How do you deal with tailgaters?

[pigface1001]

Video it, send to police, let them sort it out.

Or as I prefere to do is slow down even more, then when we come out low speed zone hammer it.

[qwerty360]

Usually when (seriously - most drivers tailgate, but only a tiny proportion tailgate badly) tailgated I am cycling.

So move away from the kerb to give myself room to move into when they try to overtake through a gap narrower than their car (the people sitting <1m off my rear wheel will try to squeeze through wherever they think they can...)

Look for a side road where I can pull fully out of path.

Fail to pull off path, because doing so requires slowing down first, which would result in them rear ending me (despite plentiful signalling)...

[rev-erend]

Is stopping and inviting them to a game of baseball the wrong answer

[BertBert]

Deep Thought said:

Both of these will almost certainly antagonise the situation and if it does escalate or result in an accident, put you in the wrong also.

So it's illegal to slow down now is it?

[Pica-Pica]

pigface1001 said:

Video it, send to police, let them sort it out.

Or as I prefere to do is slow down even more, then when we come out low speed zone hammer it.

Thats me, then follow up with a few well-executed overtakes, and they are left well behind.

[Deep Thought]

BertBert said:

So it's illegal to slow down now is it?

Where did anyone say that?

[jondude]

Thanks all, always interesting to get others' views on this.

[Tycho]

I just ignore them but give a little more room between me and any vehicles in front in case they brake heavily. If they want to play silly buggers then I'll just keep the dash cam footage in case anything happens.

[eeLee]

LesXRN said:

I find that a spray of the screenwash usually works, even with the French.

this brings back the memory I have of being on some autoroute in the south of France in my trusty old 9-3 Aero. It was blessed with three, not two, nozzles.

I still remember the purple-faced look on the French guy tailgating me in a line of traffic with no chance to pull over as my screenwash drenched his clean BMW. Once I would pull over, he came alongside me with his window open to shout at me. I informed him he had a really small penis which resulted in him spitting at me.

He then tried to force me down to about 50kph so that I could be rear-ended by someone not paying attention. The trusty Saab saw to that failing, I saw him doing some mental overtakes to try to keep up with me (also using the hard shoulder).

In all honesty, maybe I shouldn't have but it was funny. That Saab washed any car behind it when you sprayed the screen which was pretty funny.

[Mont Blanc]

I completely and utterly ignore tailgaters. Why would I care?

I continue on my way at a steady speed. I don't do anything to react to them.

If they are daft enough to crash into the back of me then it'll be their problem.

Edited by Mont Blanc on Tuesday 25th June 12:04

[Yellow Lizud]

Mont Blanc said:

I completely and utterly ignore tailgaters. Why would I care?

If they are daft enough to crash into the back of me then it'll be their problem.

You obviously don't understand the very painful world of insurance.

Ignorance is bliss!

[PlywoodPascal]

I slow down a little bit if I need to get more room, but I actually find that what works best is constantly varying speed and being on/off throttle in an erratic way. if they can't maintain a steady (albeit close) distance then they tend to drop back because it gets annoying for them braking (and normally people who tailgate do think the only way to slow down is braking)/accelerating all the time.

[PlywoodPascal]

Honourable Dead Snark said:

Aha this is what I sometimes do, use engine breaking as well. Works so well and after just a few cycles of ever so slightly slowing down, speeding up, slowing down they seem to back off.

Does anyone notice a difference in how often they’re tailgated with what car they’re driving? I feel like I don’t often see SUV’s being tailgated as much as smaller cars. Maybe because of the rear view, someone tailgating an SUV doesn’t seem as intimidating and therefore people are less likely to try if it doesn’t work?

yes.

in a low car (sports car) people in all cars come up really close because they can see right over the top of you, when your roof is at bonnet height.
in a low-ish hatchback, only people in SUVs or vans tailgate, because only they can clearly see over the top of you.

these are the 'passive tailgaters' that a previous poster identified I think. they are unthinking dolts. an aggressive tailgater will tailgate anything, like a small angry terrier that humps every ankle it sees.

[Mont Blanc]

Yellow Lizud said:

Mont Blanc said:

I completely and utterly ignore tailgaters. Why would I care?

If they are daft enough to crash into the back of me then it'll be their problem.

You obviously don't understand the very painful world of insurance.

Ignorance is bliss!

