Stop tailgating me!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:First of all, stop blaming the driver in front of you. I’ve been tailgated in the far right-hand lane going at or above the speed limit.

Secondly, tailgating me will make me go slower, not faster. I will want more room between me and the car ahead of me so that if they do something unexpected I have more reaction time so that I can hopefully avoid slamming on my brakes and getting rear-ended by my tailgater. Moreover, if my tailgater does rear-end me, I want the extra room in front of me to hopefully avoid a chain reaction where I get pushed into the car in front.

If you are driving slower than the rest of the traffic in the left lane, you need to move over. You will just as easily cause an accident as someone who is tailgating you.

I thought police and insurance companies hold at fault the driver who rear-ended the car in front of them, not the person who got rear-ended. Has that changed in the 20 years since I got my driver’s license?

How is that relevant? You are ok with causing an accident as long as your insurance doesn't assign blame to you?

You sound super aggressive. I know you think everyone should be an expert driver such as yourself but there are new drivers, old drivers, tired drivers, distracted drivers on the roads. No, “they” aren’t going to root out all these people that are such an aggravation to you. So get over it.

No, I don't.

All of the drivers you listed can get over to the slow lane. If they aren't confident on the road, perhaps consider Ubers.

+1

If you don’t know how to change lanes then call an uber.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I had someone lay on their horn behind me today while I was stopped at a stop sign because small children were crossing in front of me. We were literally a block from a school. They may have even been racing to drop kids off at that school.

It was probably the PP who fancies himself the left lane police.

I love how triggered you are while trying to justify shitty driving.

I’m not trying to justify it. I give other people grace and accept imperfection in other human beings so I’m not losing my mind on the highway every day.

Clearly, you ARE losing your mind. People like you are dangerous. We have traffic laws for a reason. Instead of extending this imaginary grace, how about you obey the traffic laws and do what the signs tell you to do. Everyone is safer that way.

I don’t tailgate. Do you? Because there are laws that prohibit tailgating. For a reason.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I absolutely tailgated a woman yesterday going 15 in a 25, causing us to miss every green light. Some people shouldn't be driving.

Did tailgating help the woman drive faster?

It did not. However, I am fairly certain she was aware of my frustration, and that of several other cars who were actually honking, so perhaps she will come to realize that she is a menace. It is true that overly aggressive drivers cause accidents, but overly cautious ones aren't much better.

She probably slowed down on purpose to account for your unsafe following distance.

Again, she was going 15 in a 25. There was no slowing down. I caught up to her going that speed, as did a long line of us. If a driver truly believes that she must slow down to 15 on a normal road to go safely, she should not be driving.

I agree with this. Those kinds of drivers are infuriating. Missing multiple lights can in fact add significant time, and make people late. If you're not a student driver, drive the g-damn speed limit. But if you are merely driving the speed limit, godspeed. That is your right.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I had someone lay on their horn behind me today while I was stopped at a stop sign because small children were crossing in front of me. We were literally a block from a school. They may have even been racing to drop kids off at that school.

It was probably the PP who fancies himself the left lane police.

I love how triggered you are while trying to justify shitty driving.

I’m not trying to justify it. I give other people grace and accept imperfection in other human beings so I’m not losing my mind on the highway every day.

Clearly, you ARE losing your mind. People like you are dangerous. We have traffic laws for a reason. Instead of extending this imaginary grace, how about you obey the traffic laws and do what the signs tell you to do. Everyone is safer that way.

Not the PP you’re responding to, but you seem the dangerously unhinged one. There are no traffic laws or signs that advise, much less require, drivers to tailgate. We need to take as a given that all drivers (including ourselves) are imperfect and cooperate with each other for everyone’s mutual safety. It’s not a competition. I’ve long suspected that I care more about the safety of some other drivers than they do, and this thread is confirming that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I had someone lay on their horn behind me today while I was stopped at a stop sign because small children were crossing in front of me. We were literally a block from a school. They may have even been racing to drop kids off at that school.

It was probably the PP who fancies himself the left lane police.

I love how triggered you are while trying to justify shitty driving.

I’m not trying to justify it. I give other people grace and accept imperfection in other human beings so I’m not losing my mind on the highway every day.

Clearly, you ARE losing your mind. People like you are dangerous. We have traffic laws for a reason. Instead of extending this imaginary grace, how about you obey the traffic laws and do what the signs tell you to do. Everyone is safer that way.

