Safe Speed Forums

I defined five tailgater types on: http://www.safespeed.org.uk/tailgate.html

The groups are mostly an excellent match for Squirrel's, although I think the distinction between impatient and aggresive can be important.

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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

Only A Fool Breaks The Two Second Rule

Started in 70s. I remember seeing the advert on the telly at the time. It actually showed how to work out how to keep the two seconds. The theory being that on selecting a mark point which the car in front passes and you then reach that same point before you finish muttering the above prhase - you are too close


It does take two seconds to say the above phrase or "one kangaroo/two kangaroo" by the way

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Take with a chuckle or a grain of salt
Drive without COAST and it's all your own fault!

A SMILE is a curve that sets everything straight (P Diller).

A Smiley Per post
FINES USfor our COAST!

Approach love and cooking with reckless abandon - but driving with a smile and a COAST calm mind.

Which you create by following COAST (extension of OAP :wink)

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Take with a chuckle or a grain of salt
Drive without COAST and it's all your own fault!

A SMILE is a curve that sets everything straight (P Diller).

A Smiley Per post
FINES USfor our COAST!

Approach love and cooking with reckless abandon - but driving with a smile and a COAST calm mind.

Funnily enough we can tell the difference between the serious idiots and the marginal idiots - but there's no real stereotype either

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Take with a chuckle or a grain of salt
Drive without COAST and it's all your own fault!

A SMILE is a curve that sets everything straight (P Diller).

A Smiley Per post
FINES USfor our COAST!

Approach love and cooking with reckless abandon - but driving with a smile and a COAST calm mind.

I'm never goaded into going faster just to suit the turkey brain behind me - I slow down.

I don't drop the anchors but I do keep slowing down to the point that he either overtakes or comes to a complete stop behind me.

He can sit behind me fuming but I'll only get back up to speed if/when he falls back to a safe distance or when he's past me. Of course sometimes the will get past and then brake to $h1t me up for my actions but as soon as he's past I brake just in case he's one of them moron's.

It's the safest thing to do IMHO.

Welcome by the way. but pleeeeese... no more laws.

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The views expressed in this post are personal opinions and do not necessarily represent the views of Safe Speed.
You will be branded a threat to society by going over a speed limit where it is safe to do so, and suffer the consequences of your actions in a way criminals do not, more so than someone who is a real threat to our society.

I don't see how angering an aggressive tosspot can possibly be 'the safest thing to do'.

The 'safest thing to do' must surely be to calm the situation down, not risk raising the temperature.

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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

Don't get me wrong; it's not what I want to do but it is what I do because he would most likely want me, or the line of traffic I'm in, to go at his speed - not a safe speed or distance. Either that or he just likes driving too close, which is also a possibility.

Either way, I don't think there's a way to "calm the situation" so I simply want to get out of his way so he doesn't' t involve me in his foolishness.

It's about survival and its served me well over the years. If he's going to have an accident I'd rather it wasn't with me. It's selfish, I know, but that's life. I'm not about to change his driving habits but I can distance myself from him. If I didn't do this then I stand to have him stuck dangerously close to me for miles on some roads. Is that the safe thing to do?

Can you elaborate on the calming angle please? If there's a better way I'd be happy to follow it and I'm sure others would too.

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The views expressed in this post are personal opinions and do not necessarily represent the views of Safe Speed.
You will be branded a threat to society by going over a speed limit where it is safe to do so, and suffer the consequences of your actions in a way criminals do not, more so than someone who is a real threat to our society.

http://www.safespeed.org.uk/tailgate.html

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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

Haven't seen it before ta.

My interest isn't in teaching anyone a lesson, honestly. I just want to do exactly what your link says which is to "get rid of the tailgater as soon as possible".

It may have come across as I'm raging myself but I'm really not; I get rid of my rage in the gym. When it happens I just think to myself quite calmly, 'here's another one, so I'd better get out of his way'. I do the same when someone cuts me up too.

