What to do about tail gaters?

What is "CC"?

 

If you're being tailgated, either drive faster or move to the right.

 

If you are in the fast lane and can move over, let the idiot by.

But, if you are in the number 2, 3 or 4 (slow lane, depending on the highway) and they have room to pass, try this: give them about 1-2 minutes of tailgating your car. Then, hit the windshield washer and empty as much fluid as you can until they pass you. Works great, especially on high end-just washed sports cars like BMW or Porsche. These idiots cannot stand spots on their cars.

 

No. I'm not going over the limit, and I'm not moving out of a travel lane onto the shoulder. Especially at speed.

If you don't like it and use your vehicle to express your displeasure, I'm reporting you as a 'road rage' driver. And that call is an exception to the new primary prohibition on using cell phones while driving.

Why is it that most of the ****** who fit the above description are bigger rigs than me with out of state plates?

 

Typically I drive in one lane over from the rightmost one [I have a semi-phobia of merging traffic] and usually somewhere around the speed limit [65 mph on most of the roads I drive] unless the vehicle in front of me is traveling slightly lower than the limit [like 55 or 60 mph, for example, as I find a lot of semis in this lane] in which case I'll try to match its speed and just maintain a safe distance. Usually I'll find that faster-traveling cars will just move to the leftward lanes without tailgating, as they've several by which to do this on the freeways I drive the most.

Now if I'm on a road with fewer lanes, though, I'll usually try to move into the very rightmost lane to allow faster traffic to pass, even if there is still a lane or two to the left by which they could, just to try to give them even more opportunity to do so. If I'm on a freeway with many lanes in each direction, though, and a motorist behind me can't figure out how to pass with three or so lanes to the left, that's his/her own issue, in my opinion -- I'll just keep around the speed limit and ignore the tailgater until he/she passes.

One thing I always do if I get a tailgater though is double-check my speed to make sure it's somewhere around the speed limit and that I haven't accidentally slowed down to a speed that's way too low -- not something that really happens with me, but doesn't hurt to check, I figure.

 

I believe that CC = Cruise Control

 

In Google Chrome for Mac, the lowercase i looks a lot like an "l" in the topic listings. So every time I see this thread, I see "What to do about tall gators?"...It gets my undivided attention.

 

Hate to break it to you, but if you are on a 1-lane road and traffic behind would like to travel faster, it is common courtesy (and the law in most jurisdictions) to pull over when it's safe and let the faster traffic by.

 

But only if you are traveling below the speed limit.

Tom

 

The speed limit has nothing to do with common courtesy.

 

But it has everything to do with the law. Common courtesy says that you don't tailgate someone driving the speed limit. Don't try to make the law abiding driver the bad person in this scenario.

Tom

 

Common courtesy says that if you're driving along and holding up traffic which would like to travel faster, you should pull over and let them pass.

Sure, you may not be required to do so by law unless you are going under the speed limit and some number of vehicles are being held up by you, but common courtesy says to let them pass anyway.

Is the tailgater breaking the law? Yes.
Is the "slow" driver breaking the law? No.

What's the best way to diffuse the situation? It's not for the "slow" driver to pretend they are the only person on the road - it's to share the road with other vehicles.

Getting passive aggressive and "defending" your position on the road does nothing towards contributing to the situation or overall road safety.

Let the other vehicle by and get on your way.

 

Only if/when there's a safe opportunity to do so, and driving
into a sketchy shoulder full of tire hazards doesn't count.
.
It also doesn't help when the aggressors seem to take the slowdown
to pull over *itself*, in the attempt to sort things out, as some
high form of insult. That often makes the victim simply want
to keep going at whatever speed instead of change anything. How
often have you signaled for an off-ramp and had some fukwit
behind immediately try to drive *through* you before you're
even half clear??
.
_H*

 

not to worry. Just driver slower.

If he hits you he will have to pay.

 

++1

hypermiling is very very annoying in my own personal opinion. it completely takes away the fun of driving. PLUS, being behind someone who is hypermiling would/does irritate the hell out of me. bad. i intensely dislike people who drive slow in the fast lane. whether they're driving the speed limit or not. get the hell over to the right. One of my few HUGE pet peeves in life.

i get 46mpg driving the prius in 'power mode' 100% of the time. my other ride gets 11 mpg. therefore, i'm extremely happy with the little guy. i've noticed a lot of people taking off 17" wheels in favor of 15" to save 4-5 mpg, hypermiling to get 55mpg, etc. in a car with a 12(?) gallon tank. come on, is saving a few mpg worth THAT much effort or saving one THAT much money over the course of the year?? i may be completely wrong, but i don't see it.

 

++1 as well. If you are slow then stick to the slower lane.

 

Hi everyone!
I'm new to driving my new hybrid and I find that attempting to drive the speed limit (70 mph) in Florida is really hard. Even If I set my cruise control to slightly speeding and stay in the slower lanes people are on my tail all the time. It's hard to balance the courtesy of getting over with just letting people pass.

 

for someone who drives 2k miles a week, don't drive slow in the fast lane. get over. I like sport driving, but not on the interstate. I take my rx-8 out on country roads and beat on it. i'm not going to tailgate you if you are on a 2 lane holding me up, i'll wait and pass, but if you are on a 4 lane interstate holding up traffic, get over and let people drive.

 

Wow, 2,000 miles a week?! What do you do for a living? Trucker?

 

"sales engineer"