So if you got tailgated, do you move left somehow, let them pass and tailgate them back?
I'm so tempted to do this but always got put off by the thought that I'll be the same scumbag as them.
If you did, what was their reaction?
Do you tailgate the tailgater ?
tomleonhart on 14/07/2016 - 16:58
Last edited 14/07/2016 - 17:31 by 1 other user
Last edited 14/07/2016 - 17:31 by 1 other user
Comments
Don't know why do many negs for JB1, even though tail gaiting is bad, driving slowly in the right had lane is against the rules (unless there is congestion) no one in Australia keeps left..m
I could only give him one upvote!
If cars in the left lanes are overtaking you because you're being "held up", why the hell don't you switch to the left lanes then?
I was driving at the speed limit on a highway, a car came up pretty fast and so I moved to the left lane, but the driver then proceeded to tailgate me on the left lane. I then decided to slow down gradually, hoping the tailgater would move on if it got too slow. Guess what speed I got to before they decided to leave me alone… 40 km/h. I don't really know what or why and it left me a bit shaken.
After driving for another half an hour, I saw the car again, tailgating another car, on the left hand side… again.
Yeah I'm so tempted to pull the same move on them but then that would achieve nothing.
Agreed, I think it is a conscious choice that they've made, to tailgate. Not sure why, but don't think doing the same to them would make them change their behaviour at any rate
Good on you mate. People that tailgate and zip in and out of lanes normally end up slower. One fine day they will learn their lesson. However, it can be annoying when speed limit is 80kmh and some one is driving 60kmh on the right lane. They should keep to the left.
That's a sure sign the driver isn't paying attention, firstly to his own speed, and secondly to the road ahead. He is just using the car in front to regulate his speed without having to consciously read the traffic. They usually aren't concerned what speed the other car is traveling at until is gets ridiculous like you encountered. All he has to do is maintain the distance behind the car in front, which is easier than monitoring 3 lanes of traffic and trying to read and anticipate their movements, while monitoring his own speed. They are probably drunk/drugged or tired, or distracted on their mobile, though usually you can pick those on a mobile phone as the guy that is obliviously driving 20km/h slower than the limit.
Saw this guy do it to a car in front. Car in front full of army guys, but they were too chill to get out and beat him up. Tailgater had a rats tail, and a tiny child in the front seat with him. A big wtf moment for me.
I just become obsessed with having a clean windscreen at that point. After copping all the excess water most people get annoyed, back off or overtake.
I do this, especially when going fast. Very effective, especially if the car behind is expensive. Wouldn't want to get their BMW/Audi wet now would we? LOL!
Drafting to save fuel is the only thing I can think of.
Maybe they're hypermiling after watching Top Gear.
http://www.lifehacker.co.uk/2014/06/26/hypermile-driving-sec…
APEX gang mate!
Been almost victim of roadrage twice.. only thing that saved me that I drove to well visited shopping car park and stayed in car.
Not worth it. Never know what the other person might do on possible drug fuelled rage.
If you want to get an idea search for road rage on youtube…..Also, have headed toward local police station before but luckily never needed to go the whole way
Wow… twice!?
What did you do?
- Brace
- Brake
2.1 Hospital (optional) - Insurance
- Write-off
- Profit
^this was a joke.
Speaking seriously if someone is way too close I'll move. If there is absolutely no way to move I'll touch the brakes just so that the one behind could see the brake lights. Doesn't happen often but helps.
I know someone who wanted to write off their car and this is exactly what they did.
I used to have one of my windscreen washer nozzles aimed a little higher, so at speed, the water goes above my car and onto their windscreen. But…as loulou said earlier, there have been so many serious road rage cases in SE Qld lately, I set it back to normal. I'd rather let the idiot pass than get a lunatic to ruin my day.
During my younger and dumber years (20 and under) I would ALWAYS tailgate them back religiously. I was an extra fast mountain driver and successfully scared drivers till they drove under the speed limit.
20 years ago I was driving a Toyota Tarago GLS (1.8L van) with front bull bar and a rear nugget bar. Back then there were no performance SUV's so all 4WD's and vans were deemed to be slow, heavy battering rams.
90% of the time they'd try to outrun me, 10% would immediately give up once they saw I could tailgate closer than them.
They always lost their nerve after being tailgated about half dozen downhill mountain corners. They would begin to lose control of their vehicle due to nervousness. Its the same as how most drivers cannot maintain high speeds above 200km/h for 60 seconds. The longer they are out of their comfort zone their nerves gradually fry, body tenses up, it influences their steering inputs, which fries their nerves even more and the cycle repeats.
