Tailgaters
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dan neely wrote:
which is why, if tailgated and unable to shift lanes you should keep a double following distance in front so you can break more gently and give the moron time to react without stomping.
Yup. Heck, i suspect if more people did that, we'd have a lot fewer accidents for drivers to hit their brakes and gawk at, further reducing the problem...
---- I just want you to be happy; That's my only little wish...
Either that or you'd constantly have people cutting in front of you. My trip through knoxville last summer still makes me shudder. On I-something or other. I was travelling @ 60mph in the left lane, the middle lane was also moving at the same speed or maybe a little faster, and the right lane was being used for passing @ 80+ (and no I didn't get the lanes backwards). The average following distance was about 2/3rds a car length, and everytime I tried extending mine to 1.1 someone immediately jumped into it. I did discover that my car has excellent 60-0 breaking performance when a section of construction forced traffic to come to a near total halt before slowly resuming at congested urban speeds.
-- Rules of thumb should not be taken for the whole hand.
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Stuart Dootson wrote:
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.
Of course, on a busy highway, you might be overtaking vehicles constantly on the left, and still have people queuing up behind you. At that point, it's a choice between speeding up and passing faster, slowing down and merging, or staying at your current speed and making those behind you wait. It just gets more interesting when you're already 5-10Mph over the limit, and aren't familiar with speed traps in the area.
---- I just want you to be happy; That's my only little wish...
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A question - do they teach you the two and four second rules when leanring to drive in America? i.e. you should remain two seconds behind the vehicle in front on a good dry road and four seconds in mud, dust or the rain? I still remember the little ryhme I was told, and use it to accurately gauge my distance in traffic: "Only a fool breaks the the two second rule" - it takes approximately two seconds to say it to yourself, so if you focus on a fixed point ahead you can judge your distance. When I was first told that and asked what the four second rule was, I turned to my instructer and said: "Only a fool breaks the four second rule!" He was not impressed. :doh:
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 -
Disclaimer: don't do this unless you have good reactions. The best way I've seen of shaming someone who's tailgating actually happened between my father and a police vehicle. This police man had been tailgating Dad for about 20 miles obviously trying to edge him into breaking the speed limit. So after a while (and trying the usual methods for shaking him off) Dad pulled up the handbrake abruptly to slow down the car (the hand-brake doesn't switch on the brakelights (on most cars anyway)), the policeman rapidly closed in & Dad accelerated away from danger, the policeman turned off at the next junction :-D Obviously this could have backfired as well, but at least we'd had the satisfaction that if he'd have gone into the back of our Shogun then the car would be a write-off and we'd need a pair of pliers to pull the bits of police car off the towbar :rolleyes:
I have no idea what I just said. But my intentions were sincere.
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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
A long time back before I quit acting as if the daily commute a road race I used this trick. I would occasionally try to do an imitation of a broken vehicle. Basically staying in lane I would make my vehicle sway back and forth in the lane to look like it was out of control. Hard to explain it much better then that but I noticed it worked. The fellow behind tailgating would back off and people in the adjacent lanes would slow down to get away from me. That afforded me an opportunity to shift lanes where the opportunity didn't previously exist and I could accelerate away from the tailgater too provided they didn't have a faster vehicle. The trick usually doesn't work more then twice then someone is likely to give you chase. :laugh:
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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
In Houston I can't count the number of times a cop pulled up behind me in that situation flashed their lights and I pulled over to let them drive on past.
Using the GridView is like trying to explain to someone else how to move a third person's hands in order to tie your shoelaces for you. -Chris Maunder
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A question - do they teach you the two and four second rules when leanring to drive in America? i.e. you should remain two seconds behind the vehicle in front on a good dry road and four seconds in mud, dust or the rain? I still remember the little ryhme I was told, and use it to accurately gauge my distance in traffic: "Only a fool breaks the the two second rule" - it takes approximately two seconds to say it to yourself, so if you focus on a fixed point ahead you can judge your distance. When I was first told that and asked what the four second rule was, I turned to my instructer and said: "Only a fool breaks the four second rule!" He was not impressed. :doh:
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 milkThe rule I heard was 1 second of space for every 10 mph you are travelling, because that's how long it will take your car to stop if you have to slam on the breaks. However, that is totally impractical in LA because once you get over 30 mph, you'd end up leaving so much space that another car pulls into it, which would mean you would have to slow down and fall farther back... wash/repeat :~
--Mike-- Visual C++ MVP :cool: LINKS~! Ericahist | PimpFish | CP SearchBar v3.0 | C++ Forum FAQ
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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
I just let them by. I used to play games like tapping the brakes or slowing down next to another vehicle. After a few drivers decided to repay that favor by puling past me and slamming on the brakes in front of me repeatedly, throwing cups of ice out the window in front of me, etc. It's just not worth the risk, and for all I know he might be the one guy in 500,000 rushing someone to the hospital.
