Silver Mercedes

[Strangely Brown]

NCC1701 said:

R_U_LOCAL said:

I was about to pass an Eddie Stobart truck) in excess of 100MPH whilst towing a trailer with a motorbike on,

Had to read that twice to make sure it wasn't Dr. Local doing a ton up with bikes in tow.

Same here.

Not a good example to set Reg.

[Adam_BGT]

Philbes said:

This is meant for the driver of the silver Mercedes that followed me from Stroud out towards the M5 at around 10:15am on Sunday morning. I am probably wasting my time as anyone who drives like you has certainly never read the Advanced Driving forum and probably not even read Pistonheads.

The correct distance to follow my car is not so that the only part of your car visible in my rearview mirror is the windscreen and a small part of the bonnet. To ensure that you had time to stop I doubled my distance from the car in front. I was driving at the speed limit so you weren't going to intimidate me into driving faster and the amount of oncoming traffic was preventing you from overtaking. You showed your appreciation of my concern by offering to grind my coffee beans for me (at least I think that is what your hand gesture meant). As I do not drink coffee I would have been far happier if you had just dropped back to a reasonable following distance. After 2 miles of your close company I circled a roundabout so that I was then behind you. I then had a fine view (from 50 yards behind) of you then closely tailgating the car in front of you. On reaching the M5 slip road you turned southwards at high speed. When turned off the M5 and joined the queue on the sliproad for Cribbs Causeway I was 3 cars behind you in the outer lane. On exiting the roundabout you 'chopped' through the traffic in the inner lane to turn left for Carfours - much sounding of horns resulted (not by me).

In the vain hope that you may read this, just a hint - a reasonable following distance is, at least, 2 seconds = 1 yard per mph = 40 yards at 40mph = 15 car lengths.

Edited by Philbes on Tuesday 1st May 15:24

Edited by Philbes on Tuesday 1st May 15:26

suggest re-posting at www.betterdrivingplease.com

[mattrm]

Reg - Are you actually allowed to go and do that? And did you go and see him?

Erd - Funny, but evil. I like it

Horton - If they are that bad at tailgating people I find they don't seem to care much about red lights. Sad but true.

[TripleS]

erdnase said:

Not that I'm recommending this, but when being tailgated on the motorway, I commented to my passenger how dangerous it is. He said "Put on your rear foglight for a second, and watch them sh*t themselves".

I've never done that, as I can picture seeing the car behind get a fright, brake hard, and witness a pile-up form in my rear view mirror. Cute (if somewhat irresponsible) move

Erd

Generally speaking I haven't found that displays of brake lights, or the use of rear fog lights, to be a particularly reliable way of getting tailgaters to back off. It may work with somebody who has unthinkingly taken up an unduly close following position, in which case they may take the hint and drop back - which is fine.

On the other hand some of the habitual tailgaters can be pretty hard nosed, and they may take your use of brake lights or rear fog lights as a provocative act, and respond by driving even closer. The same can happen if you convey your disapproval by the use of hazard flashers or indulge in an extended period of windscreen washing.

I still think the best answer is to concentrate on keeping your own driving smooth, with plenty of space in front of you and no hurried actions of any sort. It also seems to help if you can make positive progress as far as possible until you find an opportunity to let them get past.

Best wishes all,
Dave.

[waremark]

Don't remember whether anyone mentioned this earlier in the thread, but if you are holding position in an overtaking lane because you wish to complete an overtake, and there is someone close behind you, it can help to show your right indicator. Sometimes this reassures the driver close behind that you know he is there and that you will move in when you have been able to complete your overtake.

[TripleS]

waremark said:

Don't remember whether anyone mentioned this earlier in the thread, but if you are holding position in an overtaking lane because you wish to complete an overtake, and there is someone close behind you, it can help to show your right indicator. Sometimes this reassures the driver close behind that you know he is there and that you will move in when you have been able to complete your overtake.

Yes I think that can help the situation. As an alternative I sometimes raise my left hand briefly as an indication that I know they are there, and appreciate that they wish to go past. An early display of the left flasher (within reason) to show you're planning to move over ASAP may also aid the understanding between you.

Of course one always has to be wary of such signals being misinterpreted - especially the hand signals!

Best wishes all,
Dave.

[philbes]

Adam_BGT said:

Philbes said:

This is meant for the driver of the silver Mercedes that followed me from Stroud out towards the M5 at around 10:15am on Sunday morning. I am probably wasting my time as anyone who drives like you has certainly never read the Advanced Driving forum and probably not even read Pistonheads.

The correct distance to follow my car is not so that the only part of your car visible in my rearview mirror is the windscreen and a small part of the bonnet. To ensure that you had time to stop I doubled my distance from the car in front. I was driving at the speed limit so you weren't going to intimidate me into driving faster and the amount of oncoming traffic was preventing you from overtaking. You showed your appreciation of my concern by offering to grind my coffee beans for me (at least I think that is what your hand gesture meant). As I do not drink coffee I would have been far happier if you had just dropped back to a reasonable following distance. After 2 miles of your close company I circled a roundabout so that I was then behind you. I then had a fine view (from 50 yards behind) of you then closely tailgating the car in front of you. On reaching the M5 slip road you turned southwards at high speed. When turned off the M5 and joined the queue on the sliproad for Cribbs Causeway I was 3 cars behind you in the outer lane. On exiting the roundabout you 'chopped' through the traffic in the inner lane to turn left for Carfours - much sounding of horns resulted (not by me).

In the vain hope that you may read this, just a hint - a reasonable following distance is, at least, 2 seconds = 1 yard per mph = 40 yards at 40mph = 15 car lengths.

Edited by Philbes on Tuesday 1st May 15:24

Edited by Philbes on Tuesday 1st May 15:26

suggest re-posting at www.betterdrivingplease.com

Is this a serious suggestion? I would rather not be associated with that particular web-site.