Personal rant---tailgaters when towing trailer...good grief...

[Ken]

I drive with a cattle trailer and often wonder why do people pull up beside my trailer and do not continue to pass.
Also have seen tailgaters get so close that cannot see vehicle in the mirrors . just a shadow on the highway. Slowing down causes the cattle to move and produce live animal releif and then it is applied to the cars windsheild.
Nothing like watching some one using there windsheild wiper to clean the mess.
And on 3 lane highways to have some one stay in right lane so cannot move to the right to exit the highway. If there was any brains in a auto driver they would stay away from a truck or trailer tire should it blow out. Same type of driver that will pass you on right side when turning left at a intersection. nothing like getting the squeze put on the lane. and they always seem to think your the cause of there problems.
ken

 

[sandman2234]

Well, a car or p/u tailgating you is one thing, but what irks me is when I see tractor trailers doing it. I understand (mostly) why they do it, because for some reason (on Interstates) people like to hang out in the center lane and just don't seem to "get it" that if a driver is in a hurry and needs to pass you, he has no way to get around you. Trucks don't have the acceleration capabilities of smaller vehicles and can't dive into a hole just to get around you. Most people think... "I was here first, he can go around... or he can wait... or if he wanted to be ahead of me he should have left 10 minutes earlier" or they just don't even realize the truck is back there needing to pass, or better yet, DON"T want the truck ahead of them. So the driver has extremely limited options of getting his intentions across to the car ahead. For some reason, the one that works the best (and is the worse one to use) is to get up close to the car in front of you and MAYBE they will get the message. My Mother mentioned this same problem to me yesterday, and my response was simply, get out of the way. Right, wrong or indifferent, even though I don't agree with "pushing cars" to get them to move over, if something happens, just who is going to loose? The car or p/u in front that might be lucky to tip the scales at 2,500 to 7,000 pounds or the truck that flattens you when it runs over you that weighs 28,000 to 100,000 pounds (Most are loaded up to 80K, but I haul a 20' box permitted to 110,000 pounds, usually averaging 100,000 pounds.
If the truck is pushing you, that means his average speed has been more than yours or he wouldn't have caught up with you, so just move over, let him run the front door and pick up any autographs from the radar toting officers that you might run across. Yes I realize that for a little while, your frontal vision will be impaired till he gets on down the road, and if he is pushing you to get up the speed to make it up the next hill, then he is going to slow you down for a minute or so, but generally, he will get on down the road as fast as he can.
Another thing to mention, is if your tailgating someone, you are effectively turning over keys of your car to them, because they now control your driving. If they slow down, you HAVE TO slow down. If they touch the brakes, just enough to light up the brake lights, your going to have to slow down because you don't have the room to take the chance they are just messing with you.
David from jax

 

[Mark Page]

I've seen chickys putting on makeup and doing their hair in the fast lane during rush hour.
My first line of defence is my trailer hitch, a never remove the tail stock. My 3/4 ton 4x4 sits high enough to be the first thing to puncture the radiator on most rice burners.

 

[7snakes]

Gonna p.o. a lot of truckers, but it works both ways. Usually what I see on the road is the exact opposite- semis trying to "push" cars to get out of their way so they can continue driving excessively faster than the posted speed limit, thereby putting others' lives in danger. Or failing to yield entering from ramps because there is this "right' since cargo is being hauled. I get one of them there boys trying to scare me by running their rig up on me, I don't get intimidated-just slow down. Many have the impression that size of their vehicle gives the right to bully-b.s.! Have seen rigs actually threaten others by their actions and wouldn't be surprised if some situation would arise that a driver acted in self defense of their life.

 

[DJ54]

Not to change the subject, but one thing that bothers me more than tailgaters, is the people that pull out in front of you when you are less than 500' from and intersection. And worst of all, the one that goes a few hundred feet, then turns left. And about 75% of the time, they need to stop for oncoming traffic... Or...., pass you, then turn right, in front of you.

I too have driven anything from dump trucks to semi's hauling heavy equipment, for over 35 years and had this happen numerous times. Luckily, I guess the refresher courses of defensive driving kicked in, and in all of those years, never hit anyone. Although the one's equipped with air horns got the cobwebs blown out every now and then... Hopefully that person will think twice the next time, before they pull a trick like that.

About 15 years ago, they were doing a resurfacing job on I-70, between Zanesville, and Cambridge, Ohio. A driver behind large dump truck did not see him slowing to turn into the job from the passing lane. The driver ran up under the truck, killing him. When they pulled the wreckage apart, they found a newspaper between the driver, and the steering wheel. I'm sure others that driver larger trucks can attest to seeing this on a daily basis. Commuters doing everything, but concentrating on the road in front of them.

