tailgating.... is it just utah?
 

i cannot drive anywhere, lately, without being tailgated. usually, i am driving my 951 or the wife's subaru, but i also get tailgated while driving the land rover. and mean they are CLOSE! i look in the rear-view mirror of the 951 and all i can see is the grill of some huge truck, and we are going 75MPH on the freeway! surface streets, too.

its not just men, or just women, both sexes seem to be fairly represented. often they are talking on their cell phone. they are driving trucks, SUV's, small cars, whatever.

is it just here, in utah? am i being overly sensitive?

i've been sorely tempted, a couple of times, to just stop the car in the middle of the road and ask the other driver why they are only 10 feet from my back bumper while we are driving through my neighborhood.....

d.

i move over. let them pass.

not worth the headache.

Nope, not just Utah.

I saw a wonderful thing the other day. Jerk in a jacked up pickup was pulled right up close to a car in the lane next to me. The car moved over and pickup driver took off. The car flipped on a bunch of red and blue lights. It was a unmarked cop car. I laughed long and hard. Mr. truck driver got NAILED! :)

i guess i'll start pulling over in the neighborhood and changing lanes to the left. not a bad idea, actually.

i really would like to ask them why, however. i'd love to know what their thinking process is when all they can see is the back of my car.

too funny.

excellent. i hate tailgaters..my BIL is one..i hate when he drives me around. idiot.

i watch these people as they move up the road. after they pass me, they tailgate the next car in front of them, and so on. how do they not get into accidents?

My number one pet peeve. When i'm in my diesel 4x4 superduty, i'm doing about 57 mph on state and county roads, usually with some ferk 10 feet off my bumper looking for a way to pass so they can run hard to the next guy in line.

I have ridden with people like this, and could feel the tension in my neck and legs even after I leave thier car.....WHY ? I will never understand destroying any chance of getting good fuel mileage by passing and slowing down constantly, or raising one's blood pressure needlessly. Big cities seem to breed these people who are indignant that you are holding up their progress by 14 seconds getting to thier destination.

If getting over is not an option, I found fluttering the break gives about 80% of the tailgater the signal and they back-off. The other 20% get pissed, pass and cut in front of me then slam on the breaks. Now that I know and can anticipate the 20%, I feel this is the best way to get tailgaters to ease off.

Me: "Why do you have so many rock chips in your windshield?"
Wife: "I have no idea!"

(Wife drives us somewhere)

Me: "You know, you might pick up fewer rock chips if you didn't follow people 5 feet off their rear bumper."
Wife: "It's so frustrating when they go too slow."
Me: "They're doing 10mph over the limit. Remember that time you got 5 speeding tickets in one week?"
Wife: "..."

^^^this... they are so absorbed in the cell phone they don't know they are endangering other peoples lifes.

Same goes for the person blissfully puttering along five miles under the speed limit in the left lane unaware of their surroundings because they are chatting on the phone with five miles of open road in front of them and a dozen cars backed up behind. :mad:

Happened to me (again!) here in Arizona. Beyoch in a minvan, talking on her cell phone was driving 5-10 feet off of my rear bumper in a 50 mph zone. Took it up to 55 and she stayed right on my bumper.

Had to brake once for a critter that ran in front of the car and she almost tagged me, having to run off of the road to avoid an accident. Another 1/4 mile down the road and she was back on my bumper.

Finally called 911 and filled the cops in on this woman. She was still talking on the phone as I turned off into my subdivision... hope they found her and had a discussion...

Don't have too much problem with it here, but occasionally it happens. That's anywhere, I guess. I have no qualms whatsoever about slowing to a crawl in front of someone on my ass. I've even done it on the freeway once in my nicest 911.

In many ways, I've mellowed and become a more peaceful person. Really aggressive and inconsiderate drivers can sometimes set me off, though, and I have a hard time taking schit anywhere, be it on the road, face-to-face, on the internet, etc..

FWIW, I make sure not to be a hypocrite and do any of the things that piss me off to others, such as tailgating slow drivers or honking unnecessarily, etc. I've gotten to the point where I almost never use the horn and simply go around people who are driving slower than I'd like to. There is no reason to be a jerk about it. I still have a real problem with people who will not let someone merge in a reasonable situation.

oh, yeah.... the merging.... lord, help me. around here, you'd think it was F1, the way people speed up when you put your blinker on, or cut in front of you when trying to merge left on the on-ramp. ridiculous. then again, SLC was ranked the 9th most dangerous city to drive, IIRC. i'll have to look it up.....

edit: 6th, as of august, 2011.

http://www.ksl.com/?nid=148&sid=16748598

Overall people tend to be more polite in KS, maybe it's the overall lack of population density? I notice it more when I go S, OKC to DFW is full of retarded drivers. Tailgating, going slow in the fast lane, not using cruise, etc.

On my way down there a few weeks ago there were too teenage guys in a Kia that had me infuriated. They would blow by me then slow down, I would pass, they would tailgate, then they would blow by me, then slow down, I would pass..... The process repeated itself until I sped up and lost them behind some semis. People that can't maintain a constant speed drive me nuts.

I drive mostly on two lane rural roads. When I get tailgated I just slow down slowly to about 10 under the limit. Makes it easier for them to pass, right? It is fun to watch the gestures and finger "pointing."

I love driving in sparsely-populated areas. Once you get off the main highway and onto the secondary highway in those areas, the psychology of the drivers is completely different. Nobody is in a hurry, nobody tailgates. The pace of life is completely different. There is no rat race. Some of those drivers have probably never passed anyone in their entire life, just happy as can be.

