One solution to tailgating?

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Cyril Haearn
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Re: One solution to tailgating?

Post by Cyril Haearn »

girlyman, that word again Cugel, I am proud to be one
I solved the tailgating problem by giving up driving :wink:

But please, can anyone suggest how I might explain leaving such a big gap, as noted a few posts back?
Might one fail a driving test for not following the vehicle in front closely enough? Who can possibly estimate the distance?
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Postboxer
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Re: One solution to tailgating?

Post by Postboxer »

I always think learning the stopping distances at various speeds for the driving theory test is rather pointless, what you need to know is what physical distance that is in the real world. There's no point knowing a number of metres if you have no idea how far that actually is along the road to the car in front.

I suppose you're still making progress even if leaving a large gap, to gain on it, you would have to drive faster, then are you driving too fast or are they going too slow. Maintaining distance you must both be travelling at the same average speed so what can be wrong with that. Although if you're losing sight of them around corners but maintaining distance, you must be going around the corners at similar speeds. I find it useful to keep the car in front in view, as long as I'm not tailgating them, as on corners, they can see hazards further ahead and start braking, I then start braking earlier as I react to them braking before the hazard is in sight. I think this is a similar situation as when driving in the dark or particularly in fog, a small convoy forms, often someone will overtake even if it isn't safe to do so, then they don't pull away even though they felt the need to overtake, they find it's harder to be the leader when you don't have someone else's lights to follow.
Mike Sales
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Re: One solution to tailgating?

Post by Mike Sales »

Only a fool breaks the two second rule


Estimating distances is, I suspect, a skill beyond many drivers. Perhaps they can count "one thousand, two thousand."
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Bmblbzzz
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Re: One solution to tailgating?

Post by Bmblbzzz »

drossall wrote:Yes, I discussed that once with a former police driving instructor when renewing my minibus permit. Not too long before, I'd had the frightening experience of driving a bus full of Scouts, with a lorry tail-gating me. I was in the inside lane, with nowhere to go. We agreed that the only available response was to slow down gently, in order to have enough stopping distance ahead to stop slowly in an emergency, and give the idiot behind more time to react.

If the response is for the driver behind to overtake into the gap, so much the better.

Sometimes it results them becoming more impatient and 'pushing' you even closer. :x
flat tyre
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Re: One solution to tailgating?

Post by flat tyre »

Bmblbzzz wrote:
drossall wrote:Yes, I discussed that once with a former police driving instructor when renewing my minibus permit. Not too long before, I'd had the frightening experience of driving a bus full of Scouts, with a lorry tail-gating me. I was in the inside lane, with nowhere to go. We agreed that the only available response was to slow down gently, in order to have enough stopping distance ahead to stop slowly in an emergency, and give the idiot behind more time to react.

If the response is for the driver behind to overtake into the gap, so much the better.

Sometimes it results them becoming more impatient and 'pushing' you even closer. :x

Yes, but if any impact does occur, it will be at a lower speed!
Vorpal
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Re: One solution to tailgating?

Post by Vorpal »

Mike Sales wrote:
Only a fool breaks the two second rule


Estimating distances is, I suspect, a skill beyond many drivers. Perhaps they can count "one thousand, two thousand."

That's what I do, if I'm not sure. It's, IMO, the best way to judge following distance, and something that anyone who is capable of driving should be capable of doing, even if they arenæt very good at distances.

And it's at least 3 thousands in rain or other reduced traction conditions.
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robing
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Re: One solution to tailgating?

Post by robing »

I don't get too close and I don't let people get too close to me. If they don't take the hint and they are dangerously close then I will pull over to let them past.
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Cugel
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Re: One solution to tailgating?

Post by Cugel »

Postboxer wrote:I always think learning the stopping distances at various speeds for the driving theory test is rather pointless, what you need to know is what physical distance that is in the real world. There's no point knowing a number of metres if you have no idea how far that actually is along the road to the car in front.

I suppose you're still making progress even if leaving a large gap, to gain on it, you would have to drive faster, then are you driving too fast or are they going too slow. Maintaining distance you must both be travelling at the same average speed so what can be wrong with that. Although if you're losing sight of them around corners but maintaining distance, you must be going around the corners at similar speeds. I find it useful to keep the car in front in view, as long as I'm not tailgating them, as on corners, they can see hazards further ahead and start braking, I then start braking earlier as I react to them braking before the hazard is in sight. I think this is a similar situation as when driving in the dark or particularly in fog, a small convoy forms, often someone will overtake even if it isn't safe to do so, then they don't pull away even though they felt the need to overtake, they find it's harder to be the leader when you don't have someone else's lights to follow.