Using the GridView is like trying to explain to someone else how to move a third person's hands in order to tie your shoelaces for you. -Chris Maunder
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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
Keep a small bag of steel ball bearings in the glove box. Empty the bag out the window whenever anyone behind is annoying.
"...a photo album is like Life, but flat and stuck to pages." - Shog9
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I move away, and let them go on with their death race. I know, I'm a wimp, but I don't care.
Maximilien Lincourt Your Head A Splode - Strong Bad
Maximilien wrote:
I move away, and let them go on with their death race.
I agree with that. If they want to be the first one to the accident, let them.
m.bergman
-- For Bruce Schneier, quanta only have one state : afraid.
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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...
Please tell me you don't do stuff like that...
- Anders My new photo website[^]
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Please tell me you don't do stuff like that...
- Anders My new photo website[^]
It pretty much depends on how long i've been driving at that point. That said, i'm usually fairly considerate of drivers who are willing to signal their intentions. Give me a little bit of room to slow down and pull over, and i'll happily do so. Which reminds me of driving down in Texas. Lots of rural roads without much for visibility, but come up on a slower driver and almost always they'd pull off into the shoulder and wave us by. Really made a difference.
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It pretty much depends on how long i've been driving at that point. That said, i'm usually fairly considerate of drivers who are willing to signal their intentions. Give me a little bit of room to slow down and pull over, and i'll happily do so. Which reminds me of driving down in Texas. Lots of rural roads without much for visibility, but come up on a slower driver and almost always they'd pull off into the shoulder and wave us by. Really made a difference.
Okay, glad to hear that. Ihate those self-appointed police-guys that think they have any rights to dictate how fast I can drive ;)
- Anders My new photo website[^]
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Okay, glad to hear that. Ihate those self-appointed police-guys that think they have any rights to dictate how fast I can drive ;)
- Anders My new photo website[^]
Anders Molin wrote:
Ihate those self-appointed police-guys that think they have any rights to dictate how fast I can drive ;)
Heh. I have a wife who dictates how slow i'm allowed to drive. "The speed limit is 75, why are you driving at anything less than 80?!" Then again, she's completely insane behind the wheel. Half of her family are bikers and racers, there's gotta be something genetic about it. :rolleyes:
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Anders Molin wrote:
Ihate those self-appointed police-guys that think they have any rights to dictate how fast I can drive ;)
Heh. I have a wife who dictates how slow i'm allowed to drive. "The speed limit is 75, why are you driving at anything less than 80?!" Then again, she's completely insane behind the wheel. Half of her family are bikers and racers, there's gotta be something genetic about it. :rolleyes:
LOL I used to ride motorcycles too, and have a lot to do with motorsport ;)
- Anders My new photo website[^]
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Not if you know how to drive ;P Besides the Shogun's the kind of vehicle you can make go in a straight line regardless, we have failed to turn it around in our farm yard with all the diffs locked :~
I have no idea what I just said. But my intentions were sincere.
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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
Joe Woodbury wrote:
A mile later, I saw him pulled over by a California Highway Patrolman.
Yep. Sweeeet justice :laugh: I see that on the mountain all the time. The CHP up here love getting people going 10mph over the limit.
Some people have a memory and an attention span, you should try them out one day. - Jeremy Falcon
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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!!
zoid ! wrote:
If you're being tail gated in the right lane, that's a different story. Slam on the breaks!!
Right, but if you don't have an automatic car, then you can reduce and it is even more impressive on their side because you get your speed rapidly reduced without even showing the red lights on the brake. grrrrr...
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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