How Do You Deal With Tailgaters?

[rontaki]

As a kid driving my mom's Plymouth with worn rings, I had a great way to lose tailgaters. I just stomped the gas pedal,and when the thick cloud of oil smoke thinned enough to see behind me, they were gone!. I've considered putting a pump to squirt oil onto the hot exhaust, operated by push button, although just oil would probably also work.
Score one for ICE cars...

 

[rontaki]

A friend told me of a trick that I've never tried, nor do I know if it would work -
Rig up a golf ball to drop so it bounces under their car, supposedly it wil get trapped under the car and bounce between the car and the road until they stop.

 

[zzvyb6]

I've been thinkin about modifying my rear windshield washer jet so that it shoots used motor oil out the back. They hit their wipers and problem solved.

Sorry man, my injin musta burped or blowed up.

 

[lman]

A friend told me of a trick that I've never tried, nor do I know if it would work -
Rig up a golf ball to drop so it bounces under their car, supposedly it wil get trapped under the car and bounce between the car and the road until they stop.

I want to see that video.

 

[shooterdon]

So far, slowing down has worked. .

If I slow down, and make it easy for other driver to pass and the other driver does not pass….that is a red flag.

Hope never to face that problem.

 

[CATRAT66]

I admit that I drive fast and can’t stand it when people drive in the left lane and don’t check their mirrors and move over but I really don’t like is people who tailgate at 20 over the limit and when I move over they don’t pass
They want to go 80 but just don’t want to be first in line
I call them tire turds
And what about the people that you can watch for 10 miles following a semi and wait until you get five lengths behind them and they pull into the passing lane but maintain the same speed

 

[newbury]

As a kid driving my mom's Plymouth with worn rings, I had a great way to lose tailgaters. I just stomped the gas pedal, and when the thick cloud of oil smoke thinned enough to see behind me, they were gone!. I've considered putting a pump to squirt oil onto the hot exhaust, operated by push button, although just oil would probably also work.
Score one for ICE cars...

As an adult in 1974 driving my '66 Plymouth Valiant w/ slant 6 (and ~ 100K) I did the same. The darn thing was getting about 40 miles per quart of oil when I finally gave it to the junk yard.

 

[Runner]

I'm not speeding up to increase the distance from the tailgater, I increase the distance between me and the car ahead of me.

.....and, therefore, if the guy in front of you stops fast, you have more room to slow down more gently so the idiot behind you doesn't rear-end your car. Excellent defensive driving, you are controlling what you can (your stopping distance) and not trying to control what you can't (the distance between you and the idiot).

If more people would think like this we would all be better off.

 

[Runner]

you come up on a car, so obviously you were going faster than them, you pass and get next to them and they speed up, or, as soon as you get past them and move back into the right lane, they pass you, pull in, then slow down again. Gets a bit aggravating. But, just let it go.

What happens to me is, I will (for example) be entering a freeway and still accelerating when I merge, maybe doing 65. Someone comes up behind me doing 75. I'm still accelerating as they go by because I'm going to be doing 70. I'm not deliberately "racing" them or being a jerk, I'm just still in the process of accelerating up to my final speed.

Which brings up kind of a pet peeve:

You are on a four-lane and in the right lane. You move over to allow a car to merge, then that car gets in behind you and starts tailgating because he wants to go faster than you.

However, by this time, someone else has moved up beside you in the right
lane and you can't get back over. Now you're stuck in the left lane where everyone else want's to be going 80 and the guy you moved over for is behind you, pissed off because you're doing 70.

No good deed goes unpunished.

 

[Oaktree]

I typically drive 5-8 mph over the limit, so tailgaters aren't a big issue. I find getting behind someone pokey (usually someone driving a toyota, Suburu or old geezer in a pickup) more annoying. Winding roads with few places to safely pass only compound it. I don't tailgate, though there are times I'm tempted.

If I get behind somebody who can't make up their mind if they want to do 40 or 60 I back off, try to find a compromise speed but if they slow down again I just let the CC take over.

Gotta say, those are the worst ones to be stuck behind. Never fails they'll always speed up when there's a place to pass.
I don't use CC except occasionally on interstates, never on 2 lane roads.

I had a similar experience which I've related before. He would pass, then slow down. At one point I got POed and pulled over. When I pulled back out he was parked a 1/4 mile down the road waiting for me. I still don't know WTF was going on but in hindsight I should have picked up the phone and called the cavalry.

That would be scary.

Now I generally ignore them. If I'm with my wife, I slow down and pull over allowing the most impatient to pass. Life's too short to allow them to affect my life.

Same here. No sense provoking a road rage incident. Too many weirdos out there, some of them armed.