All so troo!

I would like to interrogate the tailgaters and unsafe overtakers (especially those that gain only a few yards/microseconds up to the next car to tailgate). "What is it that you expect to gain by tailgating and overtaking-so"?

No doubt their answers could be guessed at. No doubt the "reasons" they would give will be completely other than the real reasons, which churn darkly in the depths of their tiny minds. Still, it would involve several interesting conversations. :-)

It is naughty, by I enjoy the sight of a former tailgater-then-unsafe-overtaker reaching the roundabout only 3 seconds before we calmer lads, even after 10 miles of mad braking and accelerating up the erse of some huge tractor; or narrowly missing the one coming the other way as they overtake. Also, I like to feel smug about how they have wasted oodles of fuel and brake shoe - although this is an equally bad feeling. of which the XRers will rightly disapprove.

Cugel
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recumbentpanda
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Re: One solution to tailgating?

Post by recumbentpanda »

A good solution to tailgating was one I saw one chilly morning on Chiswick High Street. A Foden steam wagon with the safety valve just lifting. Any car driver getting too close found themselves enveloped in their own small private world of thick fog!

Perhaps turbo-charged vape machines could be developed for cyclists.
Vorpal
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Re: One solution to tailgating?

Post by Vorpal »

Cugel wrote:
I would like to interrogate the tailgaters and unsafe overtakers (especially those that gain only a few yards/microseconds up to the next car to tailgate). "What is it that you expect to gain by tailgating and overtaking-so"?

I think that the vast majority of people don't expect anything. They are driving absent-mindedly, or distractedly and probably aren't aware that they are too close to the car in front. A minority use tailgating and gap-closing as a message to other that they are going too slow. These are often the same folks who, when tailgating doesnæt work, flash their brights or honk to tell people to get out of the way.
“In some ways, it is easier to be a dissident, for then one is without responsibility.”
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Bmblbzzz
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Re: One solution to tailgating?

Post by Bmblbzzz »

Some people are under a lot of pressure to get wherever they're going quickly. This might be pressure from an employer, from an external situation (late for something), showing off to a passenger, or it might be imagined pressure of other drivers' opinions (is that really imagined?).
PDQ Mobile
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Re: One solution to tailgating?

Post by PDQ Mobile »

I cannot see that anyone has mentioned it but a pretty simple, effective safe and legal, method of making a tailgater fall back in dry or semi dry conditions is to wash your windscreen.

Moral of story "always keep the reservoir well topped up"!
LollyKat
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Re: One solution to tailgating?

Post by LollyKat »

How does that work?
MOARspeed
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Re: One solution to tailgating?

Post by MOARspeed »

Bmblbzzz wrote:Some people are under a lot of pressure to get wherever they're going quickly. This might be pressure from an employer, from an external situation (late for something), showing off to a passenger, or it might be imagined pressure of other drivers' opinions (is that really imagined?).


A lot of people are simply trying to drive to the highway code.

On my driving days I have to join a fast flowing 70 limit dual-carriageway, the slip lane is two lanes and I regularly find someone dawdling down that slip lane at 35mph, i'll get close at first because i'm expecting them to accelerate, I give them a chance, then i'll overtake, but 9 times in 10 they get all offended by this and start sounding their horn, flashing lights, etc etc.

The thing is, it's not always about pressure, it can often be about safety, you don't enter a 70 limit dual carriageway at just 35mph, you're going to cause chaos at best, or a very serious accident at worst.
robing
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Re: One solution to tailgating?

Post by robing »

MOARspeed wrote:
Bmblbzzz wrote:Some people are under a lot of pressure to get wherever they're going quickly. This might be pressure from an employer, from an external situation (late for something), showing off to a passenger, or it might be imagined pressure of other drivers' opinions (is that really imagined?).


A lot of people are simply trying to drive to the highway code.

On my driving days I have to join a fast flowing 70 limit dual-carriageway, the slip lane is two lanes and I regularly find someone dawdling down that slip lane at 35mph, i'll get close at first because i'm expecting them to accelerate, I give them a chance, then i'll overtake, but 9 times in 10 they get all offended by this and start sounding their horn, flashing lights, etc etc.

The thing is, it's not always about pressure, it can often be about safety, you don't enter a 70 limit dual carriageway at just 35mph, you're going to cause chaos at best, or a very serious accident at worst.


^this.
The same thing happened to me yesterday. Joining the M1 slip road, I could tell from the driver aheads behaviour that they were timid and indecisive. They were crawling along the slip road at 30mph and then came to a grinding halt just as they entered the motorway!! It very nearly caused a collision.
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