tailgating.... is it just utah?

[nynor]

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.

[vash]

i move over. let them pass.

not worth the headache.

[GH85Carrera]

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!

[nynor]

Originally Posted by vash

i move over. let them pass.

not worth the headache.

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.

[nynor]

Originally Posted by GH85Carrera

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!

too funny.

[vash]

Originally Posted by GH85Carrera

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!

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

[nynor]

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?

[ckelly78z]

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.

[Aggie93]

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.

[BlueSkyJaunte]

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: "..."

[scottmandue]

Originally Posted by nynor

often they are talking on their cell phone.

^^^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.

[Joeaksa]

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...

[speeder]

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.

[nynor]

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

[onewhippedpuppy]

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.

[gamin]

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."

[genrex]

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.

_

[Hugh R]

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

[imcarthur]

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

Ian

[nynor]

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