Be honest, why do you tailgate?

[drumnbasslvr]

following too close is risky behavior at best, why increase the chances of an accident to really be late to work, school, etc... what's your reason behind it?

[megabyteme]

I'd say on the rare occasions I do do it, it is because some half-wit is falling 20 car lengths behind the next vehicle and I am hoping they will either speed up, or get out of the way so I do not miss another light (usually as a result of someone doing this kind of stupid, in-the-way shit). :angry:

Now tell me why you think it is acceptable to drive under the speed limit, slow down numerous other people, and refuse to get out of the way? :dry:

[stepano]

Houston drivers are some of the worst I've ever encountered. If I leave more than a car's length of room, some jackass will merge into my lane and cut me off.

[drumnbasslvr]

I'm always at or 5 above the posted limit. yes you are correct that some do drive about 15 under as the minimum posted limit dictates in texas, but where I'm at now isn't posted anywhere. apparently that's legal.

Traffic is slowed down to nearly a creep at times, then it becomes noticeable its only a traffic stop on the right shoulder of the highway and nothing further, wow all 4 lanes go about 5 mph in a 60 zone for this? Nosy people is what that is.

Also true that someone will cut you off if you leave a proper safe following distance, bravery shouldn't be confused with stupidity.

Good policemen are a thing of the past as one retired policeman said to me, in the ranks today are lazy and cowardly young men and women, unable to write a proper report and think the badge and gun will land them dates. I personally burst with joy when I see someone pulled over as its a state police vehicle doing so. Never local.

Accident? Feel nothing for you. You asked for it with risky behavior. Shootings in my city? Less traffic volume, the gene pool is being getting cleansed one at a time and my neighborhood is safer. 3 this week.

of course this could turn into something heated but lets hope not. close calls, near misses, and impatience you get the idea. People should leave their emotions outside the vehicle.

kindness is often taken as weakness, from time to time I'll let someone in and make sure to wave friendly like as in the 90's when I got my license. I will be humble as a driver. Music always keeps my emotions from showing as a motorist.

bumper stickers on vehicles (I don't deface my vehicle with any such items) depicting Christianity as their chosen religion oddly enough are the most aggressive drivers! it may be easier to speak about politics. my stance is simple there. one step away from sacrificing myself for the greater good to save the American people from a leader on a joyride.

ps I am pleased at the speedy response people. keep her going. reminder this isn't about politics, its about following too close. What are you going to do? push me off the road? Movies like Duel?

[megabyteme]

bumper stickers on vehicles (I don't deface my vehicle with any such items) depicting Christianity as their chosen religion oddly enough are the most aggressive drivers!

What are you going to do? push me off the road? Movies like Duel?

The "fish" is actually a required sticker indicating complete incompetence as a driver. It has nothing to do with religion. Common mistake.

Do my absolute best to get around you or anyone else who is impeding traffic. Notice how 3-12 cars will ALL have to get past the same "driver". There's most of the problem- people either trying to irritate others, cannot properly drive, or just don't care. :angry:

[Skiz]

Because who doesn't like drinking beers with fans before a football game? :sly:

[drumnbasslvr]

lots of views here, many probably thinking they're not going to touch this one with a 20 foot pole. curiosity at first surely.

[TheFoX]

I'd say on the rare occasions I do do it, it is because some half-wit is falling 20 car lengths behind the next vehicle and I am hoping they will either speed up, or get out of the way so I do not miss another light (usually as a result of someone doing this kind of stupid, in-the-way shit). :angry:

Now tell me why you think it is acceptable to drive under the speed limit, slow down numerous other people, and refuse to get out of the way? :dry:

I see this all the time. Some people just can't seem to keep pace with the rest of the traffic, even though everyone is travelling at or lower than the posted speed limit. Others slow down when approaching a green light, only accelerating when it changes to amber, leaving the rest of us stuck behind a red light, even though there was plenty of opportunity for several vehicles to get through on green.

To sum it up, there are arseholes on the road who's only entertainment is to wind up other motorists.

In the UK, the governed speed limit of a goods vehicle is 56mph, so why do some drivers drive at 54mph on a three lane motorway, then when the lorry tries to overtake them doing 56mph, they accelerate away, leaving the lorry in the middle lane. As soon as the lorry pulls back in to the left hand lane, the car driver does it all over again.

On my way home the other day, a few of us were trailing a driver doing 35mph in a 60mph limit. As soon as the car behind him overtook him, the car travelling at 35mph suddenly accelerated up to 60mph and tailgated the driver that had overtaken him. If someone wants to drive slowly, that is their choice, but why should they take umbrage when someone wants to go faster. Why should they feel that they have the right to hold everyone else up?

The fact is that there is a group of motorists who are trying to lay down the law for every other motorist to follow, and if we dare breech that law, they will take it into their own hands to punish us, even though they have no authority whatsoever to do so.

One final story for you guys. On returning from Nottingham, there was a crawler lane for slow moving lorries, with an overtaking lane for faster vehicles. Some youths driving a Renault Clio decided to sit on the tail of a lorry that was doing 20 mph up a hill, in the outside lane, just so that none of us could overtake this lorry. When the two lanes merged back into one, they had caused a massive tailback. Devilment like this deserves punishment, yet they got away with causing traffic chaos, and were laughing at the rest of us while holding us all up (the road had a speed limit of 60mph).

I call these people road hogs, because they stifle the flow of traffic, block overtaking lanes, and generally cause a nuisance to other drivers. If the police spot them, they tend to get pulled and charged with any number of offenses, such as driving too cautiously, driving too slowly (yes, doing 15mph in a 30mph zone is an offence), lane hogging (also an offence), using a mobile while driving, or obstructing junctions while on the phone (yes, I couldn't pull on to a roundabout because the driver in front of me was making an important phone call and wouldn't pull away until he finished his call), or any number of antisocial driving habits, such as pulling out in front of oncoming traffic, causing them to brake hard, just to be bloody minded.

Also, people who slow down and stop to allow someone out of a side road, is an offence. No one has the right to change priorities on any stretch of road, except a traffic officer.

[megabyteme]

We are in total agreement, FoX. These people may never have an accident in their entire lives, but have caused untold troubles. Dangerous.

[mjmacky]

I don't know what kind of drivers you have to deal with in your respective areas, but ...


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=slbusYPJsik

The videos keep getting taken down on youtube, so here's a link (http://www.tampabay.com/news/publicsafety/accidents/5-die-after-wrong-way-crash-on-i-275-in-tampa/2164813) to the news article

[mjmacky]

I ruled out the British possibility based on the fact he/she was speeding.

[aryke]

I have no idea why people would increase the chances of crashing in order to do it.
However, its proven to reduce the amount of fuel you use as tail gating allows the car in front to deal with the drag from the air passing over the car.

It's like in cycling where the guy at the front of the pack (in the velodrome) uses approximately 30%-50% more energy.
That's why they move behind if they can't keep up the strain.

[mjmacky]

It's called drafting, and you can get 50% more miles to the gallon (or 33% less liters per 100 km).

It would have to be a tractor trailer in front of you though.