Tailgaters
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David Wulff wrote:
Not if you live in a country where we drive on the left.
I've always wondered about that... I mean, it's all well and good following those rules when you're in the city, but what about when you're out in the country and you come up on someone riding along slowly in the passing lane, not another vehicle for miles in either direction. Do you honestly sit behind them and wait for them to switch lanes, or do you just proceed on by in the left lane, letting them enjoy their... whatever they're doing?
---- I just want you to be happy; That's my only little wish...
I, personally, have never overtaken on the left (undertaken). Predictability is your biggest safety net when driving, and the last thing you need to do when faced with an idiot controlling 2 tons of moving steel is do something they won't be expecting. They've already shown you that they can't drive properly. In the situation you describe, I would flash my lights, and if that didn't work then I'd use my horn to remind them they were in the wrong lane. To be honest though, I have never come across that situation. If I did, I would most likely overtake on the oncoming traffic side the same as I would on a single lane road, followed up by a few seconds of hazard lights.
Ðavid Wulff What kind of music to programmers listen to?
Join the Code Project Last.fm group | dwulff
I'm so gangsta I eat cereal without the milk -
Ugh, I hate those. If I had a bulldozer I'd try to go in between them and hope I'd take them out. I've actually seen people driving slow and chatting because they knew each other. :(
"Oh, what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive." - Sir Walter Scott Web - Blog - RSS - Math - LinkedIn - BM
Well, see, that's why you do best not to piss off the drivers in front of you. Another fun one, for busy roads with intermittent passing lanes: after twenty miles at 40Mph, with someone riding your bumper trying to get you to pass the three semis in front of you, you get to an area with a passing lane. Immediately gun past the semis, out to the end of the passing lane, right up until visibility drops off... and then slow back down to 40Mph, just as the jerk catches back up with you. Flash him a friendly smile, as if to say, "you like passing blind? Go for it!"
---- I just want you to be happy; That's my only little wish...
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Pop quiz hot shot. You're driving down the highway going 80 miles an hour (please multiply by 1.6 for kms) (hey everybody's doing it :) ) and you look in the rear view mirror to see somebody's tailgating you. Now that's dangerous. :-D How do you get rid of them without slowing down/slamming on the breaks or switching lanes? Answer: Turn on the windshield washer and spray their car as well. Seems to force people to move back. :laugh:
"Oh, what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive." - Sir Walter Scott Web - Blog - RSS - Math - LinkedIn - BM
If am driving in the right lane, and I usually am, I just take my foot off the accelerator. I figure if they don't like it, they can change lanes and pass me. If am in one of the left lanes I try to get over and let them pass. But, the maniacs here in Dallas don't give you much of a chance to get over and the end up passing on the right before you can change lanes.
My Blog A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects. - -Lazarus Long
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Time for my favorite tailgating story. I was driving down the Pasadena freeway near Eagle Rock going the speed limit. I happened to still be in the left lane because of how various freeways merge leading to there [Note to those who haven't been there--the freeway is 3, maybe 4, lanes wide at that point.] There was only one other car within a quarter mile--a pickup truck--and he came up behind me about as close as you could get. I tapped my brakes just enough to put on the lights. He slammed on his. He then came up behind me again. This time I gently applied my brakes and started slowing. When I hit about 50 he swerved into the next lane, honked his horn, flipped me the bird and sped off. A mile later, I saw him pulled over by a California Highway Patrolman.
Anyone who thinks he has a better idea of what's good for people than people do is a swine. - P.J. O'Rourke
I like stories. Here's mine. I was driving down the highway (can't remember if I was here in VA/MD or in MI) on the left lane in the middle of the night. There was a truck to my right going my speed which was the speed limit plus 5 or 10 miles. Some car that I can't see pulls up behind me and tailgates me. Since it's dark, his headlights are right in my face. We drive like that, me, him and the truck, for a few minutes, finally I get pissed off at him and speed up to 90 mph to overtake the truck and move to his lane in front of him. As soon as I accelerate, the car behind me speeds up to. The second I cross the lane, I lower my window and signal for him to come on down. Lo and behold it turned out to be a cop. I'm just glad he didn't pull me over for speeding. I'm double glad I didn't give him the birdy. :-D
"Oh, what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive." - Sir Walter Scott Web - Blog - RSS - Math - LinkedIn - BM
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press the drop caltrips or oilslick button on your dash...
