Tailgating should be made a criminal offence

interstellaflyer

Paperbird wrote: »

Yes I did read it and I think this implies you don't pull into a 200yd gap.

" if I am doing that limit and overtaking properly ie pulling back in when tha gap is safe rather than staying out because there are other slower vehicles 200 yards away then as far as I'm concerned, I driving perfectly within the law"

Really, you have a rather twisted way of reading things, I was saying I pull in unlike others that will sit in the outside lane, stop miss quoting people just to back up your feeble argument.

martinthebandit

northstar23 wrote: »

Agree with all 3 points. Although I would argue that in my judgement I held my speed and course and made no sudden changes in either which I believe would have led to a worse situaiton. Its all subjective. As to not anticipating the hill and all that... yes I was chatting with someone and allowed life and the road to go on by. Exactly as I suspect most other motorists do.

....... missed all the signs because you were not paying attention uh?

northstar23 wrote: »

I'm guessing you've never missed a road sign or potential hazard in your entire driving career? If not congratulations and I accept the rebuke. If you have... people in glass houses etc.

....... of course I have and have tried to learn from it, oh and accepted a few vigorously expressed rebukes as well, have you?

northstar23 wrote: »

Funnily enough I know two guys who did a similar amount of time in London driving response cars for the Met and they never displayed that kind of arrogance. Probably why I quite liked them.

... arrogance?

I suspect its far more arrogant to be not paying attention while your driving and ending up doing a slow overtake in the outside lane of a four lane road and then start whinging about how people expressed their displeasure while continue to assert you were entirely blameless.

........ oh and before others jump in, yes the tailgater was more in the wrong, no ifs no buts.

cyclonebri1

martinthebandit wrote: »

Lol not sure I consider you an 'inconsiderate Knob' (yet;) )

The thing that I and a few other posters cannot seem to understand is why its happening to you and not to us.

The only possible explanations are that either we are doing something while we are driving that stops us being tailgated or you are doing something that causes you to be tailgated.

...... it would be interesting to find out which

I think I agree here, as I said earlier, I don't often get tailgated.
The reason I believe is that I drive at a speed suitable for the road, the weather and traffic density.

Now, and I hope without attracting the "never ever break the speed limit" brigade, if that means driving under the speed limit I'm fine, and if it's possible to drive over the limit I will.

I'm not talking about 50 in a 30, 30speed limits are gospel as far as I'm concerned, and often 20 is more apropriate.

What I am saying is that sometimes it's possible to drive a little quicker on A roads that have blanket 60 and 70mph limits in perfect safety.

And I'm sure many do the same, tailgaters aren't a problem for me and I'm sure that's 1 reason.

The other thing I have checked my speedo against the satnav as others do, my speeds are based on the actual speed not what the optimistic dial in front of me says.

Flak jacket on and head down:o:o

sunshinetours

There are two different issues still now going on.

The OP has come back and said the context he thought of originally was not dual carriageways or motorways mainly, which is what we have all mainly been referring to

Not going over the motorway stuff again, plenty of examples above of poor driving by some and even more poor driving by the tailgaters which as Martinthebandit correctly says are always in the wrong

Tailgating on rural or urban roads is pretty common and I think some people who do this simply have no concept of road awareness. As others have said they may well be the people who drive at 35/40mph everywhere pretty much.
We have a 20mph one nearby (outside schools) and you can guarantee you will get tailgated there almost without fail. if people can't slow down hwne young children are running around they really have no concept of what they are doing I'm afraid.
These however are generally i believe rather different to the motorway "outside lane generals"

As for country road tailgaters well they probably live in the country so are a completely different breed anyway ...

almillar

northstar23 - not one person on here is a perfect driver - but your situation is a good example. In this example, northstar should have cancelled the overtake, and pulled in behind the 68mph car. That's the most courteous thing to do IMO. It might have annoyed the Range Rover driver initially if you had to slow down much, but then you would have released them. Did you try, like, 3rd gear BTW?

londonTiger

well at least with tailgating if an acciden happens it will be the tailgaters fault.

worse than tailgators are those who cut you up at just one car lengths away on a dual carriageway.

I was driving in a 50mph dual carriageway in east london near where the games lanes where.

I was in lane 2 going 50mph, there was another car about one car length in front in lane 1 going slower than me at maybe 48-47mph. He gets an olympic games lane warning up ahead, which is at least 100meters away.

