man, they love to tailgate a prius

Some people are just plain idiots and have no respect, probably their upbringing or lack of. I will be away for a month and my mom will have my car in order to keep a charge on the 12V battery and I can only hope and pray nothing happens. You will have no problem finding a camera on the web that will serve its purpose, below is an example of such.:ranger:

GoPro HD Motorsports Hero Waterproof, shockproof, mountable digital video camera at Crutchfield.com

 

I've just gotten used to it. There are "Prius haters" out there - do a search on Facebook for Prius hate. Sick! I find it best to stay to the right (as you did) and just let them pass. I now go 5 mph over the limit too so there's less of an excuse - or keep up with traffic. Sorry to hear about your experience, but I'm sure most members here can recall something similar.

As more and more hybrids and green cars become available, these drivers of planet-unfriendly gas guzzlers will be outnumbered.

 

I took a defensive driving class about 25 years ago that spent a majority of the time teaching us about our mental driving states and how to recognize them in driving situations:

Parent: aka punishing parent. I will teach/show/punish you with my car.
Adult: rational state. The one we should strive to be in at all times but, alas, we are human.
Child: doesn't obey the rules(laws), does what he/she wants. Me first.

In your situation, you're falling into the punishing parent mode while the tailgater was being both a parent (tailgating) and then the child with the bonehead maneuvers.

FWIW

 

:evil:

 

I've experienced this regardless of what car I'm driving. My Prius, my Harley, the HCHII I had, the Civic, Passat, whatever. Doug pretty much hit it on the nail with his groupings. All that getting mad at the other driver does is get your own stress level and blood pressure level rising. I just chalk it up to an impatient, selfish driver that feels his hurry is more important than anything else. Then again, I've also witnessed those drivers end up in ditches a few times and also get the red light camera flash going through the intersection. I just sit there and laugh (assuming no one is truly injured) and keep on my merry way.

Also, I'd recommend never following the person for any kind of confrontation. I'm sure you know this, but it's always good to re-iterate for others that may want to do it. Never know what mental state they are in and what weapons they may have in their vehicle.

Here, we can call and report drivers for aggressive driving. I'm not sure what good it does unless there is a patrol car in the area, but they used to have commercials on all the time about it.

 

I try to maintain a multi-pronged strategy with tailgaters:

1. Keep your cool. No matter how bad they are, if you lose it, the risk increases, guaranteed.

2. Keep a good space in front of you. This improves the odds of avoiding a rear ender, and can prove tempting for the tailgater: if they can they'll likely pass and occupy that space.

3. Avoid any and all reactionary behaviours. Assume they know exactly what they are doing, and are not interested in being "reformed". Just stay your course, no speed up or slow down, brake tapping, turning on hazards. Essentially ignore them, at least to all appearances.

 

Welcome to the CLUB!

Two thoughts.

Learn to spot well known and highly visible, slow traffic: large trucks and trucks with trailers. Avoid dump trucks and trailers with earth moving equipment because these often shed small rocks and glass cracking pebbles. Follow them at a safe distance because the following traffic will race to get around that vehicle and go out of their way to pass you as they try to pass the truck. <wink>

The recording cameras make sense for accident and even traffic ticket negotiations. However, a better solution, one not yet available, would be cameras with logic for accident avoidance. Given most folks are not thrilled at turning over braking to a 3d party, having it 'sound the horn' and 'flash the lights' would be enough. <grins>

Bob Wilson

 

If going speed limit is blocking the flow of traffic, then it's wrong and it WILL bring similar outbursts. Driving slowly is fine, but not a good idea during peak hrs. The penny loss on gas is just not worth the aggravation and unsafe situations.

This is IMHO, and feel free to flame me.

 

:flame:the speed limit is the speed limit and the police should enforce it no matter what time of day it is. what would society be like if we disrespected all of our laws in this way?

 

I've had to deal with tailgaters for years, long before owning a Prius. I don't take someone tailgating me as an example of Prius hate. I take it as evidence of the number of idiot drivers out there.

