Why tailgate

Let's see I'm gonna give you all a little What Would You Do scenario and watch the fur fly. Let's say you're in a crowded parking garage that has plenty of room for two cars, each going their own way, but you have sharp turns and cannot see small cars pulling out of their spaces. Do you: A. Drive 50mph and whip around tight corners like your car's made of rubber? The correct answer is A. If you answered B, you're a bleedin' idiot.

Get off the road, douchebag. Now, since I drive carefully and intelligently in a crowded parking garage, I invariably have some knuckle-dragging jerk riding my bumper and beating on his horn who absolutely cannot be bothered to drive like a responsible adult. If you are one of those pricks who like to tailgate people and drive like a jackass in a parking garage, do us considerate and responsible drivers a favor and wrap your piece of crap around a telephone pole.

At least you'd be off our roads and out of our parking lots! Sheri ,. Drafting anywhere else beside a race track: incompetence. Louis ,. I believe tailgaters save fuel by driving really closely to the vehicles in front of them; it reduces wind resistance. But the truck has to be really large to block airflow onto the car.

Flyer ,. On the one hand, I think it's right to let these idiots pass so they're out of your hair. If they cause an 'accident', at least you won't be involved. But letting them go potentially teaches them that tailgating is perfectly OK and gives them licence to bully the next driver until said crash occurs.

I'd rather see an official camera system developed whereby they can be recorded on video and reported. The police can then write them a nice letter telling them that they owe some money for their behaviour and will lose their licence if it happens again : That way, you don't have to resort to anything at all and can rest assured that the police will handle it after the event.

Tex ,. If I am going the speed limit and someone is tailgating it not only against the law but most importantly places someones life at risk. Because it is potentially deadly I usually pull to the side and let them pass.

After they pass me I immediately get back on the road behind them. Long story short I'm sure it would be rewarding to see the looks on their faces when they return to their car with two flat tires or even a broken windshield.

It can work both ways but tailgater always end up paying big bucks in the end. Opal ,. James leatham ,. I have driven for over 50 years,and have found todays drivers the worst I have ever seen on the Rd They are basically WIMPS in over sized useless trucks,and love bullying anything in front of them ,by tailgating anything in front of themselves providing it is a smaller,older vehicle They are just plain RUDE,and assume the Rd was built just for them,and anything that gets in their way should pull over and let them pass They make it almost impossible to obey speed limits as they will dog you to make you go beyond the speed limits James L Leatham.

Prue Adamson ,. I was struck by a tailgater he told the police he was trying to pass me He was overtly tailgating. Sean ,. The people that seem to tailgate are the tough guys from high school. When they tailgate, you can damn near see the bottom of their truck but it's funny because when they step out it's a short man standing at about five-five with a huge beer belly.

And he's working in construction because he was dumb enough to pick on other kids in high school and he suffered for it. And one of his victims in now his boss and his boss picks on him.

Cindy ,. I attended a course on personality types. They don't think ahead to the What-if scenarios. I was hit by a tailgater yesterday. She blamed me for the accident because I was changing lanes when she was picking up speed to stay in the right lane to the end. What she was doing prior to the accident really upset annoyed me that she had the nerve to blame me.

She tailgated me for 3 miles. Most of the route had two lanes. Several times I changed lanes to let her by. There was plenty of room to go by, but she kept changing lanes too.

I have no idea what I did to cause it. A better driver ,. To Driver, Perhaps if you read the previous comments you would know that tailgating isn't always the result of someone driving slowly in the left lane.

Many people tailgate in the right lane, in residential areas, and sometimes in school zones. And I noticed that speed is often NOT the issue. Whether someone was doing the speed limit or 20mph OVER, people tailgate. What it winds down to is that people are impatient, uneducated, distracted and thoughtless. Driver ,. Have any of you guys ever thought about why tailgaters are tailing you? Think about it and do something about it. Be open minded and stop always thinking about yourself and have some road knowledge and courtesy.

Ever heard that law? The comments on here have hit the nail on the head. There are sooo many problems with peoples minds behind the wheel. At first I thought that the tailgater just "really loved their jobs". What I have found after an experiment, People dont like to be on camera. Put a digital camera on the dash that takes real time video.

When they get really close and tailgate, they can see the LCD screen of the car in front of you and they want NO part of the Video recording or being the cause of accident. Plus, If they cause the accident you got it all on video. I think cars should have an onboard recorder that loop records so if the car was hit it would tell the insurance companies who was at fault.

Seems like very few people really use the rules of the road anymore. There is a clip from the movie lost highway taigater that should be shown in drivers ed. Thats what I would like them all to feal, the kick in the end is pricless! Things I have done. Police should do their job. This tailgating is out of control. Wonder why people are not buying new cars? Dan ,. Also i've seen people do it behind tucks adn buses. However, it would be fscinating to know how this relates to their brain.

Is there something missing? After all, there are so many advantages of staying back. Richard ,. When I used to ride the Stanford local train from Connecticut to New York City, I noticed that people would come up to the platform, while waiting for the train, and would stand in clusters every day even though they appeared not to know each other.

I believe that peoples mores required them to stand in cluster. The same applies to their subconscious or conscious compulsion to tailgate. Vikki ,. I drive a bus and I noticed that cars will tailgate. They are so close to the bus all I can see are their mirrors or the headlights.

This is dangerous for the drivers. They are clueless!! Good driver ,. I find it very hard to believe that some people simply does not know that they're tailgating. I see drivers leave about 10 feet between vehicles. And yes, even cops tailgate. About six months ago, I was doing Walter H ,. Don't forget, some people don't KNOW they're tailgating. I've seen truckers do it, driving instructors, even cops. It's an education thing, but don't try the education at highway speeds.