I do understand the perils of insurance. I've had someone crash into my car while it was legally parked in a marked bay on the side of a road, and even that was a pain in the arse with increased premiums and other hassle through zero fault of my own.

But what I meant is, what is there to be gained by doing anything other than just ignoring a tailgater?

The only thing you could possibly do to ensure there was no risk from a tailgater would be to turn off the road or pull over, and if you did that for every tailgater you experienced you wouldn't anywhere...

[Purosangue]

jondude said:

I have always just held a steady speed, sometimes pulled into a bus stop or layby.

However, on my drive home there is a new 20mph stretch on a previous 30, which has no escape routes for 2 miles or so. I have someone in a SUV being particularly silly, pretending to ram me, back off, then ram again. I have 22 mph on the sat nav and hold it.


Problem is I now realise I perhaps spend far too much time looking in the rear view mirror as up ahead an oncoming car is now heading straight for me as they have overtaken a cyclist - I see this late but manage to veer left and all is well.

I did not realise I was so fixated on the clown behind me.


But anyone care to share some tips for dealing with tailgaters and not least the very aggressive ones??

easy pick up with 1/2 ton of dry sharp sand .....accelerate and watch tailgater back off

[dundarach]

I almost always use cruise now to stick to limits.

I don't care about the car, I'll leave it in cruise and they can either overtake, or crash into me, I don't care either way.

[donkmeister]

Drop to second, gently brake with your left foot and simultaneously mash the throttle with your right. Hey presto, big smokey rolling burnout whilst keeping at 20mph, and potentially a pebbledashed front end for them. Never tried it in FWD but certainly works with an RWD, once you learn to modulate the braking pressure. Disclaimer: never tried it with anyone behind me, and the first time you may eat steering wheel.

But in all seriousness, anything that people think is a clever trick... isn't. Just as "watch this" are the magic words that may make you crash your car, "I'll show you" are the magic words that may get you punched in the face.

Things I have seen and done:

1) Move left and wave them past. Works in some rural areas. More likely not thought. If you actually stop to let them past they might think they're about to be the recipient of a road rage (although, in fairness that can also cause them back off, and if they are a loonie then "I'm trying to let you go in front so I don't hold you up" would probably quell the flames of any rage from them).
2) Spray them with screenwash... Well... Someone tried that with me on a 2-lane motorway once and it didn't pan out how they'd hoped. They'd been lane hogging for miles, I'd done the courteous thing of keeping a decent gap when they were actually overtaking anything, but then closing up a bit closer to show my intentions when they could safely move over. Instead of just moving over, after a couple of repeats they decided that it would be "clever" to screenwash me. So I just moved over to L1 and went in front (despite the silly man trying to baulk my overtake... V8 vs Ecobox) and showed them that my washer bottle was bigger than their washer bottle before resuming cruise and continuing my day.
3) Brake-checking, flashing brakelights etc etc. That's a good way to get punched, and frankly you deserve it.

[WilliamWoollard]

If you've someone close behind the safest way to deal with it is to increase your gap to the car in front and brake earlier for hazards so they have time to react to your change in speed.

If it's extreme then just signal left and pull over like you're parking. Let them go and have an accident with someone else.

[hedges88]

If it's a modern car I take comfort that the automatic systems in the car will do a way better job of not hitting me than the stupid tailgating meat bag that's driving.

I would trust a tesla to get way way closer to my rear bumper and sit there than a manually piloted car with a living womble in charge. Some of these cars can pull up in surprisingly close distances without hitting you. I know a tesla may do a full emergency stop completely and safely in a situation a human driver would have killed me in, before even looking up from a Cornish pastie.

So I'm fine with tailgating as long as it's a car model I am confident is better than the person inside it.

[Southerner]

hedges88 said:

If it's a modern car I take comfort that the automatic systems in the car will do a way better job of not hitting me than the stupid tailgating meat bag that's driving.

I would trust a tesla to get way way closer to my rear bumper and sit there than a manually piloted car with a living womble in charge. Some of these cars can pull up in surprisingly close distances without hitting you. I know a tesla may do a full emergency stop completely and safely in a situation a human driver would have killed me in, before even looking up from a Cornish pastie.

So I'm fine with tailgating as long as it's a car model I am confident is better than the person inside it.

Hmm….

Unfortunately, all of us placing that much faith in ‘driver assist’ trickery, which may or may not behave as expected, will lower driving standards significantly in years to come!