Driving to work the other day I was behind a a car with a Student Driver sign on it. It was obviously one of the first times the kid had driven-going a little slow and overreacting to turns, hitting the brakes etc. Ok, I wanted to get to work, but give the kid a break, that was us once long ago. I hung back a little (and got some P&G time!). A Ford Expedition pulled into the road and cut me off to get between me and the student driver. He then proceeded to tailgate the student driver (nearly kissing the bumper of the car), and finally tried to pass on a double yellow line but had to pull back in at the last minute because of oncoming traffic. I thought I was going to see a nasty accident. A few days earlier I'd seen a pickup truck tailgating another student driver. That student was going with the flow of traffic and had a car in front of him so he couldn't go any faster anyway. So why was the truck on his bumper? Idiots.....

 

I hate to break the news to you, but there are thousands of laws on books that are not prosecuted and ignored.

As for the society thing, yes I agree the society is going down downhill. The economy shocks of late is just the beginning. Have you heard the story about Rome?

 

In my four months with my prius, I find that the hostility is unrelated to driving style. In stop and go traffic on the FDR Drive on a Sunday afternoon, I had a giant white escalade up my ___, honking and giving me the finger. There was nothing I could do--I was just following traffic and there was less than a car length in front of me. When we finally got a break, I stayed in the right hand lane so that they could pass me and got a thorough dose of obscenity. They could easily see over our car and knew that we were practically on top of the car in front of us. I don't get it.

 

Remember. . . Massachusetts drivers are the worse. I live in Western Massachusetts and it is the same here.
Both ends of the I90 is best example and also that I495 exit to the Cape.
I drove to Ohio this summer and People think different out that a way

 

I'm from central Mass and spend a fair amount of time on I190, I495 and Rt 2. I've developed a new driving style in non rush hour traffic that goes something like this. I'll set my cruise control for 72 on the Interstates, 62 on state highways. I'll change lanes as necessary. If I get stuck in an outside lane and get taligated, I will wait for the car that is impeding my move into the inside lane to either move forward or or backward so I can move over. If I get flashed, I turn on my blinker and carefully slow down till I have an opening next lane over. Sometimes it takes a while, but I never speed up to risk a ticket because of the dope behind me. I typically get the following reactions. Most will fall in line a safe distance behind me as generally they feel that 7 over the speed limit is fast enough. Some will actually do a 2 lane move to the right to pass me. Very few actually tailgate for any distance and even fewer ever flash me. I don't get tickets this way and rarely do I tick anyone off. My intent is to be in the middle or inside lane as much as possible, but if I get blocked in the passing lane the folks behind me will have to understand and for the most part, they do, that it takes a while to pull over sometimes. Driving my new Prius has not changed reactions from other drivers that I can tell. One positive change with the adaptive cruise control is that I tend to spend more time in righthand lanes behind cars that are going a few MPH less than my 72 MPH setting.

I do however have special rules for BMW's with New York or New Jersey plates that come racing up behind me lights flashing, talking on their cellphones, but that's a different discussion.:nono:

 

I'm all ears!

 

Yeah. I've put too many miles on the clock over the decades to get worked up over tailgaters. Of course, I also consciously drive in such a manner that I am not impeding traffic either so I don't experience them very often. Viewing speed limits as the Holy Grail is less important to me than avoiding responsibility for bad karma. And we were taught in driver's ed about the importance of the passing lane being a passing lane- even on an intra-urban freeway. If someone behind you is in a bigger hurry, then move over. People do run others off the road and/or shoot them occasionally.

 

LOL! They do think different out there. My husband drove to Ohio a few weeks ago to visit his family. He came back and said they make Rush Limbaugh seem liberal. My husband tends to be a conservative/moderate republican so this was saying alot. They do however seem to think that the rules of the road are more than just guidelines.

Yah, us mass-holes may have a bad reputation, but NY and NJ BMW drivers are in a class of their own!

 

I bet if you just pull out a camera and start to take a picture of them they'd start driving sensibly all of a sudden.

 

This is true. As well blocking traffic by going too slow is illegal. I've gone 65 in socal freeway fast lane and gotten blinked whoop whoop at by CHP to move over. I get tailgated in my big truck and as well while driving my prius I have come upon another prius going 35 in a 40......I'm the tailgater then.
It's not the car, its just society being in a hurry. Prius owners just relearn how to drive normal again (speaking for myself).