Why do you drive so close?

I don’t, but there are drivers who randomly speed up then slow down, with no indication that they’re doing it, so you find yourself right up behind the car in front, who’s doing 28 in a 40 or 50 zone, so you brake or lift off to leave a space, only to find they’ve accelerated up to 50-odd, then, once you’ve accelerated up to a similar speed, leaving a responsible gap, you find the ****wit has taken their foot off the pedal and slowed down again. Rinse and repeat, until there’s a stretch of road clear enough to overtake them safely.

Then there’s the driver who sticks to 38 regardless of what limit there is on the road…

My car, like most on the road, doesn’t have adaptive cruise control.

Eh? So you were tailgating it then??

Not sure what makes you think that, just coz some numpty fits an entirely stupid rear light?

Not sure what makes you think that,

Well, it’s kinda difficult to be annoyed by a toss-pot’s tail light if that car is behind you! 🤷‍♂️

Then there’s the driver who sticks to 38 regardless of what limit there is on the road…

Ah yes, the lesser spotted city driver not used to country roads but more than happy to ignore all 30mph speed limits in the next village…

I’m of the belief that it’s just a complete lack of any thought. When I was commuting, I observed people accelerating towards cars coming off slip roads daily. I’d often think they were being dicks and refusing to let people out. But the vast majority of the time they’d slam the brakes on last minute and flash their lights to ‘kindly’ let them out. After a while you come to realise that there are a great number of people on the roads with absolutely zero awareness of their surroundings. They’re operating purely on instinctual animalistic workings.

Get where you’re coming from but it should always be the person on the slip road adjusting their speed to ease in to the flow of traffic. Rarely happens though and people tend to either accelerate in to a gap that barely exists or slow down and panic as they run out of slip road.

My personal favourite is the reverse sign driver. A strange breed who will travel at about 35 or 40 on an open and straight NSL road and then immediately speed up when passing a 30 or 40 sign. I often wonder if somebody taught them wrong on purpose for a laugh.

You just gotta slow down to 25 mph. They always drop back when I do that. On the m27 😄

I like a good space for braking distance in front of me. I find a 3 second gap a more relaxing way to drive. Last time I drove in France I got a right telling off from a driver about leaving a big gap. A fair bit of head shaking and wagging finger before jumping into the gap. So it’s not only a uk thing. Seems much worse in France.

I am a late breaker. 

People in front of my brake longer and harder. 

My adaptive cruise control has setting for the distance to leave to the vehicle in front. The longest of which is quite reasonable.

Well, it’s kinda difficult to be annoyed by a toss-pot’s tail light if that car is behind you! 🤷‍♂️

Think you missed the point that it was an added extra rear light like F1 cars have & flashing too

I rather enjoy it in a 20, me driving at that speed must really wind them up.

masterdabberFree MemberBack last year in southwest France…. driving on a main road what was virtually empty of any traffic in any direction, about 3 cars wide, mainly straight but with the odd gentle curve, a bit undulating  but plenty of easy, safe overtaking possible and easy. 

We’re travelling at around 90 kph, car appears is behind us in the distance and is very quickly up behind us (probably travelling at  100kph+. On catching up with us it sits about 3 metres from our rear bumper, I move a bit nearer the curb…. no reaction, after a bit I slow down a bit, no reactio,n I speed up to 90 again, no reaction… I start to gradually slow down and repeat…. 

So now I’m really pissed off…. gradually slow down until I’m down to around 20kph….  Hurrah, they eventually overtake. During all of this there has been no traffic in either direction.

Thats normal in France.  They also have more accidents like this than anyone

Slight variation on the theme but something that really annoys me. I’m driving in the left hand lane on the motorway (normally the M1) , no cars in my lane in front of me, but I can see I’m gradually catching up with a car in the middle lane. So I wait for a gap in the traffic to pull into the middle lane, with the ultimate intention of pulling out into the outside lane to overtake the middle lane dawdler. But I can’t, because some bonehead in the middle lane has caught up with the car I was going to overtake and is just sitting there behind them, meaning I have to slow down and get out behind them to overtake, what is now two cars going slower than I was going in the left hand lane. 

People who do this don’t think they are driving too close.

Get where you’re coming from but it should always be the person on the slip road adjusting their speed to ease in to the flow of traffic.

