Sat at the traffic lights in my car this morning on a 50mph dual carriageway. As they changed, a car appeared quickly in my rear view mirror and tailgated me as I pulled away.

I was a bit quicker off than the car next to me in the nearside lane, so duly pulled over. By this time I was doing 50, and the tailgater was desperate to get past. This seems to be a common occurrence – happens all the time on the motorway, someone follows at a reasonable distance, but as soon as you move ion a lane, they can’t follow suit but must speed up, then block you in when you need to pull out again.

Anyway, this morning common sense and good judgement went to the wind. I just kept accelerating steadily, just in front of the tailgater, to see how fast they would go to try and get past.

55mph, 60, 70, 75!

I bottled it then, the common sense synapses belatedly started firing. The other driver passed at around 85mph (still in a 50 limit), then had to pull in sharply to get into a left hand filter lane and stop (they could have pulled in at any point as I was still slightly in front). I decided not to do the head-shake and look as I’d been a **** too, as I sailed on past.

But why the need to do this? What drives people to have this must-overtake attitude when its clear they don’t need to and it doesn’t advantage them?

Do you do this, as there seem to be plenty who do?

55mph, 60, 70, 75!

in a 50 zone?

#bloodymotorists

Well done.

You were doing 75 in a 50 zone.

You proved that you are a much better driver than the other guy.

there’s the other type who can’t help themselves doing what you did:

On a mortorway there are some drivers that you cannot pass by doing 2-3mph more than them as they’ll always speed up. You then raise your speed a bit more and so do they. You can get ’em at least 15-20 above where they started if you’re patient 😳

I would have gone to 165mph if it had been 5am on a Sunday morning 😉

Scaredypants – yes – exactly the same mindset!

tis the route of all of the cycling versus motorists issues… the mental thing of must over take.

Its why drivers hate cyclist. we so often can legally over/undertake, we are actually faster than cars on many journeys. it annoys the hell out of drivers. Hoorah.

Must be some primevil thing to do with survival of the fittest.

what boils my piss is when you move in and they sit on your quarter panel – i drive a van and its very easy for folk to disapear in that space – ive never hit anyone as im generally aware of when a car has dissapeared from the RVM and hasnt gone past the front of the car but some folk will sit on the quarter panel for aaagees ….. and wont move even when the indicators on. Pass or dont pass but dont sit there.

So you drove like an idiot because you thought someone else was driving like an idiot?

I don’t think what the OP did was the most sensible option and I think he accepts this. But, come on, admit it, we’ve all done similar. 🙂

Oh, extra points for the first person to correctly identify both the make of car and demographic of driver 😉

(It won’t take long with all the stereotyping on this forum)

reliant robin and OAP ill bet 😉

Best change your username.

What drives people to have this must-overtake attitude when its clear they don’t need to and it doesn’t advantage them?

Clear to whom? I could overtake you and be no further ahead of you by the time we reach the next lights, or possibly even the ones after that. You assume I’ve gained no advantage, but you’re not aware of the several other cars I’ve overtaken in the last few miles that are now some considerable distance behind. It’s the Team Sky approach to making progress by marginal gains 🙂

The guy in your example still sounds like an idiot though

Fat middle aged bloke in audi/bmw rep mobile?

One of them has to be an Audi.

Dunno. But I find it funny too. Loads of other amusing behaviour on the road, such as:

– people queuing on the outside ending up going slower than you are on the inside, but as you start to undertake them (not literally undertake them, just maintain your speed in that lane) they speed up and get closer and closer to the car in front until they have to back off or go into the car in front.

I drive at 60 to and from work as driving at 70 saves very little time, but costs more in fuel.
The amount of people who will pull in behind me on the approach to their junction and get closer and closer to try and bully you to speed up. Then when they get to the slip road they roar up it because they must ‘pass’ you and then brake hard for the roundabout/t-junction/traffic lights at the end of the slip road.

Then there’s the people who gradually speed up as you overtake them. You catch them at 70mph, pull out to overtake and they immediately start slowly pulling away, up to 75mph and just about holding station with them, pull back in and all of a sudden you are almost driving into the back of them so pull out again and they are pulling away again.
I have done similar to the OP (gradually speeding up) to see how fast you have to get to overtake people who do this and have been up to about 85mph before they let you pass. Then by the time you pull back in, they are already slowing back down to 67mph or whatever it was they were doing before you overtook them….

Then there’s the leap frog overtakers who overtake you then pull in and slow down, so you overtake them, pull in and they almost immediately speed up and overtake you then pull in and slow down….

OP.

The guy in the other car was doing a “social experiment” to figure out how fast people will drive to avoid being overtaken. And then slow back down to a normal speed straight away afterwards.

