How to deal with annoying tailgaters

[Sump]

Tomo1971 said:

rallycross said:

just get out of the way and let them get on with it
they are faster than you
move over
it only takes 3 seconds to let someone past
let them harass the next person and get on with your life

The problem with this is, in many instances (and this isnt a criticism of your post) is that if you move over as soon as safe & practicable, the tailgater will pass at 0.5mph above your speed and the many cars who are all tailgating behind don't let you back out to overtake the next car you approach. This is part the reason why you see so many people not moving left after an overtake. Due to the queue of moronic lemmings behind, if one pulls over to lane one, realistically you will have to slow down and wait for them all to pass.

Driving standards are st these days.

Those that try and keep to a decent standard and are considerate are getting fewer and fewer and I think to an extent many think, sod it, why should I bother when most others dont.

100% this.

[Spanna]

Nothing in front of you? Continue on your journey at your own pace, ignore what they are doing.
Traffic ahead? Steady off the gas, allow a bigger gap just incase you need to stop so you have more time.
If they're really bothering you, find a way to let them pass.

Don't do anything to incite something if you want to continue your journey in peace.
Do not brake heavily or unnecessarily.
Do not wave your arms about or gesticulate at them.

[No Bend]

BGarside said:

In urban areas I just continue driving at the speed limit - they can wait. I won't reward them by speeding up.

And the cop with the laser takes the first car (most often) in the group, so don't allow yourself to be pushed along and shield some turkey from the speed gun.

[mikal83]

matchmaker said:

blade7 said:

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 .

Years ago I fitted a windscreen washer bottle filled with Redex under the bonnet. Pipe leading to air intake with a switch on the dash...worked every time!
[/quote

Then wonder why your cars been keyed when you get in one day!]

[fido]

Axionknight said:

Did you stop to help?

A similar thing happened to me in my S2000, a chap in an old Astra doing his utmost to keep up with me on a country road, whilst I was pootling along (it had been raining so I wasn't rushing anywhere), I took a reasonably sharp corner pretty quickly and he followed at the same speed, he lost control and bounced the car off of the wall at the side of the road and ground to a halt after scraping his drivers side down the wall for fifty yards or so.

I didn't bother stopping to help.

No - I was a bit annoyed because he was a) tailgaiting b) pushy in a larger vehicle. There was a lot of grass to run off onto - it wasn't very dramatic as he just continued in a straight line off the road!
The ITR is the only car I've driven at, or could drive at 99% of the limit - my first track day at Bedford Autodrome and managed to lift off oversteer at 90mph and just carry on driving! So going into that medium-sharp corner on a damp road was second nature to me. I guess I didn't expect the dufus in the RR to follow me at the same speed. I'm hoping he educated himself on the vehicle he was following!

[Countdown]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

In my experience (as an observer sat in L1) quite often the person being tailgated slows down matching speeds with traffic in L2. I suppose this is just their way of saying "fk you, I refuse to be bullied". Not ideal behaviour and it usually results in a line of drivers in L3 doing the conga. Possibly had the tailgater not attempted to "clear" L3 so forcefully the lane hogged would have moved out of the way.

I'm not sure that reacting to poor driving by creating an even more dangerous situation is the most sensible approach.

[Sump]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

Oh I do move left, just when it comes back to moving out into lane 2-3 I just barge my way in.

The worst is when you're in lane 1, you signal your intention and you expect mr lane 2 to move over to lane 3 when it's deserted and they don't forcing you to chuck your speed right down as you approach the vehicle in lane 1.

[FiF]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

That's not the worst by a long chalk. Oneof the worst Iis you are in lane 1, say, approaching a slower vehicle there is clear space to your right, and although there is a vehicle behind and in lane 2 there is space and time for you to signal intention, move out, overtake and be back in without causing lane 2 vehicle to have to change speed or course. Only you start to signal at which point the nose of lane 2 bod lifts and they try to block you in. Or if they're driving a particularly powerless pos then gradually speed up with wot to tailgate as if they have some moral superiority.
They are far worse.

[E92Dan]

No, the previous reply is worse because it shows the guy isn't paying any attention

[akaAlso]

https://youtu.be/JVT1M-siH9Y (no audio)
M4 westbound this week.

After I reviewed the footage it bought to mind a new front sticker for wagons,

If you can't see my numberplate.......

I'm probably quite close to your rear bumper.


