Another reason to just let tailgaters past

LincolnshireYokel

spannerzone wrote: »

Yeah these are annoying aren't they! you find that they seem to do a steady 39mph everywhere and get right up your backside in a 30 oblivious to anything.

I'm sure they think they're being very careful by only going 39MPH but they apply that speed everywhere.

A lot of diesel MPV's have gearbox ratios such that if you change into 5th and touch the accelerator just enough to stop it shuddering, you're doing 40 mph. I suspect thats one reason for going round at that speed.

Lum

mikey72 wrote: »

So, really it was a choice of slowing down slowly, or doing a bit of a brake test on the tailgater, then a bit more heavy braking as you got closer to the traffic to keep him awake?

It's more the point that someone that close probably isn't going to be able to see beyond your car* so the initial heavy braking is to wake them up and ensure that they too brake heavily.

If I were to brake slowly to begin with and then find that I have underestimated how quickly the traffic in front is stopping, I would then have to brake more heavily myself with no way of being sure that the tailgater would notice, and therefore risk getting rear ended.

It's a technique you will keep in reserve and use very very rarely** in order to avoid being in an accident, so it's not really fair to compare it to a brake test, the sole purpose of which is to annoy somebody.

* You can tell the tailgaters who are actually looking beyond your rear bumper because they only start harassing you when there is nobody in front of you for a while, and back off once you catch up to another car.

** I did say I've only ever had to use this technique once.

roddydogs wrote: »

Sorry, dont get post 1, why are you only doing 70 in the OL?, How do you "Both" manage to overtake if hes doing 90 and your CC is set to 70?

I was doing 70 as indicated by my GPS, so about 76 or 77 on the speedo. The middle lane was doing about 65 and the inside lane was doing 56 as you'd expect. I didn't have any cars in front of me for a while, but I was slowly catching up to one.

After I let the guy past, once I'd completed my overtaking of middle lane traffic; the BMW driver promptly shot off only to get stuck behind the car that I had previously been catching up with. That car didn't move over until I had caught up to the pair of them, at which point he shot off again only to be held up by the next car, and I just carried on at 70.

Wongsky wrote: »

Apparently it's a feature of my 2004 Nissan <shrug>

I did say I haven't kept up with modern cars. The only reason I have that Mondeo is because it's a company car. My Nissan is from 1993.. it's also broken down less often than the Mondeo

datostar

Lum wrote: »

Didn't think that was actually out on a production car yet? Then again I've not kept up with what modern cars are doing.

My Megane MKIII has it. It activated in a car park when somebody shot out of a bay directly in front of me and I hit the brake pedal hard. Not only did the car just about stand on its nose, but it turned off the engine and switched on the hazard lights as well. Gave me a bit of a shock, actually.

roddydogs

Well, i dont know what Motorway you drive on that the OL is only doing 70. It aint the M25.