Tailgating muppets

[P_G]

I have a philosophy:

"THE CLOSER YOU GET, THE SLOWER i GO"

I have cruised at 20kph on a 70kph road, to demonstrate a point to some <beep>

That's just dumb.... and makes the situation worse.
Do you also hog the middle lane?

Just pull over, and let the twats pass.... or go faster yourself !

I hate it when people think it's their right to "teach me the national speed limits" by holding up the whole road.
If I want to drive at 130mph, that's my choice.... I may be a complete <beep> for doing it.... but it's still MY choice.

I agree to a certain extent Timster, I don't need someone else to point out the speed limit by sitting on the outside lane and the limit when they are not overtaking anyone for the next mile but equally I don't tailgate them to the point my front bumper is welded to their rear.

It strikes me that there is three main contributing factors in these situations, lack of common sense, courtesy to other drivers and laziness. Lack of common sense in the person tailgating like that in the first place. Lack of couresty by that driver in most situations to realise that the person in front is driving at the speed they want but equally that driver should be somewhere near the limit not to be impeding others if they are indeed overtaking something else on the inside lane. But the biggest factor for me is general laziness. If they are not overtaking anything, get into the inside lane. And you wonder why so many people get FCUK'ed off and start tailgating.

[KernowPete]

The things that bugged me so much last night were a) We were in traffic so I couldn't have gone any quicker and b) the fact they were in a shagged Transit with probably equally shagged brakes following so close behind me all I couldn't see anything below their windscreen. What did they think they were going to do, keep up with an RS4 once the traffic cleared? Or did they expect me to pull over and let them past just so they could have the pleasure of watching me overtake them a mile up the road??

I too drive at all times as fast as I safely can taking into consideration the road and traffic conditions, but even though its frustrating as hell to come up behind someone slower (which believe me in Cornwall happens 99% of the time), I never tailgate. Why? Because its lethal, and lends creedance to Clarkson saying that Audis are 'the last foul refuge of the tailgating muppet'.

[Timster]

Yeah, you're both write I 'spose..... I took the thread a bit off subject with my previous reply.

I'll be down in Cornwall in a couple of months and am frankly, dreading all the go-slow morons.
(might even take the fiat 500 diesel so it's not so frustrating)

[stu]

I have a philosophy:

"THE CLOSER YOU GET, THE SLOWER i GO"

I have cruised at 20kph on a 70kph road, to demonstrate a point to some <beep>

That's just dumb.... and makes the situation worse.
Do you also hog the middle lane?

Just pull over, and let the twats pass.... or go faster yourself !

I hate it when people think it's their right to "teach me the national speed limits" by holding up the whole road.
If I want to drive at 130mph, that's my choice.... I may be a complete <beep> for doing it.... but it's still MY choice.

Hey Timster, I think the two camps here might have different scenarios imagined: single lane derestricted roads and motorways/dual carriageways. I've never knowingly caused anyone to slow down on the motorway. If someone's gunning it at 130 and Godspeed to them, I'll not hinder them. Mirrors: brilliant inventions.

Single lane roads is a little different: yes, please pass me when it's safe. If you have no intention of passing me and just like to drive right up behind me, I'll give you the benefit of the doubt and slow down a little from my usual 65 in case you're in more of a hurry than me your little corsa doesn't have the puff to do the pass. You better f*ing not spare the horses when you're ahead of me - scoot! This doesn't always work as some people are stupid.

Perfect example of this was at Christmas on the very long (and mostly single carriageway) road from Stranraer to Dumfries. I'd got off the boat from Ireland, passed all the other traffic (mostly lorries as it was a late night boat) and had nothing but road ahead of me for miles. The weather was shocking - rain so heavy that it took a bit of effort to see far down the road. Sleet at times.

...so there's nothing but me and a very long boring road. It's heavily policed so I usually just stick the car in cruise and chill out on that leg. Only problem: this non-decript saloon caught up with me and hung less than 10 meters behind me. Like I said, the weather was shitty with chance of floods and this <beep> was guaranteed to ruin the back of my car as I would easily outbrake him. So, after having had lots of opportunities to pass (I was doing 65 on the speedo) I reduced it to 50 for a few minutes. Still no passing. So I slow to forty, then to thirty, and at about 20mph he passes. WTF... I think he was just being lazy in the conditions and the time of night.

