Tailgaters, How do you deal with them?

[achop]

Originally Posted by Glider

Ya know, the vast majority of the time I really enjoy being around men. Yes, men and women are very different, but I LIKE those differences. It's part of the fun.

But when men say stuff like this about women--or when women say equally useless stuff about men--it does not leave me happy. Please. My lack of a third leg does not determine my competence behind the wheel. There are good drivers and poor drivers of all ages, hair colors, and genders. I want us to save the jokes for stuff that is actually funny, not stuff that disparages people.

All right. I'm off my soap box. Back to the fun stuff. Someone pass me a beer and a 9/16" end wrench.
Thanks.

Beautifully put, Glider. Thanks.

[86Scotty]

Wow, I missed all this fun somehow. I've got to say I'm totally in DISagreement with Texomapowerboater. I work for a company that has ladies driving every kind of truck. From vans to semis and everything in between. And yes, my wife used to drive for my company too.
Also, I drive for a living. I see just as many idiot men as idiot women driving in the slow lane with a phone up to their ear. I'd really like to pick em off one by one, and this would be a lot easier if there were a pattern among certain people.........but there's not.

[Wrinkledpants]

I agree with the other poster who mentioned that most tailgaters are simply oblivious to what a safe distance is. I have several friends, and parents, who drive much closer than what I'm comfortable with. They're not trying to be aggressive, they just don't know how much distance it takes to stop.

If we have 2 lanes available, I'll move to the left lane, slow down, and let the tailgater pass. Or I'll pass someone and put another car between us. If it's a single lane, I'll leave a lot of room up front so I have a nice big distance to brake slowly into, giving the person behind me more of a chance to stop. And, it also means they see a chance to pass, and hopefully will do so. If it's winter and the roads are bad, I'll just pull off somewhere rather than risk them sliding into me, or passing me and losing control. I'm not so much worried about getting rear ended when stopped, but someone rear ending me while we're still moving, and we end up losing control into oncoming traffic.

I don't brake check people, as they don't typically recognize that you're brake checking them. All it does it make it worse and leads to road rage if they do know they're being brake checked.

I think the best we can all do is simply drive more defensively when being tailgated. I've found that I just become a more distracted driver if I focus on ways to get them off my rear.

Now, if we're in our daily driver (Cayenne Turbo), then I drop a few gears and shrink them in my rear view mirror.

[MadScience]

I know I'm late to this thread, but honestly if I'm driving a faster car, I'm an impatient driver (I know this isn't a good trait and I'm working on my patience), and I can sympathize with the folks who get suckered into unsafe following distances when they catch up with me in the van. As such, I use pull-outs as soon as I can, and get to the right during passing opportunities so folks can get a good look, and lift when someone does go to pass, so that they can get by as quickly and safely as possible.

When I'm not driving the van I rarely run into this situation, though I was super impressed with that porsche had managed to do with the macan turbo. Well, at least until I caught back up to that particular driver after they drove their car onto its roof. -- Driving in traffic isn't a race, and I try to make it a habit to remind myself of that.

[James4]

Originally Posted by yelnam

Hard to know if it helps, but I added a hitch-mounted extra brake light:
Bully (CR-007XL) X-Large Hitch Brake Light https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0073RYG1W..._HFrx7hUXMoWHg



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Neat! I like that!

James