But as soon as he sees the sign he freaks out and immediately slams his vehicle in front of me without even indicating.

NBLondon

almillar wrote: »

northstar23 - not one person on here is a perfect driver - but your situation is a good example. In this example, northstar should have cancelled the overtake, and pulled in behind the 68mph car. That's the most courteous thing to do IMO. It might have annoyed the Range Rover driver initially if you had to slow down much, but then you would have released them. Did you try, like, 3rd gear BTW?

I know exactly where northstar was - I drove it in both directions this weekend. I'm assuming that when northstar started the overtake, they had say +10mph on the car in Lane 1 and the Range Rover was way back so that northstar should have been able to complete the overtake safely. When the car being overtaken sped up - the standard advice is what al just said - drop back and pull in again after re-assessing the situation. Would we all do this? No, we'd make a split-second judgement whether to do that or to change down/ floor it and get past. northstar got caught out by the hill then the idiot in the Range Rover caught up.

I saw some more on the two-lane bit of the M2 yesterday where I was doing a steady 72 (on cruise control) in Lane 2 overtaking vehicles in Lane 1 doing 55-60. At least 3 times a car doing 60 pulled out into Lane 2 to pass one doing 56 and had I not overidden the cruise control I would have been right up behind them before they completed the pass. That's not aggressive tailgating - that's poor observation before overtaking.

byjimini

I was playing at a music festival over the weekend, which I was camping at. My parents came up specially to watch, and went home around 11pm on the Friday night.

They drove home most of the way with a car full of teenagers against their back bumper, lights on full, beeping away, who then drove alongside them and veering into them, as if trying to ram them off the road.

Makes my blood boil, especially as there's nothing I can do about it. They were still shaking when I came home last night, unfortunately they didn't get the number.

I get it all the time myself, usually from posh-looking Landrovers ad Audi's who look down on my mere mortal of a Skoda Fabia doing the legal limit of 60mph on a back road, and flash their lights for me to move out of the way. I just ignore them and let them risk life and limb overtaking.

Crabman

byjimini wrote: »

I was playing at a music festival over the weekend, which I was camping at. My parents came up specially to watch, and went home around 11pm on the Friday night.

They drove home most of the way with a car full of teenagers against their back bumper, lights on full, beeping away, who then drove alongside them and veering into them, as if trying to ram them off the road.

Makes my blood boil, especially as there's nothing I can do about it. They were still shaking when I came home last night, unfortunately they didn't get the number.

I get it all the time myself, usually from posh-looking Landrovers ad Audi's who look down on my mere mortal of a Skoda Fabia doing the legal limit of 60mph on a back road, and flash their lights for me to move out of the way. I just ignore them and let them risk life and limb overtaking.

Unfortuantely when they do make a dangerous overtake it will be some innocent driver & passengers travelling in the opposite direction that will be left on life support or killed.

This is why it's a good idea to slow down, not to annoy/wind them up but so that you can help the ignorant fools make their overtake a little safer.

Better for them to do 60mph to overtake you doing 40mph than for them to do +80mph to overtake you doing 60mph. Hope that makes sense :A

northstar23

I know exactly where northstar was - I drove it in both directions this weekend. I'm assuming that when northstar started the overtake, they had say +10mph on the car in Lane 1 and the Range Rover was way back so that northstar should have been able to complete the overtake safely. When the car being overtaken sped up - the standard advice is what al just said - drop back and pull in again after re-assessing the situation. Would we all do this? No, we'd make a split-second judgement whether to do that or to change down/ floor it and get past. northstar got caught out by the hill then the idiot in the Range Rover caught up.

You speak good sense Sir. The M2 is pretty wretched for overtaking at the best of times as its only two lanes... it either ends up jammed solid at 60 or a massive speed differential between the lanes due to slow moving lorries up the Medway hills.

One final point - I'm sure tailgating depends on what car you drive as much as anything. For a spell recently I drove a Ford Anglia 105... 1963 model I think. Despite being a total menace on the road doing 35mph in 60 sections etc no other drivers ever gave me any grief, they simply overtook safely when they could. I guess most people realised I couldn't safely go much faster. Even the fools in the Audi's / BMW's and Golf's gave me a wide berth. Folk were also much nicer letting me out of junctions and the like than in the time I had driving an Octavia RS.