Even if it's very close, so long as there's no accident, I don't give chase or start waving my fist out the window and flashing lights etc. It's like a jungle out there sometimes, complete with apes beating their chest. If someone really wants to get in front of me that badly then I say go ahead and then you'll be one car ahead - big deal.

I have never got into a p1$$1ng contest on the road. I have used islands and all the techniques in your link to get him off my back BUT when I have been on a road where I know there is little or no chance to get out of his way I slow down until he overtakes. If he chooses to get out of the car to 'have a word' well at least it's not road rage on the road anymore and he may change his attitude when he sees me. I'm not a 10 stone weakling, if you get my drift, not that that's what I want either.

These people usually have a fancy car and a small willie to match their even smaller brain. How they got through their test in the first place is beyond me but oh well. It takes all sorts, as they say...

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The views expressed in this post are personal opinions and do not necessarily represent the views of Safe Speed.
You will be branded a threat to society by going over a speed limit where it is safe to do so, and suffer the consequences of your actions in a way criminals do not, more so than someone who is a real threat to our society.

I believe you. Absolutely. But I think it's well worth keeping a mental check on other drivers' stress levels.

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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

my approach to tailgaters is to try to do nothing - i.e. if they come up behind me and I am doing a steady speed, I will try to keep to that speed, or if they come up in the middle of an overtaking manouvre, I try to complete the overtake but do not do anything like speed up or slow down.

I say "try" because external events do have an effect.

I think (may be wrong) this was advice I got from this site ... an early discussion around "brake light testing" seems to ring a bell ... but the reason behind it was that the tailgater may be expecting you to continue along as s/he has observed for (some) time as they caught up, to do something different means they have more to deal with ... acting consistently gives them the right information?

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COAST Not just somewhere to keep a beach.

A young loner on a crusade to champion the cause of the innocent, the helpless, the powerless, in a world of criminals who operate above the law.

My embarrassing tangle with a tailgater a few years ago now, occured with someone who most definately fell into this category of individual..



I learned quite a great deal about arrogance (his) versus stupidity (mine) that day, and now manage to successfully avoid all but the most determined tailgater. And I soon dispense of those in the prescribed manner.

There is still an evil little flame that burns away somewhere deep inside of me that would just love to come across them a few miles later, sat at the side of the road beside a molten engine or (better) a copper with his ticket book in his hand.

If I noticed or felt someone walking very close behind me in the street I would pull over and stop just as I would on the road and for the same reason; it's threatening.

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The views expressed in this post are personal opinions and do not necessarily represent the views of Safe Speed.
You will be branded a threat to society by going over a speed limit where it is safe to do so, and suffer the consequences of your actions in a way criminals do not, more so than someone who is a real threat to our society.

I tend to take a similar tack to Big Tone, and feel it is the best way to get rid of them, they obviously want to go faster than me, and the best place for them is therefore in front of me.

When a driver first zooms up behind me, my initial reaction is to do nothing; often drivers will pull up too close, then seemingly realise and move back, the problem disappears as quickly as it occurred, and noone's tempers are raised.

Subsequently, my first priority is to establish an extra large gap in front of me, as soon as practicable without braking so sharply as to risk an accident or appear agressive. The tailgater then has the option to overtake into this inviting gap, and I have the ability to brake more gradually should traffic ahead deccelerate.

Additionally, when the road conditions and location lend themselves to a safe overtake I will try to slow further, preferably without braking, in order to facilitate an overtake. On reflection I am in two minds about the lack of brakes; on the one hand it is a means of avoiding any supposition on his part that I am trying to slow him down to 'teach him a lesson', but on the other, the absence of brake lights, coupled with his blatent cavalier attitude towards the driving task, and potential inattention, may be a recipe for disaster. Potentially this decision is one to be based on individual circumstances.

