Dear Audi driver,

It’s snowing. Visibility is reduced. It’s -3 and the road is covered in snow, slush and ice. The traffic report on the radio goes on for about twenty minutes just to list all the accidents.

Given this, I happen to think 50 is a perfectly respectable speed to do on a two-lane dual carriageway. You clearly disagree, I get that, but kindly get your **** nose out of my **** arse, or put your money where your mouth is and overtake me.

Yours sincerely,
Annoyed of Northumberland

Dear Audi driver,

sums it up pretty much.

I was amused on tuesdayby there being one clear lane of 50mph traffic, and the outer lane of slush, being littered with Rep mobiles straddling the barrier where they had spun off.

Muppets.

Just gradually slow down more and more the longer they tailgate you. I find that usually works.

Just gradually slow down more and more the longer they tailgate you. I find that usually works.

+1

and i’m sure it says it in the highway code.

Followed a lazy bint down the road from my house this morning who hadnt cleared the ice off her car. 10mph with her wipers going furiously etc.
Got to the junction realised she could not pull out cos both side windows obscured and frozen shut. Sat there for a minute then clearly just took a chance!
I know its school hols etc but the number of young ones (mine included) who are usually milling around that time of morning and to have lazy idiots like this on the road really winds me up!!!!”!! 👿

I do what clubber suggests.

Mind you, I typically drive at 50 – 60 on A roads and motorways now anyway. It’s amazing how many more mpg I get and the journeys don’t seem to take much longer – the amount of times you catch up to faster traffic at traffic lights and round abouts etc. Plus, taking it slow makes things much more relaxing and keeps the blood pressure down.

I agree with clubber. If they’re not at a safe braking distance behind you, reduce speed to the point where the gap they’re leaving becomes a safe braking distance.

Give hime a break, he’s clearly got sales targets to meet to pay for his oversized and underpowered repmobile.

Sound advice. As it was we both had to slow down to a sub-10mph crawl anyway as we approached another accident.

In some ways I wish he had gone for the sketchy overtake, had a wobble and shat himself.
Then when he later found himself just one place ahead of me in the queue, he might have reflected whether it was all worth the stress.

I usually left foot brake first of all to shake tailgaters – press the pedal just enough to activate the brake light but don’t slow down. Mosy get the message. If they don’t, slow down and down and down as mentioned.

Tailgaters are hateful even in perfect weather. In ice it’s REALLY stupid.

Sounds like the idiot that came up behind me on a rutted icy road with about 3 inches of ice still on it. Kept getting closer and closer already done the braking thing so just flashed my hazards to try and get them the idea so they took that as a sign to overtake bearing in mind that it was a normal A road – of course when they crossed out of the ruts I should think they got a scare. The transit van 2ft of there back followed directly behind them. They then got to the car that was a 100yds in front of me and couldnt overtake anymore as the road became windy in any case.

Surf-Mat – that is just not awesome. Quite dangerous infact.

Just lift off and control the space around you. It’s up to you to ensure you have safe distances around you for emergency maneuvers. If that means lifting off to for a few minutes then returning to your previous speed to increase the gap, then that is fine.

Either that or just throw stuff out the sunroof at them.

Quirrel +1billion.

I’ve stopped completely due to tailgaters on my motorbike, blocked the road and gone to have a “chat”. I really am quite brave as long as I keep my helmet on! I stick to 30 mph speed limits, regardless of weather conditions, and I am not ashamed to admit it.

Left foot brakers are hateful even in perfect weather. In ice it’s REALLY stupid.

Corrected that for you Surf-Mat

“Mind you, I typically drive at 50 – 60 on A roads and motorways now anyway”

Why its dangerous to drive at those kind of speeds on a motorways and causes all kinds of congestion.

