What's the point of tailgating?

[Astro14]

Originally Posted By: ARCOgraphite
Another peeve: People flipping the bird.
Try doing that to someone in line at COSTCO or at the movie theater. I might imagine different results than when someone is cowardly "safe" in their mild steel can cocoon with 4 tires.


You are so right on this point. One of the big factors in poor driving etiquette (not to mention dangerous driving behaviour) is the lack of normal social interaction; cues and expectations. In your car, you don't have feedback from others, you can act without the consequences (real or expected) that you would have in a normal social situation....people assume the real character that exists underneath their public persona...they become jerks (or worse)...think "Lord of the Flies"...

 

[Kestas]

It was Motor Mania, starring Goofy.

 

[wrcsixeight]

My most shameful behavior seems to happen behind the wheel, of a fast car.

There was one person who was driving the speed limit in the left lane, and caused about a hundred cars to get stuck behind her.

Every car who eventually filtered around her flipped her off, shaking fists, and my anger kept building and building as I got closer.

When it was my turn to finally get around her to pass on the right, my head was out the window, spewing obsenities, gesturing obscenely. It took all my effort to not run her off the road.

I wanted to brake check her. I wanted to shoot out her tires, firebomb the car. Nothing could assuage my anger.

What's kind of amusing about this, is I was driving my father's car, which could comfortably drive 110mph all day. If I were driving my Vehicle, I would have been doing the limit in the right lane, keeping the biggest buffer around me as possible, not worried about how fast I got there.

Just keep right people. It is not too much to ask. Common courtesy that seems to no longer be common in this increasingly "it's all about me!" society.

Just keep right, pass it on.

 

[lovcom]

You will find more tailgaters the further south you drive. Here in Chicagoland, and when I lived in California, you didn't often see tailgaters. But when we lived in Tenneessee, and visited other southern states, we saw a heck of a lot of them. I think that there's a correlation between tailgating and intelligence...seriously. Or it could be that the more backward a person is, or the lack of reading skills, or lack world traveling, the more likely that they will tailgate, handle snakes in church, and speak in tongues...oh, and have a southern accent.

 

[01rangerxl]

Some of the worst tailgaters I know are transplants from California.

 

[ltslimjim]

Originally Posted By: buster
The only time I tailgate, and I don't think it's a good thing (but it can work) is when some fool in the left hand lane won't get out of the way.

*If I were a cop, these would be the people I'd be pulling over. They cause more problems than people going a bit over the speed limit.


I think the ticket is actually for driving to intimidate; too closely and intimidation...playing police is not anyone's job but the police. The problem I have with this is the behavior EVEN WITH the guy in front going 10 MPH faster than speed limit.

Egos.

Originally Posted By: A_Harman
Maybe they're NASCAR fans. They're drafting, not tailgating.

Funniest post. lol

It all boils down to a mentality combined with learned behavior.

Everyone is out there to show people up on the road. It's 'adult' immaturity and insecurities.

Psychological, the end.

Psycho. So much so it's transparent and simple.

 

[Spazdog]

It's not really a problem for me...I only get into the left lane when I am passing and I've already scanned out my route around the slower vehicle(s)

You really have to do something dumb to get the rearview mirror full of 100w high beams. And if I give you the 100w mirror blast and the horn, you really did something dumb and extraordinarily dangerous. If you get the combination of the high-beam, horn, and middle finger salute, I'm on my motorcycle and your incredible stupidity has overridden my exceptional SIPDE skills thus endangering me to the point to where I am actually considering re-enacting a scene from Mad Max.

 

[CROWNVIC4LIFE]

Originally Posted By: 01rangerxl
Some of the worst tailgaters I know are transplants from California.


Some of the worst tailgaters in my neck of the woods are from Venezuela,Cuba,Argentina,Mexico,Guatemala,Columbia,Puerto Rico,Ecuador,Honduras,Hati,Costa Rica and transplants from the Northeast.

As far as confronting those clowns...People here in Miami have been shot for stopping at traffic lights that are in the middle of changing to red and for tapping someones bumper cover.

 

[grampi]

Originally Posted By: ARCOgraphite
Originally Posted By: Oil Changer
ARCO,

You sound more intelligent when discussing oil related tropics.

I don't care what the cause, you come as close to my head as my rearview mirror with an axe, you will be met by something with a little more reach.

Stupid to die over uncontrolled anger or machismo.
Jamming on the brakes without reason (driving a deadly weapon) to cause an accident is excusable but knocking someones side view mirror off with a stick is inexcusable? Bad behavoir must be corrected. I will not stand for this bad behavoir anymore. I've had it. I sternly verbally warned a driver at a light who sped up to block my pass when i was passing him in a legal passing zone with oncoming traffic. This illegal behavior put my life at risk. I diagnolly boxed him in at then next stoplight and told him to "Never, ever do that again". No Fingers, no swearing. Just a low, loud baritone voice emanating from a 6'2" 240lb frame. I think he got the message. I havent seen him on the road since.