He’s now calling you a muppet, and everyone on some Golf forum (or whatever) is talking about you

Then there’s the people who gradually speed up as you overtake them. You catch them at 70mph, pull out to overtake and they immediately start slowly pulling away, up to 75mph and just about holding station with them, pull back in and all of a sudden you are almost driving into the back of them so pull out again and they are pulling away again

On long motorway journeys I use cruise control (I luv cruise control )and see this a lot. Not sure if a lot of them mean it,as some peoples speed seems to yoyo a lot over big distances . It’s the weavers and drifters I don’t like .

Not this

or this

more this

Then there’s the leap frog overtakers who overtake you then pull in and slow down, so you overtake them, pull in and they almost immediately speed up and overtake you then pull in and slow down….

Now they are the annoying drivers.

Saying that, on the last sportive I did two cyclists were doing that to me for quite a while as I tried to keep a steady pace. One nearly got a fist in the face.

Oh, extra points for the first person to correctly identify both the make of car and demographic of driver

Was it molgrips?

Awesome test of stupidity, and you correctly identified 2 drivers, in one experiment, who qualify. 😀

I’m sure they put some psychotropic drug in Feu Orange air fresheners that makes normal people into f***tards.

You are making the classic mistake of assuming there is any “thinking” behind the majority of motorists driving!
As far as i can tell, most people just drive around at pretty much any speed they see fit, somewhere between 5 and 500mph, until they latch onto a car in front, and then they just follow that (as closely as possible), at what ever speed it happens to be going……..

I’m in the Hertfordshire at the moment, and it amazes me just how many nut job drivers there are down here compared to where I’m from (central Scotland) maybe they are all in control all of the time, but it seems like everyone has to get there first regardless of the risk

You are making the classic mistake of assuming there is any “thinking” behind the majority of motorists driving!

+1.

Watch how many pepole pull in behind a lorry or whatever in the inside lane in time for their exit, then accelerate up the sliproad only to have to brake again seconds later. Total waste of fuel. However, almost everyone does it, and it’s actually pretty instinctive. I bet almost all of you reading this thread do it, and I’ve also found myself doing it on occasion.

Cruise controls, eh. Falling asleep at the wheel has overtaken speed in the cause of death statistics in France, article. When my speed starts to yo-yo I know it’s time for a break.

I use cruise control all the time.

I have a break when I feel tired, I don’t wait till I start driving badly before stopping generally 😉

What’s more annoying is the guy who overtakes you at 75 (in a 70) then pulls in and does 65.

Maddening.

I hired a car with cruise control a couple of weeks back when my car was being fixed, and it’s amazing just how badly people drive – you’re doing a steady 120km/h (it’s Spain) and you overtake… a couple of minutes later, you get overtaken back by the same car. And repeat.

But then even knowing this, and doing my utmost to maintain a steady speed, when I was driving my own car I found my speed drifting all over the place, one minute 115, the next 125… And that was being careful and paying attention – but as soon as a bit of traffic comes along I’d obviously check the speedo less, and keep an eye on the other cars.

Conclusion: cruise control rocks. My next car will have cruise control. And ideally be an automatic.

Well ill happily admit that the other driver coul d well have been me. I really enjoy driving, and where I can, quite quickly. This morning on top of the Mendips for example was damn good fun at 5:30.
I overtake people. Why? Because I enjoy being faster. Starting behind and finishing in front. I do it on my bike (as long as the other rider is 70+), ill do it running, skiing and flying and you know what? Ill do it in the car too. Socially irresponsible? Yes a little, but I’m pretty good otherwise and noboby is perfect (except molgrips) and this is what I like.
I think it’s a fairly basic human trait, and just because its in car, it doesn’t make it any different.

Flame away!

Are you SurfMat? (-:

I think some people are just generally faster than others. I overtake people on foot, all the time. It never ceases to amaze me how slowly the vast majority of people bimble about through life. Which is fine and all, but. Get. Out. Of. The. Gods. Damned. Way.

I have been known to surf, play on boats and even do a bit if martial arts….
But I don’t have a BMW, so with that I’m out!

Tinybits – perhaps this is the answer?

What, as easy as that?

I win the Internet!!!!

Ive had an issue this afternoon actually which made me smile….

clapped out old renault van in various shades of blue with lots of smoke pouring out of the back is doing 50mph quite erratically every where in a 20mph zone in a 30mph zone but then also on a national speed limit zone to. ive been behind him all the way and my car is stinking inside due to all the smoke thats coming out of the thing !

I overtake quite safely on the nsl area and see that its been driven by a 40 something blond who looks as though she is trying very hard to look younger !!her bob marley but angrier looking passenger doesnt approve of me overtaking so starts flashing lights at me and waving a hammer out of the window at me ??

Im not sure what he was trying to do really??

[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQ_rcsP3GP8&feature=youtube_gdata_player[/video]

molgrips – Member

Watch how many pepole pull in behind a lorry or whatever in the inside lane in time for their exit, then accelerate up the sliproad only to have to brake again seconds later. Total waste of fuel. However, almost everyone does it, and it’s actually pretty instinctive. I bet almost all of you reading this thread do it, and I’ve also found myself doing it on occasion.

Take it you didn’t read my post, molgrips….?