I just keep steady - ease off to create a gap for the muppet to move into and just let him overtake me asap. No point in making a bad situation worse.

My wife Wildy though can be plain She apparently has one road on her commute which has a 30 mph limit and most feel comfy at 40 mph Sounds like I'm making excuses for them - but the low speed limit from what she says to me and one drive I made with her so that I could see for myself what she was on about suggests to me that folk get a tadge impatient.

Only my wife does have an issue with anyone she thinks "too close" to her. What she does is just plain nasty though. She uses the Gatso to what she calls "small advantage ping pay off" This Gatso is "hidden" behind a bus shelter just beyond a garage forecourt. She nips into the garage forecourt and watches as the tailgater from hell accelerates in his frustration and seems to take a very strange delight in this for someone who hates scameras in watching it flash them She justifies this by telling me that inconsiderate, impatient and "rudey" oiks deserve all they get and says that's the one scam which acts as a "surrogate policeman".

I do the once around the roundabout.. pull into side street or lay-by myself if finding a persistent little oik behind me.

I don't find tailgating that much of a problem on the motorways these days but find it a problem when I drive to road conditions and limit on urbans. I do not know if this is specific to my commute from north of Keswick to a teaching hospital based in Lancs.

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If you want to get to heaven - you have to raise a little hell!

Smilies are contagious
They are just like the flu
We use our smilies on YOU today
Now Good Causes are smiling too!

KEEP SMILING
It makes folk wonder just what you REALLY got up to last night!

Smily to penny.. penny to pound
safespeed prospers-smiles all round! !
But the real message? SMILE.. GO ON ! DO IT! and the world will smile with you!
Enjoy life! You only have the one bite at it.

I generally find that when I am 'tootling around' at quite a lot less than the speed limit, and I get people come up behind me, my normal instinct is to let them past at the earliest opportunity; its just good manners, in my opinion. Generally I don't speed up a lot, maybe a little so the person realises I have seen him/her.

The only trouble I find is that my actions are virtually NEVER reciprocated when I come across a 'tootler' when I want to get a move on. They always seem to be in 'policeman' mode, and cannot possibly see why anybody should go faster than them.

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Good manners maketh a good motorist

I don't really agree with this. In my view a tailgater represents an increase in risk, and increased risks require mitigation.

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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

My thought process was about "not doing anything to A) increase the tension or B) surprise the tailgater". As my SOP for driving would be to get out of the way quickly anyway, changing my behaviour could lead to confusion?

I see your point though, but I don't think I should let a tailgater cause me to do something I am not comfortable with - be that speeding up beyond what I am comfortable with, or cutting back into the lane to the left.

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COAST Not just somewhere to keep a beach.

A young loner on a crusade to champion the cause of the innocent, the helpless, the powerless, in a world of criminals who operate above the law.

Absolutely - such 'uncomfortable' actions may further increase the risk.

But gently opening a gap in front (if you can do nothing else) means that you can 'drive for him' and restore margins.

And there's nothing wrong with speeding up to clear his path sooner if conditions support a higher speed. (I'm really thinking of being tailgated tailgating while overtaking on a dual carriageway or motorway 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

Agreed that speed cameras are a total nonsense. They encourage the view that the posted speed limit is always the safe maximum, whereas anyone with more than a few brain cells should know that the safe speed depends on many factors (including traffic density and weather). What we really need is better driver education and a concerted effort to improve driving standards. A specific offence of tailgating would be a good start. In support of that we should also adopt the approach of some blue light services and change the term Road Traffic Accident to Road Traffic Collision. Following this we should banish the word accident from all Radio, TV and Newspaper reports and find something more appropriate to describe a complete and utter lack of skill, care and attention, as these are surely the cause of nearly all road “accidents”. Road safety will never improve until we solve the problem of aggressive driving, tailgating, poor lane discipline and lack of observation. Speed cameras do nothing to solve the problem.

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Gerry Woods