Even in this situation, hitting any part of someone's vehicle with an axe is not acceptable...and if you think it is, then you belong in a staight jacket in a rubber room...

 

[Barkleymut]

I'm still trying to figure out why "regional prejudism" is acceptable? If you would like I can let you know what everyone around here thinks about people from up north or big cities like Chicago. But then again we have manners here in the South so I will refrain. And if you would ever like to go head to head on an online MENSA competition just let me know the time and date.

Originally Posted By: lovcom
You will find more tailgaters the further south you drive. Here in Chicagoland, and when I lived in California, you didn't often see tailgaters. But when we lived in Tenneessee, and visited other southern states, we saw a heck of a lot of them. I think that there's a correlation between tailgating and intelligence...seriously. Or it could be that the more backward a person is, or the lack of reading skills, or lack world traveling, the more likely that they will tailgate, handle snakes in church, and speak in tongues...oh, and have a southern accent.

 

[lovcom]

Originally Posted By: Barkleymut
I'm still trying to figure out why "regional prejudism" is acceptable? If you would like I can let you know what everyone around here thinks about people from up north or big cities like Chicago. But then again we have manners here in the South so I will refrain. And if you would ever like to go head to head on an online MENSA competition just let me know the time and date.

Originally Posted By: lovcom
You will find more tailgaters the further south you drive. Here in Chicagoland, and when I lived in California, you didn't often see tailgaters. But when we lived in Tenneessee, and visited other southern states, we saw a heck of a lot of them. I think that there's a correlation between tailgating and intelligence...seriously. Or it could be that the more backward a person is, or the lack of reading skills, or lack world traveling, the more likely that they will tailgate, handle snakes in church, and speak in tongues...oh, and have a southern accent.


Nothing insulting in my post. It is what it is. I've lived in every region of the US and I wrote what I have observed. In the south, people tailgate a lot more then in other regions. Sorry you cannot handle the truth.

 

[Pop_Rivit]

Originally Posted By: Astro14
You do know that passing on the right is illegal in most states, right?

And that most states have a corresponding law; keep right, except to pass?

Sigh...do you always advocate breaking the law? along with passive-aggressive, antagonistic behaviour like brake checking?


That simply isn't correct.

Let's look at section 21754 of the California Vehicle Code as an example.

Quote:
Passing on the Right

21754. The driver of a vehicle may overtake and pass to the right of another vehicle only under the following conditions:


(a) When the vehicle overtaken is making or about to make a left turn.

(b) Upon a highway within a business or residence district with unobstructed pavement of sufficient width for two or more lines of moving vehicles in the direction of travel.

(c) Upon any highway outside of a business or residence district with unobstructed pavement of sufficient width and clearly marked for two or more lines of moving traffic in the direction of travel.

(d) Upon a one-way street.

(e) Upon a highway divided into two roadways where traffic is restricted to one direction upon each of such roadways.

The provisions of this section shall not relieve the driver of a slow moving vehicle from the duty to drive as closely as practicable to the right hand edge of the roadway.


Amended Sec. 39, Ch. 491, Stats. 2010. Effective January 1, 2011.


As a second example, we'll look at the code from my own state, Iowa.

Quote:
Sec. 26.31. PASSING ON THE RIGHT.
(1) The driver of a vehicle may overtake and pass upon the right of another vehicle which is making or about
to make a left turn.
(2) The driver of a vehicle may overtake, and, allowing sufficient clearance, pass another vehicle proceeding
in the same direction either upon the left or upon the right on a roadway with unobstructed pavement of a sufficient width
for four (4) or more lanes of moving traffic when such movement can be made in safety and within the right side of the
center of the roadway. No person shall drive off the pavement or upon the shoulder of the roadway in overtaking or
passing on the right.
(Ord. No. 843, Sec. 166; Code 1956, Sec. 25-66) [State Law Ref. Iowa Code Section 321.302]


"Most states" have provisions for passing on the right on 4 lane roads-it's perfectly legal and perfectly acceptable.

 

[Pop_Rivit]

Originally Posted By: grampe
What's the point of tailgating?


The point of tailgating is for the person doing the tailgating to prove that they are as mentally challenged as the rest of the world thinks they are.

 

[Win]

Originally Posted By: lovcom
...But when we lived in Tenneessee, and visited other southern states, we saw a heck of a lot of them. I think that there's a correlation between tailgating and intelligence...seriously. Or it could be that the more backward a person is, or the lack of reading skills, or lack world traveling, the more likely that they will tailgate, handle snakes in church, and speak in tongues...oh, and have a southern accent.


Originally Posted By: lovcom
Nothing insulting in my post.


Of course, lovcom, how could anyone find those comments insulting

?