The kind of scenario I’m talking about is when they’ve done exactly that. That’s entirely the point, some people have no awareness whatsoever that there is a flow, they speed up until they’re about to hit somebody, then they slow down. It’s entirely reactionary.

But I can’t, because some bonehead in the middle lane has caught up with the car I was going to overtake and is just sitting there behind them, meaning I have to slow down and get out behind them to overtake, what is now two cars going slower than I was going in the left hand lane

Yep, see also the car in lane 2 accelerating as we approach a truck in lane 1, blocking me in briefly, so I then have to move out from lane 1 to lane 3, pass them, move back to lane one without changing cruise set at whatever.
I’ve yet to work out why some drivers accelerate when a car moves to lane one then slows down to a speed lower than the car in lane 1.
Rinse and repeat.
Almost as annoying, drivers waking up and speeding up whilst being overtaken.

It’s 2023 and we still haven’t mastered driverless printers.

Needs more love.

😁

I have to slow down and get out behind them to overtake, what is now two cars going slower than I was going in the left hand lane.

In this scenario I’d probably just pass on the left. They surely haven’t seen you anyway and the chances of them changing lanes ever before reaching France are remote, they’re the ones who merge with the motorway directly into the second lane without thought for anything else. It’s easier and safer to ignore them it is than to make four lane changes.

1. You get there faster if you are closer to the car in front.
2. You need to keep your slipstreaming and diving down the inside under brakes skills sharp for when Red Bull get on the phone looking for someone to partner up with Mad Max Crashstappen.

It’s always these large motorhomes you see that seem to bring this particular behaviour out the worst.

It must be a Napoleon complex thing as I’ve seen so many of these massive motorhomes going down the motorway and nine times out of ten it’ll have some tiny little car driving literally inches from their bumper!

See it all the time.

Lorries pull out into the gap….

As well as leaving a big gap I am also concentrating on driving and anticipating what could happen up ahead. I can close the big gap as necessary, i.e. if I think a lorry may pull into it and leave me stuck behind a lorry for miles which I dislike more because of lack of forward visibility rather than their slower speed
If a car pulls into it then so what, hardly makes any difference to my arrival time.

You know that thing we have all had where cars have to urgently overtake us on our bikes just for us to catch them up at lights, next junction etc,. similar to that…

I just indicate right and pull over to the other side of the road. When there is a straight and no other cars around.

Leaving the road clear for the tailgating idiot to go about their daily ritual of speeding and intimidation all to themselves.

Now for some reason this seems to make some tailgating idiots really angry.  I have made it easier for you to get to mach1 by moving over , but they sometimes stop duhhh, and I have even had a proper wgbe brake check me when I moved back  into a position 20meters behind him . If your in such a rush please disappear off to the horizon rather than push me along inticing me to speed so I get zapped by the rare traffic cop with a laser instead of you. Grrrrrrrrr.

Tailgating, running reds, not signalling at roundabouts, etc etc

Let’s face it, driving these days is grim, the roads are more crowded, full of overblown over powered vehicles, an I’m alright Jack attitude, everyone in a hurry, the sooner we dump car-dependency the better.

I drive if and when I have to but almost every time I see some sort of poor driving, the thing I can’t understand is why people hammer up to red traffic lights then slam on the brakes, why not adjust speed on approach anticipating green and then minimise braking? Better for fuel consumption and wear and tear?

I wonder if the tailgating is a reflection in part of more people driving on the brakes as car brake systems are so much better than say thirty or forty years ago?

When I had my Mini 850 in 1987 I did everything I could to avoid having to use the foot brake!

I’ve spoken to him about it and he just laughs and says I’ve not rear ended anybody yet, or words to that effect. Amazingly he hasn’t does big miles and has done for the last 30 years.

Therein lies the rub. Someone driving too close behind you feels unsafe, but it rarely causes accidents, because you rarely have to brake hard. I don’t think I’ve triggered abs in the last 5 years in my car, and I don’t know anyone who’s been rear ended because someone was following too close.

If it was actually dangerous, those doing it would get into crashes and learn from their mistakes, as it is, they don’t.

I don’t know anyone who’s been rear ended because someone was following too close.

probably more by luck than judgement.

the point is tailgating is intimidating and will be perceived as aggressive driving, and just one more thing in life I can really do without…

On a speed awareness course the amount of attendees that thought the gap was supposed to be two car lengths was staggering.

