Ideas to get rid of Tailgaters?

Laser lights that activate from your taillights toward the driver's eyes as soon as another car gets closer than two car lengths behind you. Well hey, it would work... those things have been aimed at pilots from someone on the ground! It would affect their vision only enough that they'd have to pull off. 🚗🚙
 
CallMeKate said:
Laser lights that activate from your taillights toward the driver's eyes as soon as another car gets closer than two car lengths behind you. Well hey, it would work... those things have been aimed at pilots from someone on the ground! It would affect their vision only enough that they'd have to pull off. 🚗🚙
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A long time ago I had a Firebird and had to get annual inspections from the military base. At some point my reverse lights stopped working; it turned out to be a bad switch in the gear shift. I traced the wiring and installed a toggle switch to turn the reverse light on and off manually.

I found it amusing that when I was being tailgated, switching on the reverse lights would make people back off. :giggle:
 
Bretrick said:
I would love to modify my car with a tank of oil at the rear with a control button on my dash. When those gaters get too close, push the button, sending them into a spin and crashing through the Barrier and into the river below. :)
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Oil slick? Seems a bit drastic though.


 
The posted speed limit in Ontario on the limited access 400 series highways is 100 kph ( 60 mph ). These are multi lane highways, and I drive just under the limit, in the right lane, leaving at least 2 other lanes open to pass me. Somebody wants to keep kissing my rear bumper ? I gradually slow down, without braking, and drop my speed ever slower. BY the time I get to about 70 kph ( 45 mph ) they get the message and pass me. Then I resume my previous speed. With more than two MILLION accident free miles and 57 years of safe driving behind me, I learned a long time ago how to deal with that kind of driver.
 
Macfan said:
As soon as possible and it is safe, I pull over and let them go around. Never know if their impatience is justified or not but I have no desire to hold them up :coffee:. Don...
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jimintoronto said:
The posted speed limit in Ontario on the limited access 400 series highways is 100 kph ( 60 mph ). These are multi lane highways, and I drive just under the limit, in the right lane, leaving at least 2 other lanes open to pass me. Somebody wants to keep kissing my rear bumper ? I gradually slow down, without braking, and drop my speed ever slower. BY the time I get to about 70 kph ( 45 mph ) they get the message and pass me. Then I resume my previous speed. With more than two MILLION accident free miles and 57 years of safe driving behind me, I learned a long time ago how to deal with that kind of driver.
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I’m the same. Tailgaters ride your tail purposefully to instigate you to go faster. I do the opposite also. If they don’t eventually pass me, I move over to the right and make sure they pass. Why put my life in danger due to some impatient a*****e!!
 
What drives me insane is when they're tailgating you and you have absolutely no place to go. You're a car length from the car in front of you but apparently they want you to go faster.....like you can go faster than the car in front of you.

Once, coming down a grade on the Pennsylvania Turnpike, all I could see in my back window was the grill of the semi behind me. He had to be two feet from my bumper. I was in the slow lane and there was a semi beside me in the other lane and a semi in front of me, so I couldn't change lanes or go faster. I suspect they were playing with me? I was terrified! I was going too fast to pull off to the side safely.
 
I regard speeding and tailgating to be the most common unsafe driving practices. I can be driving 10 mph above posted limits to keep up with the “slow” traffic, and yet have someone tailgating me so closely that I could count their nose hairs In my rear view mirror. In some cases, it’s a psychological intimidation ploy calculated to compel you to drive faster. Aggressive drivers will often roar around you at the first available opportunity, even in a no-passing zone, perhaps spraying you with gravel or delivering an obscene gesture.

Far too many drivers carry their emotional baggage with them behind the empowering wheel of a car, and the roads are their venue to act out their frustrations and individual psychodramas… 🙀
 
Ignore the tailgater. Stay calm and don't focus on looking in the rearview mirror. Don't touch the brake. Take your foot off the gas and gradually decrease your speed. Use your turning signal and pull over when it's safe.

My driving experiences are on rural roads 99% of the time. The above thoughts don't always work well when driving in places where everyone is driving 30mph above the speed limit, bumper-to-bumper.

I was once married to an intimidator who enjoyed tailgating and flashing the headlights repeatedly. Don't do that. :)
 
If you live in a city, the distance between cars is a lot smaller than if you live in a rural area. My ex, who was born and learned to drive In Queens, NYC, was used to driving really close. But, there are some who are right up your ***. The best thing you can do, when that happens, is drive extremely defensively, so that you don't have to slam on the brakes. Cops frown on getting out of your car and shooting them.
The best advice I got was from a NASCAR driver. he said, "Watch what the furthest car, you can see, is doing; because in a few seconds you're going to be doing it'.
 
I completely ignore tailgaters. I drive at whatever speed I want and if the person behind me doesn't like it, he can either go around me or keep following me. After a day of flying at between 500-600 mph. I decide how fast I am going to drive. The fastest I ever flew was 665 mph. No one past then either.
 
Tailgating - I used to lightly touch the brake pedal for the brake lights - they either slowed down and backed off or moved out and sped off wasting their petrol.
More than once I thought 'up you', 'stick that in yer pipe and smoke it', 'neh neh neh neh neh' :p

Never did that on motorways tho' - I'm not that daft ;)
 
I tap my brake lights too and they usually back off. Once I actually hit the brakes hard. That was when I was younger and dumber, but the guy was just trying to intimidate me and there was not another car around. He passed me after that and gave a one finger salute.
 
Think they want better gas mileages. I remember the Volkswagen Beetle, would often see one tailgate a 18-wheeler to get mileage and keep up. Turning off to get a Chocolate bar is a great plan. It answers most all questions.
 
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I really don't get these people. I want distance between myself and the car in front of me. I don't know, seems to make sense.

That jerk who moved out below me that would yell at the female that was there on and off, loved to gun his noisy car. I could hear him before the parking lot. I'll bet he's a tailgater.
 
Remy said:
I really don't get these people. I want distance between myself and the car in front of me. I don't know, seems to make sense.
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Makes sense for you, sort of, but other people sometimes need that space. IMHO you're more likely to get rear ended or cause someone behind you to stop abruptly and they get rear ended. Use the 2 second rule to judge the appropriate following distance, 4 sec for motorcycles, as conditions deteriorate, add time.
 

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