 

[andrewg]

Originally Posted By: Pop_Rivit
Originally Posted By: grampe
What's the point of tailgating?


The point of tailgating is for the person doing the tailgating to prove that they are as mentally challenged as the rest of the world thinks they are.

Agreed....that's about what I was going to say. Where I live, as I guess is the same for most of the nation, people have become many times more rude, impatient, discourteous, pushy, confrontational, selfish, ignorant, and downright NASTY. In truth I am almost always disgusted with the behavior of my 'fellow man' on every commute to work....and back home again. I get this deep anger as well when I see the tailgating going on late at night...even when the person in front is going WELL OVER the speed limit. Civility and kindness in this country are often absent on the roads....replaced by idiocy and near cruelty. I used to think that the worst offenders were of a particular ethnicity or hailing from the often attributed 'California' transplant. Not so anymore. It's a cross section of dolts from every background now as this DISEASE of rude and dangerous driving behavior has spread like VD.

 

[ARCOgraphite]

Originally Posted By: Spazdog
... your incredible stupidity has overridden my exceptional SIPDE skills thus endangering me to the point to where I am actually considering re-enacting a scene from Mad Max.

Good Flick

 

[ARCOgraphite]

Originally Posted By: grampi
Originally Posted By: ARCOgraphite
Originally Posted By: Oil Changer
ARCO,

You sound more intelligent when discussing oil related tropics.

I don't care what the cause, you come as close to my head as my rearview mirror with an axe, you will be met by something with a little more reach.

Stupid to die over uncontrolled anger or machismo.
Jamming on the brakes without reason (driving a deadly weapon) to cause an accident is excusable but knocking someones side view mirror off with a stick is inexcusable? Bad behavoir must be corrected. I will not stand for this bad behavoir anymore. I've had it. I sternly verbally warned a driver at a light who sped up to block my pass when i was passing him in a legal passing zone with oncoming traffic. This illegal behavior put my life at risk. I diagnolly boxed him in at then next stoplight and told him to "Never, ever do that again". No Fingers, no swearing. Just a low, loud baritone voice emanating from a 6'2" 240lb frame. I think he got the message. I havent seen him on the road since.


Even in this situation, hitting any part of someone's vehicle with an axe is not acceptable...and if you think it is, then you belong in a staight jacket in a rubber room...
Axe HANDLE! I guess you are not a spanker?

 

[Nick R]

Originally Posted By: ARCOgraphite
Originally Posted By: grampi
Originally Posted By: ARCOgraphite
Originally Posted By: Oil Changer
ARCO,

You sound more intelligent when discussing oil related tropics.

I don't care what the cause, you come as close to my head as my rearview mirror with an axe, you will be met by something with a little more reach.

Stupid to die over uncontrolled anger or machismo.
Jamming on the brakes without reason (driving a deadly weapon) to cause an accident is excusable but knocking someones side view mirror off with a stick is inexcusable? Bad behavoir must be corrected. I will not stand for this bad behavoir anymore. I've had it. I sternly verbally warned a driver at a light who sped up to block my pass when i was passing him in a legal passing zone with oncoming traffic. This illegal behavior put my life at risk. I diagnolly boxed him in at then next stoplight and told him to "Never, ever do that again". No Fingers, no swearing. Just a low, loud baritone voice emanating from a 6'2" 240lb frame. I think he got the message. I havent seen him on the road since.


Even in this situation, hitting any part of someone's vehicle with an axe is not acceptable...and if you think it is, then you belong in a staight jacket in a rubber room...
Axe HANDLE!


Nobody axed you for your opinion

 

[johnachak]

Nice!

 

[grampi]

Originally Posted By: ARCOgraphite
Originally Posted By: grampi
Originally Posted By: ARCOgraphite
Originally Posted By: Oil Changer
ARCO,

You sound more intelligent when discussing oil related tropics.

I don't care what the cause, you come as close to my head as my rearview mirror with an axe, you will be met by something with a little more reach.

Stupid to die over uncontrolled anger or machismo.
Jamming on the brakes without reason (driving a deadly weapon) to cause an accident is excusable but knocking someones side view mirror off with a stick is inexcusable? Bad behavoir must be corrected. I will not stand for this bad behavoir anymore. I've had it. I sternly verbally warned a driver at a light who sped up to block my pass when i was passing him in a legal passing zone with oncoming traffic. This illegal behavior put my life at risk. I diagnolly boxed him in at then next stoplight and told him to "Never, ever do that again". No Fingers, no swearing. Just a low, loud baritone voice emanating from a 6'2" 240lb frame. I think he got the message. I havent seen him on the road since.


Even in this situation, hitting any part of someone's vehicle with an axe is not acceptable...and if you think it is, then you belong in a staight jacket in a rubber room...
Axe HANDLE! I guess you are not a spanker?


Either way, still a voilent and unacceptable recourse...