Minimum speed limits need to be brought in for Motorways IMO (conditions permitting)

I stick to 30 mph speed limits

Whats wrong with that? The only speed limits i tend to go over are on the motorway when if it is clear ill set the cruise control to 80. As someone said on the diesel thread backing off saves you some fuel and usually costs you a couple of minutes at most

Driving at 60 on a motorway is fine.

Driving at 50 is fine as long as you are in the correct lane.

Trucks are limited to 56mph and that isn’t deemed dangerous.

Surf-Mat – that is just not awesome. Quite dangerous infact.

Quite amazingly, my driving instructor once told me that trick. When I was a kid I used to do it when ‘racing’ – but also put my foot down too to leave the ‘competition’ trailing in the wake of the power of my Mini ‘thous’.

Now I realise it really is a silly thing to do.

Agree with Waderider, Since I got my van I’ve slowed right down, I just chill out with the cruise control on, driving is way nicer! Journey times aren’t that much longer and it’s so much less stressful.

“As someone said on the diesel thread backing off saves you some fuel and usually costs you a couple of minutes at most”

I disagree on this one. 50 mile commute on the M1. Averaging about 60 I will get if Im lucky about 52mpg. 70-80mph 48-50mpg. 90 ish 46-47mpg.

So the mpg v time doesnt really work on that one, at least in my car.

I have no problem with people doing slow speeds on motorways. However they tend to be the ones who sit in the middle lane without a clue whats going on around them, or the ones that travel slower than lorries in the inside lane, forcing lorries to have to overtake them which then slows the whole traffic flow.

Oh then theres the motorway drivers who touch their brakes every 2 minutes because they are incapable of judging the speed and flow of the traffic ahead…

Funkydunc you’re wrong, if everyone drove more considerately, pulled back into the left after overtaking and stopped braking like mad for no apparent reason congestion would be dramatically cut on motorways/dual carriageways, sittig at 50-60 makes little to no difference.

Oh then theres the motorway drivers who touch their brakes every 2 minutes because they are incapable of judging the speed and flow of the traffic ahead…

Ahh yes – those with ABS fitted – Arbitrary Braking Systems.

Whats wrong with that?

I have no idea but it seems to really piss the vast majority of drivers off. I find tailgaters who overtake me in the 30 zone get especially annoyed when I filter back past them at the lights, but I only save that trick for when people have really annoyed me, usually I try to let idiots go whenever possible

monkeyfudger I’m saying the same thing, just you can do all that with some travelling at 50mph and some at 80mph. People just are not generally alert enough to whats going on around them.

I’ve been guilty of tailgating myself. When you drive on motorways you end up seeing some how little notice people take of whats going on around.

You can come up behind some one in the outside lane doing 60mph with no traffic in the middle lane and they simply will not budge. You either have to get too close, or flash your lighhts to get them to move over. (I’m not saying its right)

To tailgate like the Audi above is just stupid..

Just gradually slow down more and more the longer they tailgate you.

Then accelerate when they try to overtake.
That’ll learn ‘im.

Tailgating really winds me up, I often respond quite childishly, normally I just blast away from them once the lane in front is clear. If I catch slower traffic and they catch back up I just repeat until they learn not to sit up my arse, normally doesn’t take anymore than three goes at this for them to be educated.

The best fun though is “tailgating the tailgaters”. Occassionally if I see some really bad tailgating in front of me, you know the type big Audi/BMW/Merc right up the arse of an old lady in a Corsa, I’ll return the favour. This is particularly good fun in my brother’s Evo, especially if the antilag is on.

This is neither big nor clever but I can’t help feeling satisfied when some repmobile driving twunt sheepishly pulls over becuase they don’t like receiving the treatment they happily dish out to others.

I disagree on this one. 50 mile commute on the M1. Averaging about 60 I will get if Im lucky about 52mpg. 70-80mph 48-50mpg. 90 ish 46-47mpg.

My car if i stick to 70 seems to get around the 50mpg mark if you go up to 80 it drops to around 42 so there is quite a difference. Not that it matters a huge amount to me as I have a fuel card from work but the difference in getting stressed with other drivers does make a difference and makes the journey more relaxing.

