man, they love to tailgate a prius

MLGREVE
I commend you for adopting the practice of showing absolutely no reaction, changing lanes or pulling off when possible. This is also what I do.

I have been able to occasionally see some tailgater justice...
I lived in NC from 1990-1998 and used to volunteer on the Rescue squad. On ambulance runs between Havelock and New Bern (and Havelock and Morehead City) we had a 15mile stretch on hwy 70. It was common to get "oportunistic tailgaters". We would always advise family to meet us there (hospital) but never follow the ambulance as we went through intersections and drove quickly to the ER.
For close and speeding tailgaters we would call in to Havelock Public Safety and occasionally had the satisfaction of knowing these vehicles were pulled over and cited.

Continue to Drive Safely!

 

Here is my story.
I have my 1st ever Prius for almost 2 months now and very much enjoying it. I drive 55 miles one way 4 days a week to work and have a completely different experience in this context.

I drive very consistently and never put pressure on the GAS.
But I drive at a very good speed on the highways and try to keep it at 63-70 mph speeds all along. Never try to apply brakes un-necessarily and I am able to maneuver (changing lanes / passing other slow moving cars/trucks ) the car easily even without applying brakes (unless it is a must).

Guess what!!, I am observing for that past one month now, there are 3 or 4 guys who are following me everyday - (typical commuters) the moment they see my car on the highway. they never overtake and pass me even if I slow it down to 50s ( I tried that )

I think some people like driving consistently and if they like your driving , then they simply follow you - may be thinking - let's follow the no non-sense guy ahead..

And of course there are those Prius haters as well who never like to follow a Prius even if you go at 70+ mph.

But I do not care at all for them. I go on to the left most lane only for passing and come back to the 2nd lane ( 4 lane hwy ) and no issues so far.

But what it tells me is that there are folks who like to travel at Prius speeds as well. because consistency always wins the race. I have seen cars passing me at 80 mph and I catch-up with them all after 3-4 miles.

 

If there's one thing that knocking holes in the North Atlantic has taught me, it's "never sweat the small stuff."
OK...I taught myself how to juggle too---but that's not where I'm going with this.

Traffic, like almost everything else in life, is the small stuff.

I've never bought into the "he/she's endangering my life!!" argument for treating idiots with idiotic behavior in return. In my never-to-be-humbled opinion (current value < $0.02) most of the people who really, REALLY, REALLY hate *&^$! tailgaters are themselves just a little too twitchy to be behind the wheel of even a somewhat smallish 3,000 pound car.
Note: I didn't slander---I never used the word 'compact'.

 

Yesterday a jacked up pick-em-up truck decided to not wait his turn at the FLOW light (for those unfamiliar, this as a traffic metering stoplight on a freeway entrance ramp, controlling highway congestion), but instead tailgate through on my butt during my turn.

So what happens when an overpowered 2WD truck with no weight in back, floors the gas from a standing start on an curved banked uphill worn-concrete ramp in the rain?

He seemed to have about as much success as a typical Seattle driver, without decent tires or winter driving skills, trying to climb a hill during our shallow but icy snowfalls. For examples, see the several videos posted right after our Nov 22 storm.

I couldn't sample the rearview mirror frequently enough to see whether his tail struck the retaining wall when he turned sideways. He eventually did get going, but I couldn't see well enough at that great distance to know just how he resolved it.

 

Throw a "baby on board" sticker on your window. I actually have a baby and with that sticker visible, most people back off after getting close enough to see it.

 

It's been said before, but is worth repeating: The left lane is for passing only. When you dawdle along there, passing nothing or barely passing, with a line forming behind you and frustrated drivers now making wild maneuvers to pass on the right - you should be aware enough of your surroundings to just move over.

George Carlin once said, paraphrased - "Ever notice how everyone driving slower than you is a moron, and every driving faster is a maniac?"

-MKL

 

Yeah... I miss George C.
He didn't like my religeon or my politics much---but he was a talented and funny observer of the human condition...

"Four wheels move the body - two wheels move the soul!"

Amen!!!

 

Oh man that's great! LOL!!!

 

I would not say that I get tailgated more than I did in my Honda Ridgeline pickup truck. I think it's just that it's a lot more noticeable in my Prius. My car is lower and the vehicle behind me appears to be right up against my back window; whereas, with my truck it was not at all intimidating to have someone close to my rear bumper. Does that make sense?

 

I should hope speed was a factor in all of them. I mean.. cars do move don't they?

 

Ha ha ha ha ha!
That's a good one!

 

You're dead on. The chopped off rear end on the Prius makes it so much easier to notice. For example you could be tailgated while driving a 1970's "land barge" but that 10' of trunk behind you makes it much less imminent feeling. The Prius short rear end makes it feel like they're in your back seat and they pretty much are.

 

People don't typically seem to tailgate me for long, and I drive at or slightly below the speed limit -- maybe 60 to 65 mph [~97 to 105 km/h] -- as I get noticeably better fuel economy that way, but I always do so in the slow lane, usually on a freeway with three to four lanes to the left of me, so perhaps that's why. They always just seem to move over a lane, unflustered.

What's funny, though, is occasionally I'll find someone approach closely, then back off and follow at a safe distance...almost as if they suddenly decided to reduce their speed because of me.

 

Mark57 and Blue Prius Texan,

You beat me to the punch ...

I personally suspect that there is no more tailgating of Priuses than just more tailgating in general. I think that the rear window arrangement of the Prius makes cars seem to be much closet than they are ... or makes close cars much, much more obvious.

 

I tried to take off when the light changes green to see if my Prius is much slower than any SUVs on the other lanes. But I usually get ahead of them without really raving up the engine. I think non-hybrid car drivers just think that we are always slow.

 

Thought of starting a new thread but this is exactly that has been happening to me. I drive the same as I do, when I used to drive my acura SUV. With the prius, I am not trying to drive it conservatively, I still find folks inching behind my rear..hello ! there is a red light. So I press on the pedal to avoid the tailgater only to slam on my breaks at the next red light. This is going on a lot and yes, people do cut me off. What is with this attitude..? And yes, I am supposedly in "prius friendly" state.

 

It's the perception that they think you're slow, even when you're not. People are stupid, especially when driving. Their primordial behavior kicks in. Though they can make decisions to save their lives, their brains can't think rationally.

 

The optomist in me thinks perhaps there's the perception these drivers are really close because of the funky rear window design. We see "more" of their front end which makes them feel closer. No?
Obviously people shooting the bird is a different kind of sickness.

The midwest has been a friendly little place to drive it IME.

 

I think that is a factor in the perception of tailgating since in a regular car your rear window is several feet forward of your bumper. That's not to say that tailgating doesn't occur though.