Never know what might happen!! The safe and legal thing to do is to squirt water at them. In California, it is perfectly legal to discharge water and only water onto the roadway. A decent hobbyist can devise a pump as in windshield washer and reservoir that, with testing and adjustment, shoot water backwards from your car. If you actually devise a strong enough pump to shoot it from the area surrounding your windshield, the offenders won't get mad.

If you put it on the rear of your car and put something like Dad's Paint Remover in the reservoir, they may get mad enough to find you, later, when they find their paint job blistering. I don't recommend that one but it is fun to think about. I moved to Arizona in , my drivers license does not expire until I agree with sierra, everyone needs to have a 'refresher' course every so often.

I drive 5mph OVER the limit and stay to the right. Most of the time these idiots are following so closely, I am only able to see their windshield. One thing I have noticed is that often, the tailgaters are driving these enormous trucks and SUVs. I drive a small 2-door coupe, it is not very comforting to look in my rear-view mirror and find nothing but someones front grill. Don't these people know that when they tailgate, they are putting those peoples' lives in danger?

Do they even care, or is getting to their destination 5 minutes sooner much more important? I recently came across a quote that really relates to this subject: "Drive carefully. Cars aren't the only things that can be recalled by their maker. IH 35 Bob ,. Thought I would take a little "BRAKE" from the anger management book I"m reading today to google the cause of my 40 yrs of anger about tailgating.

Just wanted see if there are any slants to my tailgating subject that I have not considered. We live in a green Texas oasis called San Marcos. Still half our population are Tx. State students young and often prone to tailgate.

I might even call myself an aggresssive driver. Still I never tailgate, clip or otherwise violate the space of even the most cluless near me. I drive about 7 mph above the limit in town and on the hwy but have been speeding up, if possible , far beyond this to get out of the gun sights of tailgaters.

I turn on my turn signal and get out of the attack zone of tailgaters as quickly as possible. I used to brake in anger when I was younger.

Both actions have a strong element of self richousness to it. Iraj Behbehani ,. As a driving instructor and educator, I completely agree with the content of the above article, and that is why I have been working on this problem for many years and finally patented my idea which can solve many of the above problems. For more information, please go to my web-site "www. Our culture is based on competition. When you call from your cell, in CA i know it goes to chp.

NOT even close dude. I agree we can't get thru to their lack of intelligence. We have to do what we have to do to protect oursevles and others around us. Especially 'mature' drivers. Sierra I am passionate about this. Tailgating is Seriously Dangerous and Rude and everything else.

Nina ,. I have to do a project for my driver's ed. But all the websites I've found that look like they could have that info are impossible to naveigate! Does anyone know of any good sites I could visit that have that information?

New York, i like the first part of your comment but i have serious misgivings about the second part. I agree, tailgating IS irresponsible. Problem is, tailgating means different things to different people.

It's really dumb and it would be extremely difficult to find a rational reason or advantage to it. But don't give people too much credit for intelligence. I've seen drivers tailgate when there's only two cars on the road and an alternative lane availble. Sometimes I'm glad there's people like you out there to teach these dumbells a lesson. On the other hand, the brake light thing is very aggressive even more aggressive than tailgating, which many drivers don't realize they're doing.

Try to understand the lack of intelligence and don't feel obliged to enforce your ethics. Not worth the stress.

Test Your Vocabulary. Can you spell these 10 commonly misspelled words? Love words? Need even more definitions? Homophones, Homographs, and Homonyms The same, but different. Ask the Editors 'Everyday' vs. What Is 'Semantic Bleaching'? How 'literally' can mean "figuratively". Literally How to use a word that literally drives some pe Is Singular 'They' a Better Choice?

The awkward case of 'his or her'. Take the quiz. Our Favorite New Words How many do you know? That is why road safety advocates and regulators recommend keeping at least a few seconds of distance between your car and the car in front of you. Below, learn more about the dangers of this driving behavior, why it happens and assessing fault for a tailgating accident.

We also discuss some practical steps you can take to avoid tailgating other vehicles, along with what you should do if you are being tailgated. Our attorneys have obtained millions in compensation for crash victims throughout the state. Our founder Jeff Phillips has served as lead counsel in more than 40 jury trials and has obtained verdicts in several Arizona counties. Did you know if you are traveling at 60 miles per hour mph you need at least feet to make a complete stop?

To give you an idea of how long that is, a semitrailer is about 0. In other words, you need quite a bit of time and space to stop when you are traveling 60 miles per hour. If the driver of the car in front of you suddenly slows down, and you are less than a couple seconds behind, you may not be able to stop before crashing into the bumper of the car in front. While tailgating is dangerous in any kind of weather, it is particularly dangerous when the road is wet because of rain or snow.

In these conditions, you need even more space between your vehicle and the one in front of you. You may think you can avoid a crash simply by keeping your eyes firmly on the car in front of you. However, it can take one to two seconds to respond to a road hazard. If you are too close to the car in front of you, one or two seconds could be just enough of a delay to cause a crash.

Tailgating is particularly dangerous in oversized vehicles, which often need more time and space to stop compared to smaller vehicles. You should also avoid tailgating a vehicle that is much larger than yours, such as a commercial truck.

If you are on a highway or interstate, a crash is likely to occur at high speed and your car could slide under the back of the trailer.

The bottom of the trailer is likely going to be higher than the hood of your vehicle and it may even come up through the windshield. These crashes are often life-threatening. Drivers often tailgate in a fit of road rage or aggressive driving.