_

I put in a third brake light on my Targa for that reason. Too many tailgaters.

Just in Utah? No. Everywhere. Miami/Lauderdale is really bad. And Italy is absurd. You always have someone wanting to pass there.

Ian

austin, tx was easily the nicest place i've ever driven. i've driven in every state but alaska and north dakota.

Many tailgaters here in NE Ohio...

My favorite are the idiots that pass me up in order to beat me to the red light ahead. I have had people flip me off while passing, just to be sitting next to me at the light about 1000 ft ahead. Think about the sheer amount of fuel the nation would collectively save if people were aware of the concept of coasting.

Yep. Driving through rural America on 2-lane roads is a delight. :cool:

75mph eh, where you in a construction zone? oh wait all of SLC is a construction zone.
everyone there blasts down the road next to each others bumper at light speed.
outside of the tremonton to the 80mph zone south of provo, people tend to drive a little more normal. but the SLC area is full of nuts speeding.

i get to enjoy a few hrs of that in a couple weeks, on my drive to NM for turkey day.

today:

Enraged motorist confronts cop in unmarked police car | ksl.com

karma is a *****.

Farmers are friendly and typically in no big hurry.:)

I don't see as much tailgating as I used to a few years ago. I also don't commute anymore since I'm retired.

I see it everyday on my 100 mile roundtrip commute. Since my DD is a fairly low to the ground RSX, every SUVs or pickups headlights blind me, and I usually have to drive both ways in the dark.

For about a year, the SAME Nissan pickup would tailgate me every morning. :( This guy was REALLY aggressive.

Then one day he wasn't there, and I haven't seen him since. I've often wondered if he's dead, in jail, lost his license, moved away.........

I've driven in many countries on different continents but to my mind the Italians are tail-gaiting world leaders. On highways they seem to think thast they are in a kart race,without of course having the low momentum and slicks of a kart to help them slow quickly or swerve. The only sane and safe thing to do is to let them pass.

I was driving I-95 through Miami yesterday. Doing 80 in a 55 and I had 10 cars on my rear nose to tail, trying to get by me. Felt like Talladega.

As I get older, I've learned to calm down and tune out the world around me, and the things I have no control over. That means driving in the next-to-slow lane a few mph over the limit and not getting worked up by other drivers. I usually prefer my F150, just because its so slow and big. My other cars are usually trying too hard to go fast.

Of course, driving in rural Montana is a whole nother thing. People are extremely respectful and usually wave at you, even if they don't know you.

To UK drivers credit I do not see many accidents in the UK like I do in Canada. Tailgating I think is bad in North America.The smaller the car you have the more likely u have a half ton inches from u at a red light.Once moving I hate to say it but many female drivers tailgate as they do not understand how long it takes to stop their car before they pile into u.Sextist yes. But just what I notice. Add drivers on cellphones who disregard the no distraction rule and this includes both men and women, I find it incredible. Also I am retired so try to drive as little as possible.

I believe that it is a phenomenon of the day (tailgating). On a two lane road when the tailgater is looking for an opportunity to pass....I'll cut some slack, but in tight traffic where everyone is relegated to the pace the traffic dictates and you still have a car on your bumper, that really drives me crazy.You can't even get out of the way. I wonder if the shorter stopping distances in modern cars give comfort to these drivers. Thing is, if everyone can stop that quickly, there isn't any real advantage. I found in driving Italy was very interesting, yes they would tailgate but usually when you're using the left lane at a speed they find "inappropriate"...in other words, unless you're doing 120+mph, and you're rearview is clear, you use the left lane only to ACTIVELY pass (ie. doing a half mph faster than the next lane, doesn't constitute active passing, unlike here). It seems whenever I take the 911 out in the city, I have at least some experience with tailgating in heavy traffic. Cheers

I will sometimes check my brakes when being tailgated. Just to make sure they are working properly.

In British Columbia a driver caught doing 40 KPH over the limit (25mph) would be impounded and the total bill would be in excess of 2K each ( towing, storage, ticket, compulsory insurance rate increase). IMHO penalties far over the top since there is no provision for the situation at all, a deserted early morning four lane or a busy city street, is all handled the same. So all visitors to our part of the world, beware. Cheers

I tried that a year ago and nearly got rearended. It has been suggested to me that I put my headlites on momentarily and that way u don't slow down and get rearended. Meaning the main headlight switch which would flash the rear lites on momentarily.

I thought that's what windshield washers were for.

I think it is funny that Porsche 911 drivers are complaining about tailgating. We are known as the worst offenders! I personally witnessed one of the complainers on this thread engage is some serious tailgating-- and he is now complaining about 'other' tailgaters!

It is too bad that no one here is being self-reflective or honest with themselves. While I have never rear-ended anyone, I have been guilty of driving way too close to other cars multiple times to get them to move over. I have learned to take it easier on the road and remember what is important. EDIT: At least most of the time!

I do find it is really frustrating when people stick to the left lane going well below the speed limit. Tailgating usually works as a wake-up call to them to move the F*^% out of the way when you get in the slow car in the lefthand lane's grill or use the highbeams.

France is the worst in Europe, they tailgate and nearly remove your rear bodywork as they overtake.

They also tailgate slipstream to save fuel behind huge trucks - about 3-4feet away at 60mph.

+1000 especially if they are in a clean car.

Had a friend who turned his back spray nozzle around. Considered brake fluid.

I used to be bad. I rear ended some nice ladies in Austin tx and learned my lesson. This was 25 years ago. I check myself now. Easy to relapse.