Tailgate and speed

Mrs_Imp

I find it depends what car I'm driving, not what speed I'm doing. If I'm doing 70mph in my 2cv then I will get people tailgating me, but if I'm doing 65 in the clio, it's very rare that I get tailgaters. I can only assume that the cars following me are looking at my car and making assumptions, rather than looking at their speedo to see how fast they're driving.

I did have someone tailgating me when I was in an old works van. I don't know how long he was there as he was so close I couldn't see him in the wing mirrors. Had I known there was a car following me I'd have pulled over to let him past as I was stuck at 45-50 in a 60 limit.

[Deleted User]

Mrs_Imp wrote: »

I find it depends what car I'm driving, not what speed I'm doing. If I'm doing 70mph in my 2cv then I will get people tailgating me, but if I'm doing 65 in the clio, it's very rare that I get tailgaters. I can only assume that the cars following me are looking at my car and making assumptions, rather than looking at their speedo to see how fast they're driving.

I did have someone tailgating me when I was in an old works van. I don't know how long he was there as he was so close I couldn't see him in the wing mirrors. Had I known there was a car following me I'd have pulled over to let him past as I was stuck at 45-50 in a 60 limit.

It's also a status thing. I'll get tailgated in my old beat up Peugeot 206 but not in a relatives newish Audi estate.

Prothet_of_Doom

smashingyour... wrote: »

How can a lorry limited to 56 sit on your boot at 70?

I guess that the speedo is showing 66, and the car is actually doing 56.


I had a car once that when 80 mph was showing on the speedo, the Sat Nav GPS was showing 68 mph. I once saw an indicated 130 :eek: (but I was not in the UK) in a car which had an official top speed of 118 MPH. If the car were in GERMANY that would be a test failure.


If someone is tailgating you, gradually slow down, so they are forced to overtake you. or make it easier for them to overtake. Pull into the next bus stop or layby.

I am happy to accept that many people want to drive slower than me, but 3 things get me.

1) Those that travel at 45 mph in a NSL (60), and continue to travel at 45 when they get to town and it's 30. With a vengence : I hate you.
2) Those that are too scared to overtake, but don't leave a decent sized gap between them and the car in front. I might like to overtake the train of 12 cars behind the guy who is doing 40 in an NSL, but I'd rather do it in ones and twos rather than attempt all 13 at once. The highway code says you should leave a gap. If you did, I'd use it.
3) Those that don't understand the concept of a passing place.
This road is 4 miles long, there are 20+ passing places, and it's NSL. If you are doing 35 mph, and I catch you up, can't you just let me past at the next one ?

I'm quite an agressive driver, but I don't tailgate, as on a country A or B road, you can't get a decent view to overtake if you are too close, and even more important, you can't get a bit of pre-overtake acceleration, mid bend, before you decide whether the next short straight is clear to overtake.

On the motorway, I see so many near misses in lane 3, because of tailgating.

Strider590

alastairq wrote: »

Regardless of speedo accuracies, the OP describes blatant bullying on the roads.

Something I, for one, do not tolerate in others.

Sadly, I don't get 'bullied', regardless of what sort of vehicle I'm in.

So I must assume much of the sensation of being bullied is actually down to a lack of confidence with driver skills, by those on the receiving end?


When being bullied by others [aka, tailgating?]..it is important not to respond or get wound-up.

There is no need to 'speed-up' if you don't wish to.

Suffice to say, you will not be the only one travelling slower than the tailgater....once past you, there will be another up ahead, and so on.

I appreciate it must be terrible for under confident drivers, feeling like everyone around is a speeding lunatic. It certainly compounds the problem by making the driver even less confident.

I think anyone who finds themselves often on the receiving end of aggression needs to book some advanced driving lessons. This would make the roads a much safer place for all involved.

It's not just speed i'm talking about either, things like braking for oncoming cars (as if slowing down is going to make the gap any bigger), slowing down excessively for corners, stopping at the end of slip roads. These are things that drive people mad.

interstellaflyer

Something that really bugs me is the amount of HGV drivers that tailgate, we have a 50mph limit stretch of A34 that goes round the west of Oxford, sat in lane one at 50mph, I'm regularly tailgated by artics and other HGVs, being tailgated by another car is one thing, however being tailgated by a heavy goods vehicle takes things to another level, if I had to react/brake hard inresponse to something happening ahead of me ie something falling off a vehicle or an accident then I'm a dead man because that truck up my chuff ain't going to stop as quick as me.

Guest101

interstellaflyer wrote: »

Something that really bugs me is the amount of HGV drivers that tailgate, we have a 50mph limit stretch of A34 that goes round the west of Oxford, sat in lane one at 50mph, I'm regularly tailgated by artics and other HGVs, being tailgated by another car is one thing, however being tailgated by a heavy goods vehicle takes things to another level, if I had to react/brake hard inresponse to something happening ahead of me ie something falling off a vehicle or an accident then I'm a dead man because that truck up my chuff ain't going to stop as quick as me.

It's been said a hgv can stop on a 10p coin, not many cars going to be doing that

smashingyour...

Guest101 wrote: »

It's been said a hgv can stop on a 10p coin, not many cars going to be doing that

Basic physics will tell you that stopping 44 tonnes travelling at 50 mph makes your statement somewhat of an exaggeration.;)

interstellaflyer

Guest101 wrote: »

It's been said a hgv can stop on a 10p coin, not many cars going to be doing that

You obviously haven't seen the videos of motorway pile ups where the trucks have just ploughed through what started as a minor accident causing absolute carnage.

Cycrow

its worse with cyclists, some drivers just hate to be sat behind a cyclist despite them doing the speed limit.

Theres a few roads i cycle on that are 20mph limits, i tend to do about 20-25 down them and still get cars overtaking me, trying to squeeze past, beeping at me to move out the way, etc

Hintza

When I briefly had the Chrysler 300 I never needed to tailgate anyone everyone got out the way pronto, in the Panda many can't be bothered to pull in.