I don’t tailgate. Do you? Because there are laws that prohibit tailgating. For a reason.

Do you get over if you're driving slower than the rest of the traffic in the left lane? Because there are signs posted on every highway telling you to do just that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:First of all, stop blaming the driver in front of you. I’ve been tailgated in the far right-hand lane going at or above the speed limit.

Secondly, tailgating me will make me go slower, not faster. I will want more room between me and the car ahead of me so that if they do something unexpected I have more reaction time so that I can hopefully avoid slamming on my brakes and getting rear-ended by my tailgater. Moreover, if my tailgater does rear-end me, I want the extra room in front of me to hopefully avoid a chain reaction where I get pushed into the car in front.

If you are driving slower than the rest of the traffic in the left lane, you need to move over. You will just as easily cause an accident as someone who is tailgating you.

If you re-read my post you will see that I have been tailgated in the far right lane.. Moreover, I generally go with the speed of traffic, at or above the speed limit. Maybe instead of tailgating, the person who wants to go faster than the speed of traffic can move left, but that still wouldn’t accomplish much, because traffic would still be moving at about the same speed.

That’s why I said tailgaters should stop blaming the drivers that are ahead of them. From my experience, tailgating has very little to do with speed or lane choice, and is more about a driver’s impatience and frustration which they choose to express as a threat to the driver directly in front of them. It’s like a schoolyard bully making themselves feel more powerful by picking on someone else. Unfortunately, when you combine the weight of motor vehicles with the speed of traffic, the consequences for salving an overblown ego can be deadly.

I’ve been frustrated, myself, behind slow traffic. Once, I was stuck for a long time on a narrow road behind a bicycle riding in the middle of the lane with too much oncoming traffic to pass. I can relate to the frustration which is why even though I drive with the flow of traffic, I move over for faster traffic. However, whichever lane or speed I’m driving, I keep in mind that SAFETY is the top priority. Getting in an accident will definitely delay my arrival, and could mean that I don’t get to my destination at all (or that someone else doesn’t, which matters even more to me, but maybe not to self-centered tailgaters).

You think people driving behind you in heavy traffic is tailgating?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I had someone lay on their horn behind me today while I was stopped at a stop sign because small children were crossing in front of me. We were literally a block from a school. They may have even been racing to drop kids off at that school.

It was probably the PP who fancies himself the left lane police.

I love how triggered you are while trying to justify shitty driving.

I’m not trying to justify it. I give other people grace and accept imperfection in other human beings so I’m not losing my mind on the highway every day.

Clearly, you ARE losing your mind. People like you are dangerous. We have traffic laws for a reason. Instead of extending this imaginary grace, how about you obey the traffic laws and do what the signs tell you to do. Everyone is safer that way.

I don’t tailgate. Do you? Because there are laws that prohibit tailgating. For a reason.

Do you get over if you're driving slower than the rest of the traffic in the left lane? Because there are signs posted on every highway telling you to do just that.

Of course I do. And I also don’t tailgate. So that’s 2 for me but only 1 for you. I win.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I had someone lay on their horn behind me today while I was stopped at a stop sign because small children were crossing in front of me. We were literally a block from a school. They may have even been racing to drop kids off at that school.

It was probably the PP who fancies himself the left lane police.

I love how triggered you are while trying to justify shitty driving.

I’m not trying to justify it. I give other people grace and accept imperfection in other human beings so I’m not losing my mind on the highway every day.

Clearly, you ARE losing your mind. People like you are dangerous. We have traffic laws for a reason. Instead of extending this imaginary grace, how about you obey the traffic laws and do what the signs tell you to do. Everyone is safer that way.

Not the PP you’re responding to, but you seem the dangerously unhinged one. There are no traffic laws or signs that advise, much less require, drivers to tailgate. We need to take as a given that all drivers (including ourselves) are imperfect and cooperate with each other for everyone’s mutual safety. It’s not a competition. I’ve long suspected that I care more about the safety of some other drivers than they do, and this thread is confirming that.

I love how you characterize me as unhinged and then proceed to assign words to me I NEVER said. There are laws and signs on every highway telling slow drivers to move right. I don't need or want to rely on your or anyone else's compassion. Just follow the traffic laws!! They exist for situations like this.

If you think that you are being safe by slowing traffic down in the fast lane, than you are completely clueless.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I had someone lay on their horn behind me today while I was stopped at a stop sign because small children were crossing in front of me. We were literally a block from a school. They may have even been racing to drop kids off at that school.