_________________________ Asu no koto o ieba, tenjo de nezumi ga warau. Talk about things of tomorrow and the mice in the ceiling laugh. (Japanese Proverb)
Ðavid Wulff What kind of music to programmers listen to?
Join the Code Project Last.fm group | dwulff
I'm so gangsta I eat cereal without the milk -
Pop quiz hot shot. You're driving down the highway going 80 miles an hour (please multiply by 1.6 for kms) (hey everybody's doing it :) ) and you look in the rear view mirror to see somebody's tailgating you. Now that's dangerous. :-D How do you get rid of them without slowing down/slamming on the breaks or switching lanes? Answer: Turn on the windshield washer and spray their car as well. Seems to force people to move back. :laugh:
"Oh, what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive." - Sir Walter Scott Web - Blog - RSS - Math - LinkedIn - BM
Coffee trail?
Kyosa Jamie Nordmeyer - Taekwondo Yi (2nd) Dan Portland, Oregon, USA
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I, personally, have never overtaken on the left (undertaken). Predictability is your biggest safety net when driving, and the last thing you need to do when faced with an idiot controlling 2 tons of moving steel is do something they won't be expecting. They've already shown you that they can't drive properly. In the situation you describe, I would flash my lights, and if that didn't work then I'd use my horn to remind them they were in the wrong lane. To be honest though, I have never come across that situation. If I did, I would most likely overtake on the oncoming traffic side the same as I would on a single lane road, followed up by a few seconds of hazard lights.
Ðavid Wulff What kind of music to programmers listen to?
Join the Code Project Last.fm group | dwulff
I'm so gangsta I eat cereal without the milkDavid Wulff wrote:
If I did, I would most likely overtake on the oncoming traffic side the same as I would on a single lane road, followed up by a few seconds of hazard lights.
Ah, see... perhaps you don't have the sorts of highways i'm used to. Two lanes each direction, but divided by a wall, ditch, or perhaps a several-hundred foot drop into a valley... ;)
---- I just want you to be happy; That's my only little wish...
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Ðavid Wulff What kind of music to programmers listen to?
Join the Code Project Last.fm group | dwulff
I'm so gangsta I eat cereal without the milkDavid Wulff wrote:
That reminds me...[^]
no laser? sheesh.... how mundane....
_________________________ Asu no koto o ieba, tenjo de nezumi ga warau. Talk about things of tomorrow and the mice in the ceiling laugh. (Japanese Proverb)
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Switch lanes, that's why you're being tail gated... No matter how fast you think you're going, someone will always want to go faster. Drive on the right, pass on the left. Simple. If you're being tail gated in the right lane, that's a different story. Slam on the breaks!!
Sorry, but if I'm already doing 10 to 15 miles per hour over the speed limit, I have ZERO tollerance or sympathy for someone who thinks that the road should just be open for them to hit or near the triple digits. They don't like it, they can slow the you-know-what down, or get over.
Kyosa Jamie Nordmeyer - Taekwondo Yi (2nd) Dan Portland, Oregon, USA
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Pop quiz hot shot. You're driving down the highway going 80 miles an hour (please multiply by 1.6 for kms) (hey everybody's doing it :) ) and you look in the rear view mirror to see somebody's tailgating you. Now that's dangerous. :-D How do you get rid of them without slowing down/slamming on the breaks or switching lanes? Answer: Turn on the windshield washer and spray their car as well. Seems to force people to move back. :laugh:
"Oh, what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive." - Sir Walter Scott Web - Blog - RSS - Math - LinkedIn - BM
When I do that the people I'm tailgating usually use their windshield washer sprayers. Of course, that only nakes it more difficult for me to determine the distance between us!