I’ll accept driving at 60 on a motorway as reasonable behaviour. Driving at 50 however means all the heavies will be pulling into the 2nd lane to overtake, which will cause congestion. Have you actually tried driving at that speed and seeing what happens?

The sooner that people learn to just let it go the better. Driving isnt a competition. And lets face it, if it was everyone would be red carded for unsporting behaviour.

Surf-Mat – that is just not awesome. Quite dangerous infact.

WHY is it dangerous? The tailgater thinks you’re braking but you’re not. Maybe dangerous if you can’t tell when a brake starts actually braking but to anyone with a sense of feeling in their foot – not at all dangerous.

So get off your high horse and naff off.

A lot of people tailgate by mistake – they just drift too close. Letting them know they are doing it often makes them back off. And a brake light in the eyes is a very good way of informing them.

I usually just slam on my brakes so that the car rams into the back of mine.

Then I get a shiny new one with the insurance. Easy.

Why is it dangerous? OK. What is your reaction when you have found yourself a wee bit too close to the car infront and they start to brake? You brake harder to avoid hitting them. What does the person behind them have to do? Yes that’s correct – brake even harder. This continues in this trend or shockwave until either the traffic has come to a complete stop or there is a crash. All because you thought you were AWESOME in your left foot braking ability. Also – what happens if you need to pull an emergency stop when you’ve got your left foot on the brake? Enjoy your AWESOME trip to A&E after you’ve hit the barrier.

+1 for left foot braking ,or a quick flash of the fog lights has the same effect.

So hang on a second what you are actually saying is that its the people driving behind the person who taps the brake peddal that are driving dangerously….

Its the people who cant judge speed and traffic flow who tap their brakes every 2 mins that cause accidents.

Going back to my uber horsepower nissan, i’d been tinckering with the fuel map to the point where the injectors were dumping huge amount of fuel into the manifold when you lifted off the loud pedal. The result was about 12 foot of flame out the rear. Had a tailgater follow me into a corner in 30 mph zone, all of 4 foot off my bumper. The flames probably reached his faux cosworth spoiler on the back of his car, certainly went over his windscreen. He backed way off then.

And touching the brake pedal is a big no-no. Gernerally if the driver is that close, they are looking in front of the car they are tailgating. A hint of lights and they often panic brake or they get conditioned to seeing the brake lights and cease to pay attention to them. Bit like the fella who cried wolf

Why is it dangerous? OK. What is your reaction when you have found yourself a wee bit too close to the car infront and they start to brake? You brake harder to avoid hitting them. What does the person behind them have to do? Yes that’s correct – brake even harder. This continues in this trend or shockwave until either the traffic has come to a complete stop or there is a crash. All because you thought you were AWESOME in your left foot braking ability. Also – what happens if you need to pull an emergency stop when you’ve got your left foot on the brake? Enjoy your AWESOME trip to A&E after you’ve hit the barrier.

Not the brightest of drivers are you?

Have you heard of looking further than just the car behind or ahead to properly assess the best course of action? Clearly not.

And emergency braking? It’s called braking with your LEFT FOOT. As used by many racing and rally drivers. And anyone with a modicum of driver skill.

You sound to me like the only training you’ve ever had is many many years ago when you learned to drive – and that’s it.

Nice try but in your own words, FAIL.

Clong – 😆

clubber+1

Tailgating is sheer folly, an accident in-waiting.

The key to driving slowly is to actively monitor what’s going on behind and work-up opportunities to let faster vehicles pass. That means slowing down and moving left where there is clear visibility to be passed, or occasionally pulling over and stopping to let multiple vehicles pass.

I do this all the time to avoid aggressive tailgaters. Let the idiots collide into someone else.

Surf-Mat – you simply do not know how wrong you are. Someone care to tell him just how wrong he is?