It was probably the PP who fancies himself the left lane police.

I love how triggered you are while trying to justify shitty driving.

I’m not trying to justify it. I give other people grace and accept imperfection in other human beings so I’m not losing my mind on the highway every day.

Clearly, you ARE losing your mind. People like you are dangerous. We have traffic laws for a reason. Instead of extending this imaginary grace, how about you obey the traffic laws and do what the signs tell you to do. Everyone is safer that way.

I don’t tailgate. Do you? Because there are laws that prohibit tailgating. For a reason.

In VA, there are also laws that prohibit driving slow (or slowER) in the left lane. For a reason.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I had someone lay on their horn behind me today while I was stopped at a stop sign because small children were crossing in front of me. We were literally a block from a school. They may have even been racing to drop kids off at that school.

It was probably the PP who fancies himself the left lane police.

I love how triggered you are while trying to justify shitty driving.

I’m not trying to justify it. I give other people grace and accept imperfection in other human beings so I’m not losing my mind on the highway every day.

Clearly, you ARE losing your mind. People like you are dangerous. We have traffic laws for a reason. Instead of extending this imaginary grace, how about you obey the traffic laws and do what the signs tell you to do. Everyone is safer that way.

I don’t tailgate. Do you? Because there are laws that prohibit tailgating. For a reason.

Do you get over if you're driving slower than the rest of the traffic in the left lane? Because there are signs posted on every highway telling you to do just that.

Of course I do. And I also don’t tailgate. So that’s 2 for me but only 1 for you. I win.

Now please tell me where I said I tailgate?

Wait, does that mean I win?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:First of all, stop blaming the driver in front of you. I’ve been tailgated in the far right-hand lane going at or above the speed limit.

Secondly, tailgating me will make me go slower, not faster. I will want more room between me and the car ahead of me so that if they do something unexpected I have more reaction time so that I can hopefully avoid slamming on my brakes and getting rear-ended by my tailgater. Moreover, if my tailgater does rear-end me, I want the extra room in front of me to hopefully avoid a chain reaction where I get pushed into the car in front.

If you are driving slower than the rest of the traffic in the left lane, you need to move over. You will just as easily cause an accident as someone who is tailgating you.

If you re-read my post you will see that I have been tailgated in the far right lane.. Moreover, I generally go with the speed of traffic, at or above the speed limit. Maybe instead of tailgating, the person who wants to go faster than the speed of traffic can move left, but that still wouldn’t accomplish much, because traffic would still be moving at about the same speed.

That’s why I said tailgaters should stop blaming the drivers that are ahead of them. From my experience, tailgating has very little to do with speed or lane choice, and is more about a driver’s impatience and frustration which they choose to express as a threat to the driver directly in front of them. It’s like a schoolyard bully making themselves feel more powerful by picking on someone else. Unfortunately, when you combine the weight of motor vehicles with the speed of traffic, the consequences for salving an overblown ego can be deadly.

I’ve been frustrated, myself, behind slow traffic. Once, I was stuck for a long time on a narrow road behind a bicycle riding in the middle of the lane with too much oncoming traffic to pass. I can relate to the frustration which is why even though I drive with the flow of traffic, I move over for faster traffic. However, whichever lane or speed I’m driving, I keep in mind that SAFETY is the top priority. Getting in an accident will definitely delay my arrival, and could mean that I don’t get to my destination at all (or that someone else doesn’t, which matters even more to me, but maybe not to self-centered tailgaters).

You think people driving behind you in heavy traffic is tailgating?

Three-second rule. Regardless of degree of traffic it works.

While someone behind you in stop-and-go traffic will probably be pretty close to you, when the traffic is flowing smoothly, the driver behind you should not be riding your bumper.

[Anonymous]

I just deliberately slow down when people do this and will intentionally pace the car next to me. Just to frustrate the tailgater.

[Anonymous]

If I am driving the speed limit on a one lane road or if I’m in the far right lane of a highway and you’re tailgating me then you are the AH.

If I’m going too slow on a left lane, I would rather be honked at then tailgated.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I absolutely tailgated a woman yesterday going 15 in a 25, causing us to miss every green light. Some people shouldn't be driving.

Well, you’re right that you shouldn’t be driving anyway.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I just deliberately slow down when people do this and will intentionally pace the car next to me. Just to frustrate the tailgater.

Super sane and safe behavior!!!