I'm matching speed in L2, around 55mph and keeping 2sec from car in front.
We're faster than L1, and there's a junction coming up that I don't want. L3 is moving faster with no gaps I can reasonably slot into without forcing my way in.
Wagon decides to bully me with use of horn as well. I resist the coffee beans hand signal and try to indicate I have nowhere to go, but decide it's just safer to push into L1, and wave him through to go and intimidate the next car, I then pull back out behind him.
I do admit to being a bit rattled by his tactics, even cars seem quite big when you're in an MX5.

Apologies for shakey video, it's just CaroO pro running on a Note3 which is a bit big and heavy for a windscreen mount.
Discovered by pure chance that once I get the angles right it just picks up the rear view mirror in the bottom corner.

[l354uge]

The rear wiper on my old polo coupe was buggered, which meant the the washer squirted straight out of the rear of the car, a good few metres too!

This worked extremely well I must say

[bearman68]

akaAlso said:

https://youtu.be/JVT1M-siH9Y (no audio)
M4 westbound this week.

After I reviewed the footage it bought to mind a new front sticker for wagons,

If you can't see my numberplate.......

I'm probably quite close to your rear bumper.


I'm matching speed in L2, around 55mph and keeping 2sec from car in front.
We're faster than L1, and there's a junction coming up that I don't want. L3 is moving faster with no gaps I can reasonably slot into without forcing my way in.
Wagon decides to bully me with use of horn as well. I resist the coffee beans hand signal and try to indicate I have nowhere to go, but decide it's just safer to push into L1, and wave him through to go and intimidate the next car, I then pull back out behind him.
I do admit to being a bit rattled by his tactics, even cars seem quite big when you're in an MX5.

Apologies for shakey video, it's just CaroO pro running on a Note3 which is a bit big and heavy for a windscreen mount.
Discovered by pure chance that once I get the angles right it just picks up the rear view mirror in the bottom corner.

Tricky bit of road that though - you come out of the tunnels and the Newport traffic filters in on your left, and sometimes you have nowhere to go.
There's only going to be one winner though between an artic and an MX-5

[Johnnytheboy]

The ones that annoy me are the ones that tailgate when they seem to have no intention/ability of overtaking, and the ones that insist on sitting one foot to the right of my vehicle's line, so I always have a wing mirror full of them.

There can be some sport had with the latter group by trying to (subtly) mirror their road position, and see just how far in to the middle of the road you can make them drive.

[Poisson96]

The worst are when you move slightly to the left to encourage and they then chop in and brake. Several times I've nearly embedded the car in to them as 50 year old brakes aren't the best.

How I deal with them? Let them go, they lose if you don't give them attention...

[TameRacingDriver]

They are s. When I was younger I'd brake test but I nearly got murdered for doing that once.

Nowadays, let them do it but put increased distance between me and the car in front to compensate.

Or if an empty road, and they're in a slower car, just burn them.

[DickP]

The ones I am not keen on is where they sit on the bumper on the motorway say, with the intent to pass it seems. A gap opens for me to slot into so they can get by (as they want to go faster, or so it looks with how close they sit!) only for them to not pass? When I next move back out, back onto the back of my car again!

I think a lot of drivers only drive to what is on the end of their bonnet and switch off on the motorway mimicking the moves of the vehicle in front.

[Zod]

I had one idiot pull out in front of me last week, causing me to brake quite hard. He then seemed to stick to a slow speed in front of me, but it turned out he was just accelerating as fast as his car would let him up to 90. It took a long, long time!

[blade7]

mikal83 said:

matchmaker said:

blade7 said:

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 .

Years ago I fitted a windscreen washer bottle filled with Redex under the bonnet. Pipe leading to air intake with a switch on the dash...worked every time!
[/quote

Then wonder why your cars been keyed when you get in one day!]

Is that what you do ?

[mikal83]

blade7 said:

mikal83 said:

matchmaker said:

blade7 said:

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 .

Years ago I fitted a windscreen washer bottle filled with Redex under the bonnet. Pipe leading to air intake with a switch on the dash...worked every time!
[/quote

Then wonder why your cars been keyed when you get in one day!]

Is that what you do ?

If you acted like a prize knobend, don't be 'oh so shocked' if someone decided to get their own back!

[Drive Blind]

it used to be tailgating was done primarily by people wanting to make progress and who had the skills and the performance to make progress. They'd tailgate you only for a short time before moving on.

Increasingly I'm getting tailgated by people who have no interest in overtaking. Thats just the way they drive. Sit 5m off the car in front of them and unable to keep a constant speed, brake lights coming on every 10 secs.