family trip to Florida and I must say that most drivers were very courteous. I had no problem with people moving over from the left lane and nobody was tailgating me either. The drive was a pleasure.

Where in Florida did you visit ?
Sounds like a place I want to travel in.

 

[tig1]

Originally Posted By: Chris142
If there is room I'll pull over. If not hold my speed and ignore.


That's the wise thing to do.

 

[KrisZ]

Originally Posted By: Mr Nice
Originally Posted By: KrisZ
I recently came back from a family trip to Florida and I must say that most drivers were very courteous. I had no problem with people moving over from the left lane and nobody was tailgating me either. The drive was a pleasure.

Where in Florida did you visit ?
Sounds like a place I want to travel in.


Well, I was referring to the whole trip all the way from Ontario Canada and through New York, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Virginia, North and South Carolinas, Georgia and Florida. The interstate drivers behaved quite well when compared to those I'm used to dealing with.

We stayed in Boynton Beach and the drivers over there were not too bad when compared to Toronto, but certainly worse than on the interstate.