What to do about tail gaters?

Wow, those speed cameras are working GREAT!

 

Oops. Egg on face.

You're not missing anything; but obviously I did. My sincere apologies.

 

While none of this or my own solution is strictly relevant to
the third-gen Prius, here's something you can do: Yuppie Button
which I find, having researched several areas at the federal and
state levels, is likely completely legitimate. And helps *me*
quite a bit in such situations, unless you get a real hard case
on your nice person but at least the message was sent.
.
_H*

 

It isn't just a Prius problem.

In a Pontiac Firebird, going on the interstate to a left exit, travelling on the inside lane. Traffic is stopped ahead about half a mile. I'm coasting down to them. A semi gets on the back bumper. Goes that way for a few seconds. I continue coasting. He then starts laying on the horn. Yes, we're now essentially up to the line of cars in front, I CAN'T move even if I wanted to, and he's blowing the horn. We continue around the ramp to the next interstate. I'm getting off immediately, so I stay in the outer lane. He's flooring it, comes along side me, and with his passenger window rolled down takes both hands off the wheel to throw a cup of water at me. Now, the Pontiac can, when necessary, move fairly good, and I floored it, cutting across out of the exit turn and back into traffic, and back with the truck. My future wife had her cell phone, which wasn't as common back then, I never had one, and was calling 911. The truck driver must have seen it, because he was by now pulling off the road and stopping. We stopped several hundred yards ahead, and waited. Now, we found out that there aren't many State Troopers patrolling the interstate, but the ones that are are great. One came up fairly soon, waiting in the median watching everybody. Soon enough another one comes up from behind. They talk to us, then go back to the truck driver. They make him come up to us, and appologize to my future wife. While we're there one of the troopers started talking about charging him with throwing a deadly projectile, which would have been interesting. So the entire incident wasted about 2 hours of the truck driver's time, when in fact he would have ended up in the exact same place at the exact same time without any tailgating or attempts at intimidation. And when we left the two troopers were still talking to him.

 

Don't piss off the troopers - your life will get very uncomfortable, very quickly.

The time I got rear-ended the trooper WENT OFF on the other driver - to the point that I even felt bad for them. (and to the point that I didn't dare to say anything)

They weren't charged with anything, but it must have been difficult trying to sit down on such a chewed-out nice person.

 

B mode is your friend

 

I've been hit from behind really hard just once.

It was my wedding night, and no, nothing to drink. We pulled off the highway onto a ramp which leads to downtown Cleveland. Up the long ramp, and stop for the stop sign. All of a sudden, those headlights which had been a ways behind me were on top of me before I could take any evasive option. Smash. Pushed hard enough against the seat and shoulder belts to leave red marks on us for a few days. [My new wife used the seat belts only because I wouldn't drive unless she wore them. However, she then became a believer.]

The biggest problem? I was hit by a Checker cab. Pushed in the back-end of my Datsun Z quite a ways. I now had a compact or subcompact size car. He had some of my paint on his bumper.

Before cell phones etc. Deserted downtown Cleveland with a 6'6" taxi driver whose first words after hitting us were "why did you stop?"

Luck was with me ... scraping and screeching, I was able to force my car along to the nearest garage which had an all-night attendant. Safe, at least to a point as the attendant was watching and had his phone in hand. Had to spend a couple of hours on the necessaries of an accident.

Swell wedding night. Had to take the Dodge Dart on our honeymoon.

 

It also depends on the type of t-gater. A lot of (usually on the phone) drivers just blithely drive until something slows them down--usually another car. The simple answer in this case is pull over and let them become someone else's problem (which they will). An aggressive t-gater is a different matter altogether; pulling to the side of the road might be interpreted as an invitation to fight. In the latter case, if there is a lane to the right, I'll pull over to let them go by; if not, little really works. Just ignore them, don't make eye contact (or worse), and, if you are going slower than the speed limit/traffic flow, adjust. The speed cams throw a monkey wrench in it though--you don't want a ticket, and the <adjective/noun> behind you may not know the cam is around. Sometimes slowing down gradually works for people who just want to go faster (they'll eventually pass).

Heed the advice of others, though--there are whack-jobs out there, and it is better to swallow your pride and avoid an accident than to 'win' the pissing match. (All that said, I am profoundly allergic to tailgaters and sometimes find it hard to take my own advice).

 

Your speed may not be high enough for this to work, but you could also try your windshield washers (both front and rear). Sloshing up their windshield might get them to back off a bit.

 

I got rear ended by a drunk driver on the highway one time. We were going highway speed on a mostly open road, with empty lanes on both sides. He came up from behind, right up on my bumper, slowed down, made another pass, and then hit us. The impact was very light, but in his surprise and confusion he went from one side of the highway to the other and back.

We made a 911 call and then kept him in sight. Part of the time he was driving in the grass on the side of the road, all at highway speeds. He had a couple of near misses with bridge abutments.

Eventually a state police car and two county cars settled in around him and made a rolling stop. I don't think it was a good day for him.

Tom

 

Prius is not fast or big to mess with these nut jobs, so i'd just let them pass if you're holding up the flow of traffic. Drive safe.

 

I have a scrolling LED license plate frame with message: SLOW DOWN... Save gas...SAFETY FIRST... Don't Tailgate...

But I have a collection of bumper stickers that I guess people are trying to read, so it doesn't bother me for a while. But if they are following too long, I turn on flashers or squirt washers.

 

Here in VA following too closely is a reckless driving ticket which carries hefty fines or even possible jail time for multiple reckless tickets. Of course there's never a cop around when you need one.

I don't know if the police could or would do anything if you called in the license plate number.

 

If you aren't passing and someone is going faster than you approaches from behind you should always move over to the right as soon as possible. This is even when you are going faster than the speed limit already. To do otherwise means that you are impeding the flow of traffic and turning yourself into an obstacle. That increases the likelihood of an accident for everyone.

I have no idea what roads you are taking, but maybe the beltway doesn't take them as directly to where they need to go. Also, sometimes people like windy hilly roads to have fun driving a performance car. It doesn't matter why they are driving on that road, it's just common common courtesy not to block other people when you don't have too. He shouldn't be tail gating, but you are just as obnoxious for not moving out of his way as soon as possible.

 

Remembered the Drivers License testing is not a mental test of competency, even the Lunatics can get one, and obviously many have. Use your cell phone to call a cop, and don't forget the vehcile color, model and license number if possible. This is no longer just classified as Tailgating, such drivers seeking to intimidate others are Guilty of "AGGRESSIVE DRIVING", a pre-Cursor to Road Rage, and they are subject to suspension or revocation of their license. So when calling the police do not say you are being 'Tailgated' say the car behind you is Driving Aggressively, it gets a much higher Priority from the police in most places. Also the penalty's are higher, the driver is required to go to classes before getting the license unsuspended, and the nutball's car insurance skyrocket's for many years. All in all, you do yourself and everyone else a great favor for pointing such drivers out to police.

 

On a related note, what do you do if the driver behind you keep his high beams on all the time? This happened in an HOV lane so there was no way to avoid the glare for about 20 miles.

 

Ah, that's where the rear fog light we have in Europe comes in handy

It's brighter than a rear brake light and usually draws their attention to their full beam!