How to deal with annoying tailgaters

[DrDoofenshmirtz]

[Cfnteabag]

This is my preferred anti tailgater device!


Even in the day it's almost impossible to look directly at it!

[giblet]

Don't under any circumstances give them a one fingered salute after you have finally found a gap to let them past. I made the mistake of doing that recently and the weapons grade took offence. He felt the best response was to swerve into my lane and slam the anchors on before winding the window down and shouting obscenities. All of this at 70mph on the M62.

Feck em all.

[budgie smuggler]

giblet said:

Don't under any circumstances give them a one fingered salute after you have finally found a gap to let them past. I made the mistake of doing that recently and the weapons grade took offence. He felt the best response was to swerve into my lane and slam the anchors on before winding the window down and shouting obscenities. All of this at 70mph on the M62.

Feck em all.

I don't understand the brake test thing. Best result, you both have to brake then get back up to speed, and you might annoy/scare the person behind. Worst result you now have a fked car and cause a lot of inconvenience for yourselves and everyone else on the road.

A colleague of mine used to do it with the handbrake, as for an extra scare there were no brake lights.

[giblet]

budgie smuggler said:

I don't understand the brake test thing. Best result, you both have to brake then get back up to speed, and you might annoy/scare the person behind. Worst result you now have a fked car and cause a lot of inconvenience for yourselves and everyone else on the road.

A colleague of mine used to do it with the handbrake, as for an extra scare there were no brake lights.

This went above and beyond the usual tttish brake test. The fact that he swerved into my lane (he was in the right, I was in the middle) and then slammed on just summed him up. I had my parents on board, he had a kid in the front seat and still felt the need to take it further by shouting obscenities whilst being stationary on a busy motorway. Some people are just nutters

[IntriguedUser]

5-Oh said:

Another, more childish/fun option is to stick to the limit rigidly and then when you reach the NSL signs, leave them for dead. Depending on what they're driving, obviously

I do a similar things, except on normal roads, if they indicate to turn off into a side road, I'll speed off, the looks of fumes on the drivers faces lol

[macky17]

I try to remember that the smaller the gap they leave, the worse a driver they probably are. No one with any common sense is going to put you and themselves in that much danger so giving them a brake test may not be the best idea - they might not even be looking! If you have a car with twin rear fogs, flicking them on can fool your tailgater into believe you're braking. Effective at night.

Someone once told me they had been on an advanced driving course where they specifically taught how to deal with this. He said it was like 'magic' in that you could control the actions of the driver behind. God knows how that works - I never had the chance to ask...

[5-Oh]

Sometimes you get someone up your arse on the motorway but oddly doesn't want to overtake. I find pretending to be in the process of nodding off usually gets them to fk off before you stack it right in front of them.

[mclwanB]

Depends on what tailgaitor and I am driving.

Normally I just ensure I leave their stopping distance as well as mine away from the car in front; this achieved without breaking. If they want to overtake then I obviously let them

If a slow van or heavier does them a lot of good, particularly on hills, to slow right down and then speed up again.

Both generally disappear on arrival of nsl or atleast a bend I find!

[M4cruiser]

They used to cause me worry and stress, then due to a job change I started driving a van without rear windows. The problem just went away ....

[simonh9]

I find with the inattentive twerp, either gently swerving the car side to side a little (as though steering in time to the beat), or some random little jinks as though you hadn't been looking and have suddenly got to avoid debris, are enough to make them a little uncomfortable and back off. No aggression needed, it just makes them think you're not paying attention so they'd better leave some more space.

[Ki3r]

5-Oh said:

Another, more childish/fun option is to stick to the limit rigidly and then when you reach the NSL signs, leave them for dead. Depending on what they're driving, obviously

I've had someone tailgating me while on my bike. Could have touched their bonnet if I wanted to.

I let everyone out of the side roads, ten/15 cars in total.

Then filtered past them at the traffic lights. Their reaction was brilliant.

[battered]

Ignore them. If you can feed them a red light or two in town, so much the better.

[IATM]

daemon said:

On a motorway - i let them pass. I'd rather not have a retard in a 2 ton death missile on my back bumper.

On other roads, if theres opportunity to let them pass i'll pull over a bit and let them overtake, otherwise i ignore.

Finally a common sense answer with sound advise on the correct thing to do, not the egotistical asshole options most are providing.

Edited by IATM on Friday 4th September 21:43

[Keep it stiff]

Tailgaters I can deal with, I pull away or pull out of the way. What worries me more is when you get into motorway traffic at a crawl and you can see the driver behind sending texts, reading emails and playing on facebks. Such drivers tend to be female and seem to spend 90% of their time with eyes down and only 10% of their time looking up and you know that with every stop/start there is every chance they will run into the back of you.

[texaxile]

I go bright red, shake my fist and cover the dashboard / windscreen in spittle at I scream and yell "buffoon!" at them.

Actually, I just move out of the way and let them get on with it, thinking that if I met the driver socially they're probably a really nice person. Happened to me before, a bloke was 6 inches from my bumper driving like an absolute tt, turned out to be my friends dad, the same bloke who invited me to a BBQ a month later. He didn't apologise though, so by way of revenge I drank all his Stellas.

[Mike29]

texaxile said:

I go bright red, shake my fist and cover the dashboard / windscreen in spittle at I scream and yell "buffoon!" at them.

Actually, I just move out of the way and let them get on with it, thinking that if I met the driver socially they're probably a really nice person. Happened to me before, a bloke was 6 inches from my bumper driving like an absolute tt, turned out to be my friends dad, the same bloke who invited me to a BBQ a month later. He didn't apologise though, so by way of revenge I drank all his Stellas.

You sure showed him

[Who me ?]

Various methods, I often ( if it's not possible to let them past to their next accident) treat them to the slow ,slow /quick,quick/slow routine. No braking, just lift off,gntly and let them find out how much faster a small derv engine brakes. Speed up ,then slow down,nothing drastic, but after some minutes of panic braking ,they usually get the message and back off ,to be treated to a ( if in the country on windy roads)nice gentle swift run. in town I'd use the box to slow down with his lot.
Not totally legal, but at one firm we had the rubbish run van. less eco friendly than a 45 year old town bus. but it ran clean ,till the throttle was released and floored ,and then no RN vessel in trouble made more smoke. great for dealing with the junior greater headed ignorant tailgater. Trot down the DC at 50 making no smoke ,pull out to pass some 45 specials to find that boy racer had decided to tailgate, and wanted you out of his way. I obliged with pleasure and floored it . I often wondered how long it took them to clean the bonnet and clean out the air filters. But I notice local driving schools are resorting to fitting "tailgate cam" .And that's a sad indictment of our standards of driving .

[fido]

Cyder said:

Me in Mx5 vs meathead in VW Amarok yesterday.
He didn't want to keep up on the twisty NSL roads for some reason. Spoilsport!

Some years ago but I had the same in an Integra Type-R with a Range Rover following me through the puddled roads of Chertsey.
After a bit too much tail-gaiting, I went into a corner with only a bit of engine braking beforehand, around 45mph, and the Range Rover followed me at similar speeds. Only one of us made it round the corner. Just to add, this wasn't an answer to the question of the thread - sensible solution as said before is to make sure you have a safe gap in front of you to allow for the idiot behind, and hope they pass you when it's safe to do so.

Edited by fido on Friday 4th September 22:42

[blade7]

I used to have a mk1 Golf GTi that had knackered valve guide seals, running around on light throttle it was ok but booting it left a blue cloud in it's wake. Tailgaters choked or backed off .