A virtual fence for the virtual borders of a virtual nation.
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David Wulff wrote:
Not if you live in a country where we drive on the left.
I've always wondered about that... I mean, it's all well and good following those rules when you're in the city, but what about when you're out in the country and you come up on someone riding along slowly in the passing lane, not another vehicle for miles in either direction. Do you honestly sit behind them and wait for them to switch lanes, or do you just proceed on by in the left lane, letting them enjoy their... whatever they're doing?
---- I just want you to be happy; That's my only little wish...
Before I think about undertaking, I'll give them a good flash of my main-beam lights. Usually does the trick, especially at night.
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Pop quiz hot shot. You're driving down the highway going 80 miles an hour (please multiply by 1.6 for kms) (hey everybody's doing it :) ) and you look in the rear view mirror to see somebody's tailgating you. Now that's dangerous. :-D How do you get rid of them without slowing down/slamming on the breaks or switching lanes? Answer: Turn on the windshield washer and spray their car as well. Seems to force people to move back. :laugh:
"Oh, what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive." - Sir Walter Scott Web - Blog - RSS - Math - LinkedIn - BM
Tap the breaks! :-D Nah, just kidding. If he's in such a hurry, he'll just pass you, if not, he can just be patient and stay behind.
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zoid ! wrote:
Switch lanes, that's why you're being tail gated...
Don't do it. It just encourages them. Headlights provide a perfectly good way of signaling to the person in front of you that you wish to pass, and if you really need to be rude then there's always the horn. Riding on my bumper is inexcusable, regardless of the lane i'm in. And for what it's worth, most of the tailgating i've seen happens when both lanes are close to full, and serves only to slow everyone down (since there's no buffer zone, as soon as one car taps their brakes everyone behind has to slam on theirs, until it gets back to someone willing to leave enough slack).
---- I just want you to be happy; That's my only little wish...
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Time for my favorite tailgating story. I was driving down the Pasadena freeway near Eagle Rock going the speed limit. I happened to still be in the left lane because of how various freeways merge leading to there [Note to those who haven't been there--the freeway is 3, maybe 4, lanes wide at that point.] There was only one other car within a quarter mile--a pickup truck--and he came up behind me about as close as you could get. I tapped my brakes just enough to put on the lights. He slammed on his. He then came up behind me again. This time I gently applied my brakes and started slowing. When I hit about 50 he swerved into the next lane, honked his horn, flipped me the bird and sped off. A mile later, I saw him pulled over by a California Highway Patrolman.
Anyone who thinks he has a better idea of what's good for people than people do is a swine. - P.J. O'Rourke
:laugh: Don't you love it? I had the same thing happen to me years back, and the same thing happened to the tailgating idiot. Only this schmuck was driving a Ferrari. ;) Karma is cool.
Kyosa Jamie Nordmeyer - Taekwondo Yi (2nd) Dan Portland, Oregon, USA
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David Wulff wrote:
If I did, I would most likely overtake on the oncoming traffic side the same as I would on a single lane road, followed up by a few seconds of hazard lights.
Ah, see... perhaps you don't have the sorts of highways i'm used to. Two lanes each direction, but divided by a wall, ditch, or perhaps a several-hundred foot drop into a valley... ;)
---- I just want you to be happy; That's my only little wish...
What, you don't drive a hovercar?! :omg: That would be a dual carriageway (two seperate carriageways with a barrier or land them), and we don't really have those in the country - only on the major routes. At £8 million per mile or something stupid like that we can't afford them everywhere. Heck, we are lucky if our roads don't have more potholes in them than Area 51, so if it's got tarmac on it we are considered lucky. If your situation arose on a dual carriageway, I would flash my lights and follow it up with my horn. If that failed to get any aknowledgement I would flash my lights like crazy and turn on the red and blue flasher on my dash, while screaming "nee naah nee naah" out of the window as loud as I could...
Ðavid Wulff What kind of music to programmers listen to?
