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Being a "young driver", I've been in the cars with lots of young drivers, and frankly I'm amazed the premiums are so low... Some of us are good, but the general lack of observation/planning scares me (a bit).

Really? Wow, congrats on that - I've never been able to get it with Norwich-

Sixy_the_red, have you tried a company called Quinn-Direct, they have exceptionally good rates for young drivers and offer the DoC extension to any age. P.S - It's an irish company, but they insure for UK

I agree about middle-aged men being the tailgaters/ non-signallers most of the time - they have the tendency to cut things short, the other day my Dad took a corner in 3rd gear, and killed the engine- it wasn't a stall, but the VANOS system in the modern BMW engines wouldn't pick up, he slowed down so much without changing into 2nd, the RPM was too low, it was like turbo-lag, except it wasnt

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My friends call me RuFFy

Capri - I'm with NU - when I first took out my insurance 2 years ago I DID have the extension on my fully comp policy. About 18 months later, after renewing, I happened to phone them on the offchance and they told me that they'd changed their terms so that under 25s can't have it. Problem is, they'd changed it 6 months ago and I'd been driving my partner's car without insurance . Silly thing is though that my certificate still says I'm covered...

I tried Quinn Direct and found them so appaulinglu disorganised that I decided not to bother. They couldn't even sort them selves out to fax me the documents I needed in time for me to renew.

Still, I'll be 25 nexy July and with 4 years no claims...

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Science won over religion when they started installing lightning rods on churches.

Exactly.

My point was that the original answer is phrased in a wooly and ambiguous way. It tends to suggest that you should drive more slowly when being tailgated. The whole point of dropping back a bit is that you create space to brake more gently when being tailgated.

If the answer does not communicate the exact point of the manouvre in a specific and logical way, its misleading.

Its the raw logical mechanics that need to be communicated to young drivers. You do 'X' so that 'Y' doesn't happen.

Tailgaters get a small mph penalty from me to see if it stops them. I never speed up. If it doesn't, they get another one twice as big. The idea is that if they hit, at least I'll be going more slowly. Don't know if it works, but I'd rather have a punch up than a crash.

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I stole this .sig

Have you read the heading of this section - "Improving Road Safety". In what way, pray, does winding up or brake testing the driver behind improve road safety?

I'd rather have neither, thanks very much, and I'd much rather a tailgater was on his way ahead of me than sitting on my rear bumper with an ever redder face.

Trying to teach other people on the road how to drive (or how you think they should drive) is never a good idea and often potentially dangerous - leave that to the police and concentrate on maintaining a safety zone around yourself.

Also deliberate obstruction of other vehicles is illegal.

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"Show me someone who says that they have never exceeded a speed limit, and I'll show you a liar, or a menace." (Austin Williams - Director, Transport Research Group)

Any views expressed in this post are personal opinions and may not represent the views of Safe Speed