 

[aczlan]

Gonna p.o. a lot of truckers, but it works both ways. Usually what I see on the road is the exact opposite- semis trying to "push" cars to get out of their way so they can continue driving excessively faster than the posted speed limit, thereby putting others' lives in danger. Or failing to yield entering from ramps because there is this right since cargo is being hauled. I get one of them there boys trying to scare me by running their rig up on me, I don't get intimidated-just slow down. Many have the impression that size of their vehicle gives the right to bully-b.s.! Have seen rigs actually threaten others by their actions and wouldn't be surprised if some situation would arise that a driver acted in self defense of their life.

There are probably some who do that, but almost every time I see a semi failing to change lanes at an onramp to let someone in, there is a someone sitting in the next lane over pacing the truck and preventing them from yielding.
As a general courtesy, if someone (anyone) is going faster than you and you aren't in the right lane, move over and let them by as soon as it is safe to do so. I have seen quite a few cases where some car is sitting 2 seconds behind and to the left of a semi for miles. If you are in the left lane, you should be passing or getting over. Almost every state has a law which says that slower vehicles should keep to the right on a multi-lane road.

Not to change the subject, but one thing that bothers me more than tailgaters, is the people that pull out in front of you when you are less than 500' from and intersection. And worst of all, the one that goes a few hundred feet, then turns left. And about 75% of the time, they need to stop for oncoming traffic... Or...., pass you, then turn right, in front of you.

I run into that 3-4 times a week on my commute. There are 2 buys roads which tee into a busier road ~500' apart, so many times there are idiots who pull out in front of me when I am 3 car lengths away (forcing me to slam on my brakes), then creep up to the other road at 10 MPH and make a left onto it.

Aaron Z

 

[Mark Page]

I was about 21 and was headed to the beach with my girl in my hot rod Pontiac, 2 friends were following in their cars. We were at the beginning of a long stretch of perfectly strait road. Up ahead I saw a state cop cross the median and pull out in our direction.
Back then we still had a 55 mph speed limit, I was doing maybe 60 with no traffic. As I pulled up to him in the right lane I slowed to exactly 55, he's doing maybe 52. I put on my blinker to pass him and he starts swerving back and forth to keep us from passing. He finally gets in the right lane and stays there. I put on my blinker, pushed her down into 3rd so that 455 would rumble and walked by him with my speedo splitting 55.
I passed him my 2 buddies passed him and then the lights came on, he pulls all three of us over. As we're going through the license and registration nonsense he makes me aware that I'm in too big a hurry to get to the ocean. He wrote me a warning (no lie) for doing 56 in a 55 zone. When I read the warning I had to laugh out loud which he did not find amusing, tough.
When I got home a few days later I told my father the whole story, man was he hot, with the cop. My father could be very intimidating in person or on the phone when he wanted to be. The next day at work I overheard 1/2 of the conversation he had the with commanding officer of the barracks, Dad really put his feet to the fire. About a week later I received a letter of explanation from the cop that pulled us over, it was in no way an apology.
I can honestly say that is one warning or ticket I did not deserve. Never forgot the cop's license # was V-8.

 

[Oaktree]

Not to change the subject, but one thing that bothers me more than tailgaters, is the people that pull out in front of you when you are less than 500' from and intersection. And worst of all, the one that goes a few hundred feet, then turns left.

Or Grandma in her Corrola pulls out of a side road without stopping, then continues along, poking at 10mph below the speed limit. Of course, lots of winding, 2 lane roads with few opportunities to pass. :smiley_aafz:

 

[Gator6x4]

I don’t know who I have the most dislike for, tailgaters or blind spotters. Both are a royal pain in the …. A blind spotter on a three lane interstate highway with traffic traveling at the posted speed or greater is in my opinion someone's death or serious injury waiting to happen.

I also really love the drivers that do a taxi stop and pull out into the roadway in front of a vehicle traveling 60-70 miles an hour and then get upset at having a horn blown at them. I also have found the safest thing to do if traveling and it starts to rain is to take a coffee break. Rain, sudden showers or downpours seems to bring out the wreck idiots, especially on interstate highways.

 

[7snakes]

I agree about moving over to the right lane if slower moving. Wish some driving big rigs would get this. How many times have you been in the passing lane to pass a couple of slower moving trucks and one pulls out in front of you into the passing lane to pass a truck and then drives beside the slower traffic for several miles only to create a bottleneck because some rude driver shouldn't have tried to pass? I don't understand that mentality.