Join the Code Project Last.fm group | dwulff
I'm so gangsta I eat cereal without the milk -
Sorry, but if I'm already doing 10 to 15 miles per hour over the speed limit, I have ZERO tollerance or sympathy for someone who thinks that the road should just be open for them to hit or near the triple digits. They don't like it, they can slow the you-know-what down, or get over.
Kyosa Jamie Nordmeyer - Taekwondo Yi (2nd) Dan Portland, Oregon, USA
Sorry, sunshine - if you're not in the rightmost lane (leftmost for those of us who drive on the left), then you're being an inconsiderate ass whatever speed you're driving at. The only reason for not being in the rightmost lane (leftmost in the UK) is if you're overtaking someone.
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Its only dangerous imho if YOU make any sudden moves. So give the person in front of you tons of space. What you need to worry about more is the person in the slow lane putting on makeup using the rearview mirror, reading the paper and talking on the phone while drivng.
Todd Smith
Todd Smith wrote:
Its only dangerous imho if YOU make any sudden moves. So give the person in front of you tons of space.
Like they say, if you can't see the bumper of the car in front of you, you are too close.
Todd Smith wrote:
What you need to worry about more is the person in the slow lane putting on makeup using the rearview mirror, reading the paper and talking on the phone while drivng.
I really saw someone reading the paper and driving (on a side street luckily), and one lady putting on makeup and trying to steer with her knee. It's scary some of the stuff people do when driving. :~
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David Wulff wrote:
That reminds me...[^]
no laser? sheesh.... how mundane....
_________________________ Asu no koto o ieba, tenjo de nezumi ga warau. Talk about things of tomorrow and the mice in the ceiling laugh. (Japanese Proverb)
You've got to admit, it would be pretty fun to raise up the sun roof and fire a volley of rockets at the dick head after he overtakes you. A couple of warning shots over the bow would make him think twice about playing silly bears behind you again. :-D
Ðavid Wulff What kind of music to programmers listen to?
Join the Code Project Last.fm group | dwulff
I'm so gangsta I eat cereal without the milk -
What, you don't drive a hovercar?! :omg: That would be a dual carriageway (two seperate carriageways with a barrier or land them), and we don't really have those in the country - only on the major routes. At £8 million per mile or something stupid like that we can't afford them everywhere. Heck, we are lucky if our roads don't have more potholes in them than Area 51, so if it's got tarmac on it we are considered lucky. If your situation arose on a dual carriageway, I would flash my lights and follow it up with my horn. If that failed to get any aknowledgement I would flash my lights like crazy and turn on the red and blue flasher on my dash, while screaming "nee naah nee naah" out of the window as loud as I could...
Ðavid Wulff What kind of music to programmers listen to?
Join the Code Project Last.fm group | dwulff
I'm so gangsta I eat cereal without the milkDavid Wulff wrote:
If your situation arose on a dual carriageway, I would flash my lights and follow it up with my horn. If that failed to get any aknowledgement I would flash my lights like crazy and turn on the red and blue flasher on my dash, while screaming "nee naah nee naah" out of the window as loud as I could...
:laugh:
---- I just want you to be happy; That's my only little wish...
-
Time for my favorite tailgating story. I was driving down the Pasadena freeway near Eagle Rock going the speed limit. I happened to still be in the left lane because of how various freeways merge leading to there [Note to those who haven't been there--the freeway is 3, maybe 4, lanes wide at that point.] There was only one other car within a quarter mile--a pickup truck--and he came up behind me about as close as you could get. I tapped my brakes just enough to put on the lights. He slammed on his. He then came up behind me again. This time I gently applied my brakes and started slowing. When I hit about 50 he swerved into the next lane, honked his horn, flipped me the bird and sped off. A mile later, I saw him pulled over by a California Highway Patrolman.
Anyone who thinks he has a better idea of what's good for people than people do is a swine. - P.J. O'Rourke
Joe Woodbury wrote:
A mile later, I saw him pulled over by a California Highway Patrolman.
Who said there's never a cop around when you need one!