Safe Speed Forums

After the latest tailgater-induced stress subsided I found your site with a "tailgating" Google search.

At last, like-minded drivers! Where have you been all this time?

I have read some of Paul Smith's philosophy and some member comments and find it heartening and enlightening.

However, this occurrs to me:

a. If we accept that charge-creating speed cameras have an adverse effect on driver awareness/concentration.

b. If it is true that police force statistics about accident trends from 1997 are being ignored by DfT

c. If it is true that despite years of evidence-based advice and argument from yourselves, national motoring organisations, RoSPA, IAM, and professional road users in the UK that improved driver training will offer the steadiest improvement in driving standards and therefore accident reduction, our politicians ignore us.

Has anyone discovered a way to collectively pressurise against the current road safety policy and expose the scandalous weaknesses of government's politically-motivated monetary goals?

Maybe this forum (and others?) can (eventually) make a real difference?

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Defensive

Have a look at the media stuff - I'm quite sure we're making a very real difference. There's much to do, but we're doing it...

And I think you're going to like it here.

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Paul Smith
Our scrap speed cameras petition got over 28,000 sigs
The Safe Speed campaign demands a return to intelligent road safety

Stick to the speed limit and you find that you dont creep up to the car in front, funny how the tailgaters are the speeders who "have expierience and arn't narrow minded people who stick to the limit for no reason

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Why not put on speed limiters we have the technology only idiots break the speed limit

Are you stoned?

What rubbish.

Exceeding the speed limit and tailgaiting are not connected.

Well perhaps not directly connected. But I'd suggest that deliberate aggressive tailgating is often practiced by drivers who are temporarily prevented from making progress at their desired speed because the prevailing traffic is travelling somewhat slower.

but surely that's the exception to the norm? Most of the tailgating I see is by people who don't have the faintest clue that what they're doing might possibly, just maybe, perhaps be a little bit dangerous. Perhaps purely coincidence but they also seem to be the ones on the motorway travelling in packs at precisely the speed limit no doubt certain in the belief that nothing can happen to them because they're obeying the magic lollipop.

Oh I do hope so!
At least we're trying


I think you'll find that HGV speed limiters and SPECS installations kind of prove that theory wrong, vehicle speed measuring equiptment isn't nearly accurate enough for that, and never was meant to be, so vehicle 1 is doing 29mph and vehicle 2 is doing 30mph but both display 30mph, vehicle 2 will creep up to vehicle 1.

I don't seem to have much problem with tailgaters, I rarely find myself in a situation where someone wants to pass me but I can't let them past. I'm sure it'll hapen though... And I'll remain calm.
I'm usually quite calm. Even when I'm not lieing in the warmth of Florida.

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Andrew.

Around these parts, often the people being tailgated are not watching the road, but looking at the scenery, WELL BELOW the limit, and like minded folk just absent mindedly drift up behind them.
Turn a corner to see a nice view, and one of them lifts his foot off before the other, and BUMP!!

The driver behind is not conciously "tailgating", just not paying attention to time and distance.

But we DO have the occasional hot head who thinks it's clever to read the garage name off your rear numberplate!!

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Time to take responsibility for our actions.. and don't be afraid of speaking out!

Yes you do see an awful lot of mindless tailgating by these folks..



Although I'd argue with the suggestion that the speed limit has anything to do with their thought processes at all.

And yes, there are people who get tailgated because they won't move out of the overtaking lanes.

But I still witness an awful lot of 'get the hell out of my way' tailgating practiced by drivers who are trying to drive much faster than the prevailing traffic will permit, even if the latter is travelling at or above the speed limit.
This is the kind of behaviour that people associate with 'tailgating', someone trying to break the speed limit and is bullying other drivers out of their way.

As a broad brush comment I see in my rear view mirror:

Women 30's (and older) with either an earnest 'keep up' expression on their faces or a sort of dazed daydream.
Young men sitting forward with one arm draped across the steering wheel who you can imagine are practising saying "you 'no wot I'm sayin" in a cool LA gangster style.
Businessmen with a "life has passed me by" expression on their faces, who are desperately trying to find something in their lives that makes them appear more important.

So true....

I don't - I see it very, very rarely. And I do most of my driving on the west section of the M25, which is where (anecdotally) a lot of this behaviour is supposed to occur. How come I don't see it?

Well I see it on the M54 and M6 which I drive regularly. I'm classifying the lunge up to the rear of the vehicle that doesn't get out of the way as quickly as the following driver would like in the same catgory.
Perhaps our perceptions of the issue differ slightly.

The worst incident of aggressive tailgating I've ever been witness to happened to me on the M6 Northbound just south of Stoke. (Sorry if I'm repeating myself here).

It was late on (about 9:30pm) on a Sunday evening in winter and hence pitch dark (not that it makes any odds) and I was in L3 passing 2 HGVs. I'd say I was probably doing around 80-85mph at the time. Unfortunately for me there was a rep (I assume) in a Vecta estate behind me who obviously thought that 85 wasn't fast enough and took it upon himself to position himself so close to the back of my car that I couldn't see his headlights in my mirrors. I don't know what the hell he though he was trying to do but it really worried me. I didn't have anywhere to go, and being stubborn I refused to speed up to get out of his way so I held my speed until I was safely past the HGV in L2 (leaving a sensible gap as always). When I was far enough ahead of the HGV I moved back into L2, and you know what this prick did? He passed me and then cut infront so close that he was actually in my lane before he had finished passing me.

There's not much rattles me when I'm driving, but I seriously considered pulling onto the hard shoulder after that one to give myself time to calm down.

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

Attempting to not slam into the back of you after you pulled in front of him without looking? I mean just how do you miss someone closing on you at warp factor 10 at night? Those lights are usually a giveaway. Doesn't anybody check their mirrors before overtaking these days? Certainly doesn't seem to be the case on the roads I drive.

I hope you're taking the pi$$ johnsher. He was well enough behind me when I moved over for me not to worry about him. I was half way past the truck when he closed and I'd estimate that he was doing well in excess of 130.

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

To be fair, Sixy didn't actually say she pulled out directly in front of him.
I'm afraid I genuinely do believe that there are times when travelling at a speed somewhat greater than the prevailing traffic is innappropriate. Yes, drivers ahead should not deliberatley baulk 'speeders' nor pull out directly in front of them, but they too have the right to pass slower moving vehicles without incurring the ineccessary wrath of someone who is, when we boil away the residual arguments, driving illegally.

nope...


that was obviously not the case, was it?

You ride a bike, would you want someone to pull in front of you because "you are far enough away to not worry about" or would you rather they checked your closing speed?
When you're on a pushbike people seem to do the former and are shocked to find that you might actually be travelling at more the 5mph. One of the British olympic cyclists was punted off his bike by someone whose excuse was "I didn't think bikes could go that quick". Brilliant.


and yet you still pulled in front of him knowing that you wouldn't be able to complete your overtake before he got to you... WHY?


strange how some of us manage to do this without impeding others. Use your mirrors. If you don't think you can make it past before being caught SLOW DOWN (heaven forbid!!!!) and let the faster car past you before you commence your overtake. Works for me and costs bugger all time in the grand scheme of things.

I don't think you're quite understanding the issue...

Whether I stick to the speed limit or not I don't creep up to the car in front. If on the rare occasion I do creep up to the car in front, I drop back to maintain a safe separation distance.

So I'm not worried about me tailgating the guy in front. I'm worried about the guy behind tailgating me.