How Do You Handle Tailgaters?

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I had people tailgate me in residential or low speed areas despite a main street and a freeway with a faster speed limit going through town. I just go the speed limit but I'm ready to engage all 5.3L against your 1.5L if you wanna pass illegally.
 
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Happened to me last night on my way home from a friends house in Santa Ynez. Was driving through Solvang which is one lane each way and 25mph and this X5 was practically bump drafting me. It was around 1AM but I didn't dare go more than the speed limit because there are speed traps all over. I did do my best to not use the brakes until absolutely necessary, just letting off the throttle and coasting to stoplights or downshifting when the speed limit changed. Finally got to Buellton and when I went to get on the 101 South the X5 tried to pass me on the 1 lane onramp. I got on the freeway and rolled off the throttle slowly and made them pass me. By the time we got to Gaviota I had caught up to them by just driving normal and as I passed them they tried to side-swipe me. At that point I had enough and tested the grip ability of my rear tires to put distance between me and them. Never saw them again.
 
Go ahead and tailgate me now . . . I dare ya!

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Originally Posted By: Warstud
Hit'm with some Washer Fluid.


I got into a washer fluid fight with a lady in a caddy about 15 years ago. She was tailgating me in my old Jeep Cherokee. The Cherokee's rear washer hose broke such that the fluid shot straight back in a stream. I felt like James Bond. Lol.
 
Originally Posted By: Vikas
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If I am in the right lane moving with the flow of traffic in the lane

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to speed up to satisfy the tailgater


If you are moving with the flow of traffic, how can you speed up without running in to the guy in front of you? May be you are NOT moving the with flow of traffic if you think you can speed up.


I am actually one of the few drivers who maintain a safe gap from the car ahead of me, so I could speed up a bit and close the gap. Too many drivers think that unless you are right up against the car in front you are going too slow. Sounds like you are one of them.
 
Originally Posted By: Vikas
Quote:
If I am in the right lane moving with the flow of traffic in the lane

Quote:
to speed up to satisfy the tailgater


If you are moving with the flow of traffic, how can you speed up without running in to the guy in front of you? May be you are NOT moving the with flow of traffic if you think you can speed up.


Talk about missing the point. He was in the right lane of a four-lane highway. Absolutely no reason to ride someone's butt. Contrary to your partial quote, the OP didn't say he could have sped up, but observed that the worst thing to do would be to speed up to satisfy the tail-gater.

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I hate it when people tail-gate me in 25MPH residential areas. The few places I do not speed, at all, are residential areas, school zones, or any other congested areas. Why are you in such a rush that you find it necessary to pass me in a curvy (read blind curves) neighborhood, most likely getting up to 35+ MPH?
 
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.
great answer and it stops road raging .....
 
I hate drivers speeding through residential areas. Luckily no kids have been hit in my neighbourhood but many raccoons, squirrels, cats and other small animals have been run over by speeding motorists. They simply do not care.

In my fifty plus years of driving I have never hit an animal.
 
Originally Posted By: Vern_in_IL
You maintain your speed, don't be a worm.

And keep being tailgated? No, thanks. I would rather get them off my back by slowing down a bit. I prefer they go tailgate someone else.
 
I noticed that if I have a pintle hitch in the receiver of my F150, generally no one tailgates me. So I decided to do an experiment with the old Protege. It seems in this car every one tailgates the living daylights out of me regardless of speed when driving this car. It has a 1 1/4" receiver. I put a 1 1/4" - 2" adapter I use for the bicycle carrier, then put the pintle hitch in for a couple of days. Amazingly, this hideous lump of metal deterred most people from tailgating me. I know in many states, It's illegal to have hitches in receivers when not towing. My state is not one of those states, so no law was broken.
As to how I deal with tailgaters, I try to yield to them as safely and as quickly as possible. I do not know whats going on in the tailgaters life, their level of sanity or sobriety, nor do I know how heavily armed they are. I also never obviously turn my head toward them as they pass. The less interaction, the better.
 
Originally Posted By: Merkava_4
I pull over and let them go by me. I don't want to take a chance on getting hit.

Yup..me too
 
I slow down and weave a bit, a bit toward the shoulder, then back to the lane. Make like I'm preoccupied like I'm texting
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If in a semi and hauling grapes, I just get the pull trailer wagging so they can have a grape juice
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Just remember, if you think you can push me, I can always go slower
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I drive very purposefully, never got more than 3-5 over the limit based upon the driving conditions, and I always stay in the far right lane. I'm a pretty careful diver, coast to red lights, and very rarely accelerate very hard, so I know that I can be annoying for drivers in a rush. If someone is on my tail, I will usually slow down to the speed limit until they ride back or pass me. When I was a teenager, I had a habit of braking gently, and then far more aggressively if they didn't give me space the first time.
 
I hate tailgaters, but I was one today. On a back road I came up on a pimped out Sylvia, I wanted to get past, and pushed them a bit...the Sylvia didn't have the driver, power or handling to outpace the Volvo. Roads I normally ride on my bike...seeing as the Volvo is probably faster than my bike on these roads, I guess I turned from car driver, to motorcycle rider in my brain.
 
To add to my 1st response. I may be guilty of rolling coal if they dont back off or go around. I can plant my foot into the 6.9 and it doesn't go any faster.... but it sure will smoke.
 
Originally Posted By: Chris142
To add to my 1st response. I may be guilty of rolling coal if they dont back off or go around. I can plant my foot into the 6.9 and it doesn't go any faster.... but it sure will smoke.
My old 300D was GREAT for that-the more stop & go, the more it would roll coal when you finally stood on it & spooled up the turbo.
 
Originally Posted By: Leo99
Originally Posted By: Warstud
Hit'm with some Washer Fluid.


I got into a washer fluid fight with a lady in a caddy about 15 years ago. She was tailgating me in my old Jeep Cherokee. The Cherokee's rear washer hose broke such that the fluid shot straight back in a stream. I felt like James Bond. Lol.


I was washing a lady behind me at a red light for a solid minutes before I realized why she was beet red from laughing. I had no clue why the dang fluid took so long to get to the rear hatch.
laugh.gif
 
I just drive the way I drive - 8mph over. If they are in a hurry, 4 lanes or 1, I'll pull over and let them by. I usually pass them a little while later, when they stop for gas or get pulled over.
 
Originally Posted By: bubbatime
There is an epidemic lately of complete idiots that stay in the left lane doing the speed limit or under or for that matter even 10 or 15 over. The left lane is a passing lane not a driving lane throughout most of America. Not condoning his behavior, but I just spent eight hours on the interstate and a full 80% of drivers do not get over out of the left lane. What is going on in this country when 80% of the drivers are completely oblivious and discourteous to the drivers around them? It's infuriating.

You do not have the right to lollygag around in the left lane.


I didn't know the left lane was legal to speed in. How much over the speed limit can I go in the left lane and not get a ticket? I can see it now, but officer I'm in the left lane, isn't called the fast lane?
 
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