Tail-gaters

[bara]

Dear Dumb Driver,

I dont care where you are going, I dont care how late you are, and I dont care how important you think you are.

Get away from my bumper before you slam into me!!!
Maybe you have a ton of disposable income so it doesnt matter if you dont have a car for awhile. But I need mine to get to work, buy groceries, and all kids of other things that us little people have to do.

Really, Im not asking for much just a couple of car lengths and I dont mean the matchbox variety.

AHh.. I see you almost hit me when I had to stop because all the other cars in front me where, but you barely had enough time to do so. I came to a nice stop, didnt slam my brakes or jerk against my belt or anything. You did, I know you did since I use my mirrors and knew you had been following to closely.

So please, stay away from my bumper.

Sincerely, The Rest of Us.

P.S. No matter how much make up you put on its not going to help hide a broken nose when you slam into your steering wheel cause you are not paying attention.

[crashhelmet]

I saw a bumper sticker once that read "If you're going to ride my ass, can you at least pull my hair?"

But yes, I hate them too. The weirdest thing, though, is that my gas pedal suddenly stops working every time they get up on me like that. My truck just slows down on its own for some unexplainable reason

[daleduke17]

I saw a bumper sticker once that read "If you're going to ride my ass, can you at least pull my hair?"

But yes, I hate them too. The weirdest thing, though, is that my gas pedal suddenly stops working every time they get up on me like that. My truck just slows down on its own for some unexplainable reason

Dang, your truck does that too? That is just weird. Must be something built into trucks... mine will do that as well.

[TheHuckster]

When I was 16 I was told by a particularly snarky family friend that when people tailgate you, just hit the parking brake. The benefit to that is the idiot behind you doesn't even have a chance to see your tail lights.

I didn't follow his advice, of course, but I found it amusing.

[wolfie]

Dear tailgater,

BACK OFF! A 53 foot dry van is an opaque item, so you can't see what's going on ahead of me, so your only sign that I'm slowing down is my brake lights. You're so close that if I have to stop suddenly, my brake lights won't be enough warning for you to stop before you hit me - and I don't want to spend time explaining to the safety director that you spent the rest of your life trying to get your foot from the accelerator to the brake.

[Rageaholic]

The worst is when you're actually going slightly above the speed limit and they're right behind you, getting closer and closer...

[Glados]

I agree! I am frequently finding myself being tailgated and it frustrates the hell out of me. I was recently rear ended due to someone doing this and not seeing my brake lights.

[BrenDAnn]

Oh lord this is a pet peeve of mine. I've seen people get so close that their headlights disappear from my view, and I'm usually going 5 mph over the limit. Scares the shit out of me. One of these days, they're going to take me, themselves, or both out. I find that a simple tap of the brakes (the regular ones, not the parking brake, lol) gets their attention most of the time. I'm not talking slamming on the brakes, just a tap. Just enough to make the lights flash. Honestly, though, I've lost track of the times I've looked in my rearview, seen someone glued to my rear bumper, and screamed "GET OFF MY ASS!"...Really. Back the fuck OFF, people! The ones that really get me are the ones that will tailgate in the middle of winter/icy weather/a torrential storm/other bad weather that should slow them down. Seriously? If I have to stop, you're not going to be able to. You're going to kill me. BACK. OFF!

[Aethian]

Was I the only one who had a driving instructor who said, "If you don't want to get caught speeding don't speed. Also keep yourself a couple miles under the posted limit so that if you do get into a accident the other person can't say you were speeding and that's why you stopped unsafely."

Cause folks...most of y'all that think its fine to go above the speed limit you scare me.

[Greenday]

Was I the only one who had a driving instructor who said, "If you don't want to get caught speeding don't speed. Also keep yourself a couple miles under the posted limit so that if you do get into a accident the other person can't say you were speeding and that's why you stopped unsafely."

Cause folks...most of y'all that think its fine to go above the speed limit you scare me.

In most states (I can't claim all since I don't know the differing laws of every state), if you hit someone from behind, you're automatically guilty of tailgating no matter what the circumstances. You can both be doing twice the speed limit and it's still the person from behind's fault.

Depending on what highway I'm on, I'll do between 5 over and up to 15 over. Even when I do 80 in a 65, I'll still get tailgated by people which blows my mind.

[AdminAssistant]

The vast majority of the time, especially on interstates, IF you are otherwise following every rule of the road, the police will not stop you for going 5 to 10 over. YMMV, some cops are sticklers, some towns do it for the ticket money. My personal rule is, if I'm on an interstate or state highway and the speed limit reduces through a town, I will drive at or under the speed limit, because it's probably a speed trap. My BIL is a rookie police officer, and he was told to not pull anyone over for less than 10 over, unless it's a school zone or they're otherwise driving recklessly. There are simply too many other things to worry about. And there are times to speed up, like passing. I'm not going to just cruise along, going 2 mph faster than someone, and take 10 minutes to get around. I'm going to ease off my cruise, speed up a bit, pass, get back in my lane, build up some distance, then ease back down.

[mikoyan29]

My favorite is when you just pass an accident and the traffic starts to get back to speed and there is someone right on your ass. Um....didn't you just see the three cars back there where the center car looks like an accordian because it got it from both ends?

[crashhelmet]

In most states (I can't claim all since I don't know the differing laws of every state), if you hit someone from behind, you're automatically guilty of tailgating no matter what the circumstances. You can both be doing twice the speed limit and it's still the person from behind's fault.

Not completely true. There are circumstances where the police will find you not at fault for rear ending someone, like if you get cut off or someone slams on their breaks at a high speed, or in combination of the two that left me with a broken nose when I went face first into the head rest of the driver seat (I was sitting in the back)

The insurance companies, however, will still hold you at fault regardless of what the police reports say.

[Lachrymose]

Was I the only one who had a driving instructor who said, "If you don't want to get caught speeding don't speed. Also keep yourself a couple miles under the posted limit so that if you do get into a accident the other person can't say you were speeding and that's why you stopped unsafely."

Cause folks...most of y'all that think its fine to go above the speed limit you scare me.

I don't necessarily disagree with you. Unfortunately, speeding or lack thereof becomes kind of a local culture thing.

I drive probably consistently 10 miles/hr over the speed limit, except in residential zones (where it's 15 over...just kidding! I don't speed there.) Never been ticketed for speeding in the 18 years I've been driving. I have received a warning or three in speedtraps. Typically, the cops won't give a full ticket around here unless you're going 11 mph or more over the limit. Of course, they still have the option to if they wanted.

Trust me when I say around here, that is still too slow for most people. I actually used to drive a little faster (15-20 over) on the interstates. And I STILL had people riding my ass. In the slow lane. Right on the bumper. Pisses me right off.

ETA: Going back to the local culture thing: I've been to places where no one seems to drive over the speed limit at all. I've also been to places where they go even faster than around here. Sometimes even way more dangerously (EVERYONE is riding EVERYONE else's bumper..etc..). It's kind of an interesting phenomenon, really.

[Greenday]

When I drove through New York on the way to Canada, I was doing 90-95mph a fair amount of the way on the really long highways where no cops patrolled. And so were a lot of other people. Felt nice. Speed limit was 65mph btw.

Lately I've passed cops while doing nearly 80mph in 65s. Cops didn't even bother getting out of their hiding spots.

I've heard the rule is don't pull anyone over if they aren't doing at least ten over, but when you are doing the speed of traffic, they won't pull you over.

Tailgating is just stupid though. I mean, do they just floor it? Or do they have an actual high speed where they'll stop tailgating people?