 

[MossRoad]

Lucky Strikes disintegrate when they hit the windshield.

No filter, no flavor, just burning toilet paper....

At least that's the little jingle we'd sing when we were kids.

 

[lman]

I admit that I drive fast and can’t stand it when people drive in the left lane and don’t check their mirrors and move over but I really don’t like is people who tailgate at 20 over the limit and when I move over they don’t pass
They want to go 80 but just don’t want to be first in line
I call them tire turds
And what about the people that you can watch for 10 miles following a semi and wait until you get five lengths behind them and they pull into the passing lane but maintain the same speed

The guy following a speeder is pretty smart. The guy in front will likely get stopped and ticketed while the guy behind is alerted to slow down.

 

[MossRoad]

As a kid driving my mom's Plymouth with worn rings, I had a great way to lose tailgaters. I just stomped the gas pedal,and when the thick cloud of oil smoke thinned enough to see behind me, they were gone!. I've considered putting a pump to squirt oil onto the hot exhaust, operated by push button, although just oil would probably also work.
Score one for ICE cars...

As I recall, that's generally how they make smoke in airshow biplanes with radial engines... oil injecting into exhaust manifold.

 

[MossRoad]

What happens to me is, I will (for example) be entering a freeway and still accelerating when I merge, maybe doing 65. Someone comes up behind me doing 75. I'm still accelerating as they go by because I'm going to be doing 70. I'm not deliberately "racing" them or being a jerk, I'm just still in the process of accelerating up to my final speed.

Which brings up kind of a pet peeve:

You are on a four-lane and in the right lane. You move over to allow a car to merge, then that car gets in behind you and starts tailgating because he wants to go faster than you.

However, by this time, someone else has moved up beside you in the right
lane and you can't get back over. Now you're stuck in the left lane where everyone else want's to be going 80 and the guy you moved over for is behind you, pissed off because you're doing 70.

No good deed goes unpunished.

Yes! I always merge into traffic and sit in that lane for a bit until it's determined if I want to move out and go faster than the car in front of me.

If I'm on the highway and see a car coming up the ramp, I'll judge the situation, hold my speed and land if I'm gonna beat him, or move left to the next lane to give him space to get on.

What grinds my gears is when you do that and the guy gets on and rapidly accelerates, and either holds right next to you or accelerates and passes you on the right. GRRRR!

 

[Shawn T. W.]

We turn on our 4 way flashers partly because most of the trucks don't show there brake lights when only the engine brake is on, which is a good way to gradually slow down, save your real brakes for when you need them ...

Something not mentioned, but equally annoying is the idiot who sticks to the middle lane when there are three or more lanes ... I'm in the right lane, wanting to pass the slow poke in front of me, I have my left turn signal that activates SIX (6!) Blinking/flashing lights on the left side of my truck and trailer ... Yet idiot in the middle lane won't pull out into the far left* lane, even though there is nobody there!

*Us truck drivers call that "The hammer lane" or "#1 lane" ... In the above scenario the middle lane is #2, the far right is #3 ... And so on ... Far right is also called "The granny lane!"

 

[MossRoad]

We turn on our 4 way flashers partly because most of the trucks don't show there brake lights when only the engine brake is on, which is a good way to gradually slow down, save your real brakes for when you need them ...

Something not mentioned, but equally annoying is the idiot who sticks to the middle lane when there are three or more lanes ... I'm in the right lane, wanting to pass the slow poke in front of me, I have my left turn signal that activates SIX (6!) Blinking/flashing lights on the left side of my truck and trailer ... Yet idiot in the middle lane won't pull out into the far left* lane, even though there is nobody there!

*Us truck drivers call that "The hammer lane" or "#1 lane" ... In the above scenario the middle lane is #2, the far right is #3 ... And so on ... Far right is also called "The granny lane!"

In Indiana, they shouldn't pull into the left lane to allow you to pass them on the right.

They should pull into the right lane to allow you to pass them on the left.

They're never gonna do that, of course, but still, they shouldn't move into the far left lane to drive slower.

The far left lane is only for passing in Indiana. And, unless entering or exiting a highway or there's an emergency, on a three or more lane divided highway in Indiana, a truck isn't allowed in the left lane at all. So the trucks are stuck with slowpokes that won't move over to the right.

Indiana Code Title 9. Motor Vehicles § 9-21-8-13​

Current as of January 02, 2024 | Updated by Findlaw Staff

Sec. 13. Except when entering or leaving a highway or where a special hazard exists that requires, for safety reasons, the use of an alternate lane, a person may not operate a truck, truck tractor, road tractor, trailer, semitrailer, or pole trailer on an interstate highway consisting of at least three (3) lanes in one (1) direction in any lane other than the two (2) far right lanes.