A good few of you on here demonstrating why driving licenses need to be much harder to get and much easier to lose

I think tailgaters just don’t realise how intimidating it is.

I was inspired to start this thread after a particularly bad one a few days back, I was in a 50mph section of the M4 doing 45, as was the car in front of me, I had a BMW X5 (so high lights right through my rear window) drive literally a few feet from my bumper for about a mile till his turn off, then wind his window down and signal four and five with his fingers and lots of arm waving, he had two clear lanes to the right of me to overtake but just felt he’d try to push me along instead, even tho I had a car in front doing the same speed, total moron.

The two second rule and mirror, signal, manoeuvre are long forgotten by so many drivers.

If it was actually dangerous, those doing it would get into crashes and learn from their mistakes, as it is, they don’t.

We have only had one insurance claim in our household in the last 20 years. Approaching a junction and had to stop due to traffic – rear ended. Guy argued the toss about it being our fault.

I once witnessed a rear end incident outside my workplace. The person that ploughed into the back of the car in front immediately rushed over to us to be his witness, jog on mate you were too close.

So on my sample of 2, both idiots didn’t think they were in the wrong and probably still don’t.

I don’t find it at all intimidating except perhaps when it’s a proper lorry right up my arse on the motorway. Which is rare.

Other than that, I just gently slow down. Not a brake test or anything, I just ease down to a speed where I’m comfortable with the gap. Or, depending on the road, pull over to let them past. It’s not going to make my willy shrink nor is it even going to increase my journey time by more than the few seconds that the manoeuvre takes. I really don’t understand how people can get so worked up over it.

What tj said.

Also, threads like this remind me that 50% of the population are below average…

Therein lies the rub. Someone driving too close behind you feels unsafe, but it rarely causes accidents, because you rarely have to brake hard. I don’t think I’ve triggered abs in the last 5 years in my car, and I don’t know anyone who’s been rear ended because someone was following too close.

If it was actually dangerous, those doing it would get into crashes and learn from their mistakes, as it is, they don’t.

The same ‘logic’ is applied to lots of risky behaviours. Most of the time you do get away with it, therefore you falsely deduce from that experience and sample size of one that ‘it’s not dangerous’.  Not wearing a seatbelt, not leaving a safe gap when passing a cyclist, overtaking on double white lines etc. More often than not, those behaviours will not result in any serious consequences. Until they do.

I’ve been rear ended by a too close following car. Because he was too close to me, he couldn’t see the debris in the road I had to stop for. He probably couldn’t see much at all of the road ahead ahead except my number plate and rear window. Another reason why it’s dangerous, you are delegating your view of the road and hazards ahead to someone in front you don’t know from Adam.

In 41 years of driving I’ve probably directly witnessed at least a dozen rear end smashes caused by tailgating.

I can’t quite deduce from your post if you are playing devil’s advocate or genuinely believe tailgating isn’t dangerous?  I really hope for your sake it’s the former.

The vast majority of accidents you see are rear end shunts, I passed one yesterday involving two vans and a car, the car had rear ended a van that was turning left and then a van ran in to the back of that car, a bit more thought is needed.

Tailgaters may feel fine about it, and congratulate themselves on their lightning fast reaction times and accident-free history, but all they are doing is transferring the effort of actually having to look down the road to the person in front, who then has to leave more room, and concentrate much harder so they can brake softly enough to accommodate the plum behind them who has zero time to react.

I see the aftermath of plenty of rear-end collisions, so it clearly does cause accidents, or at least make them worse.

It must be a Napoleon complex thing as I’ve seen so many of these massive motorhomes going down the motorway and nine times out of ten it’ll have some tiny little car driving literally inches from their bumper!

See it all the time.

Not sure if serious or taking the piss…

You do know they’re probably towing said car, right? Wouldn’t do getting all set up and having to walk anywhere.

this the bellends that drive up your arse but also slightly out to the right as if they are about to go for a mad skillz over take. we are going 5mph in traffic you knobber…you aint going anywhere.

Can we also moan at those who cannot operate thier car ventilation system and so drive all winter barely able to see?

ah….the winter ‘tank commanders’. love those.