About ten minutes of 65mph later I found him at the back of a long convoy of cars and lorries - presumably from an earlier boat. I clear the convoy in two bites. The tailgater (plus envoy) is never seen again. Stick the car back in cruise, turn the tunes up and I chill out all the way to Carlisle. Then the fun roads began, but that's another story.

lol if you have someone up your arse your going too slow

time to pull over and park the RS, hand the keys over to someone younger and move into the nursing home

But... I've got so much lane hogging still to do!! It's what gets me up in the mornings (that, glucosamine and my home help)

Speeding wouldn't have taught this muppet a thing and possibly cost me a few points! I do that if I know they're not going to catch up again. Perfect in the snowy weather: no one can keep up with me in those conditions

[mac911rs4]

i recall a trip to lemans some 4 years back, these two blue cars and one van hogging this single lane so slow, not knowing the lingo, called a colleague who was in convoy to be told they were contractors, builders etc, so.....upon seeing a very long straight with nothing coming toward me, floored it, expecting everyone to follow, shortly afterward a gun tooting policeman got out of said van and gave me a serious talking too in French, don't think there was much building involved, but walls and bars were mentioned !!!

or

recalling my youth, my old renault 5 turbo, back of the car was so dirty, could;t really see much other then someone sticking to the bumper very close behind, dropping two gears and flooring it only to then see blue lights appear got me a little telling off too, told him i only saw a nutter asking for an accident being so close, he saw the point and let me off, phew...lessons we learn

still don;t know much french, other then Gendarmerie...(probably spelt wrong)

[KernowPete]

I'll be down in Cornwall in a couple of months and am frankly, dreading all the go-slow morons.
(might even take the fiat 500 diesel so it's not so frustrating)

Yes mate, you're better off leaving the RS at home. It seems to get worse here every year and I sometimes wonder why I bother with the expense of owning a fast car and don't just follow the herd!

[PetrolDave]

I'll be down in Cornwall in a couple of months and am frankly, dreading all the go-slow morons.

Unfortunately they don't only live in Cornwall.

Most Southampton drivers do 20 in the 30 limits, 30 in the 40 limits and 40 in the 60 limits -which is downright anti-social, whatever happened to the advice to "maintain good progress and not inconvenience other roads users"? I even get held up in my daily driver (a 998cc 3 cylinder Citroen C1) which should be one of the slowest cars on the road, but most days I'm barely on the throttle because of these numpties.

[gareth_oau]

I have a philosophy:

"THE CLOSER YOU GET, THE SLOWER i GO"

I have cruised at 20kph on a 70kph road, to demonstrate a point to some <beep>

That's just dumb.... and makes the situation worse.
Do you also hog the middle lane?

Just pull over, and let the twats pass.... or go faster yourself !

I hate it when people think it's their right to "teach me the national speed limits" by holding up the whole road.
If I want to drive at 130mph, that's my choice.... I may be a complete <beep> for doing it.... but it's still MY choice.

The situation I described was a peak hour 3 lane road where traffic is already below the posted speed limit. I'm not talking open road. These twats are just idiots who need to take a chill pill and accept that tailgating isnt going to get them to their destination any quicker

[rs4blacked]

Being a Lorry driver what really bugs me and I mean really bugs me is:

Dual carriageways I'm doing 50+mph I come up to other traffic going slower (cars, bikes lorries etc) I pull out to overtake and just as the front of my truck come level with theirs they speed up so I have no option to pull back in behind them and they then slow back down WTF.

If there is one thing I do do when driving the truck is leave a big gap between me and the vehicle in front not like some other drivers who could probably touch the back of the vehicle in front it they leant forward.

[paime]

How does tailgating rate when compared with speeding etc for causing accidents? Someone told me a while ago that tailgating was the leading cause of RTAs?

Motorbikes are another pet hate of mine, they always hang off your bumper in the blind spot so they can overtake promptly. What annoys me even more is all the campaigns saying "think bike, think biker" etc etc but i haven't seen one single advert that tells motorbike riders to wise the fcuk up. They try to blame all of their collisions on car drivers but i think they should be looking a little closer to home...

[PetrolDave]

They try to blame all of their collisions on car drivers but i think they should be looking a little closer to home...

+1

We were on the M25 at the weekend and saw several instances of insane and dangerous swerving by bikers.

It irritates the hell out of me that car (and lorry & bus) drivers get blamed when a biker is killed or injured, but often it's the crass standard of riding of the biker that's to blame.

[adsgreen]

Yeah - given that in any 'scenario' the biker will be worse off you'd think that they would remember that

[KernowPete]

Add cyclists to that as well.

[gareth_oau]

I've ridden bikes for many years and my no.1 rule s that I must always be able to see the eyes of the driver in his mirror. If I can see his eyes, he can see me

of course there's no guarantee that they are actually going to use them