My righteous behavior quickly stopped after a very serious road rage incident when I was 21. I was driving 2am at night on a lone country highway returning home from an interstate trip. Parents were in the car sleeping, 3 siblings were asleep. Got tailgated with high beams for 5km, so I turned all my mirrors down, slowed their car 40km/h under the speed limit. When they overtook me on a straightaway I floored the gas and flicked on my high beam. The car in front gradually slowed to 40km/h then moved onto the centre line and parked his car to block the entire road. A bald angry tattooed driver quickly got out and headed to my window. I floored the gas swerved to the left of his car, corrected the swerve while squeezing millimeters between his car and a white reflector post. As I was accelerating the road raging driver punched my driver window, kicked the side of the van and ran back to his car. His girlfriend passenger was screaming at him in fear of her life. The chase went less than 2km and I lost them since they stayed under the speed limit.
Another story was when I overtook a jealous tailgating VP Commodore driver in the left lane on a 110km/h dual lane freeway. As I slowly passed in the the left lane the Commodore abruptly attempted to side ram my drivers side. I returned the favour by dropping back getting a run up with even greater speed, angle of attack and proximity. The surprised girlfriend passenger became fearful and began yelling at her Samoan boyfriend. My 4 church passengers commanded I instantly drop 20km/h under the speed limit and permit the frightened Commodore to be left alone.
Fundamentally, if you play games the tailgater will play games too. Game playing is natural for young people especially when thrown in with testosterone, ego and risk taking behavior.
No matter what, don't ever tailgate if you passengers. I have never come across a passenger who has EVER enjoyed watching it.
Decades have passed and I'm much wiser and relaxed. Have seriously regretted my bad decisions involving passengers. Have never been involved in a two car collision. Hold a 10 year NSW gold licence with a 50% safe drivers discount. Am super chill and preempt tailgaters by slowing down way before they reach me so that they can overtake easier.
Good read, thanks.
Yeah I can say this was me as well 10 years back when I was a younging. I drove a fairly fast/powerful car, tailgated every slow person (going the speed limit eH???) like crazy and did fast lane changes with minimal indicating.
Looking back, I was young and dumb but I'm now older, wiser and more relaxed. I don't play those stupid games anymore.
But nowadays whilst driving, I always see the P's driving so fast/aggressive… reminds me of my younger years.
So you've found god?
No. Never found her/him/them/it.
Am currently an atheist. Just an imperfect, fallible, complex, happy me.
Church and religion never made me drive the way I did. It was my character.
Other than maintaining my speed and changing lanes very slowly and deliberately I don't engage further. Life's too short to get into a road rage battle.
Once I was in the fast lane on cruise control doing the speed limit (or within a couple of km/h checked with GPS) someone came up behind really close. I maintained my speed for a bit as I was slowly passing the car in front. They began to flash lights at me so I gave the brakes a little tap and a one finger salute after a bit. Eventually I passed the car I was overtaking and moved back left, as you are meant to. The guy raced in front of me and gave me the biggest brake check I've ever experienced. Forced me to brake quickly and change lanes so as not to hit him. This at 110km/h and nowhere to turn off and lose him being on a freeway. Scared me, changed my tactics, there are too many lunatics out there and if I let them pass I can get on with my life without ending up a road rage victim.
With front and rear dashcams…I'd just hit him and see how it works out in court for him.
If someone is willing to go to that level, I'm not risking them jumping out and having a goat me with a tyre lever though.
I hate it when someone has a goat at me. Don't have a cow, man.
please explain, how do you do the goat on someone with a tire iron?
I am about to learn something new :-)
Mains and Klumpp road south side Brisbane, a ~130kg roidboy with super skinny legs was trying to kick in a door of a courier truck due to some road rage incident.
That truck driver had the windows up, but then wound it down enough to squirter his water bottle at the other guy. It was kind of funny to watch but had that door been unlocked, then petty truck driver would have been torn in half..
You never know what the other guy will do. About 12years ago, I gave the finger to some derro while on my scooter, and then he spent the next 15minutes swerving into my lane while his friends were yelling, do you want to die?! I wanted to smash them all, as I was much fitter and quite mean at the time..but gf on the back was hysterical so there went that idea.
If someone is tailgating you, then move over when you can and let them pass and forget about it.
How would you feel if someone or some people got injured/killed because you wanted to make/prove some point, not worth it.I was following a car tailgating and highbeaming a car doing maybe 10kmh under the limit who eventually turned into the street they were looking for. Didn't need all that angst going on behind them…I kept my distance, but started highbeaming the guy who seemed to be in a hurry and he took off up a side street himself…it might be the roof racks that look like a cop car light array… ;)
Drivers are rude
Such attitudes
But when I show my piece
Complaints cease
Something's odd
I feel like I'm god
You *************** ********** * ******** ******!
You *************** ********** * ******** ******!
Ok I give up.
Tailgating the tailgater. Yeah, that'll show them. They'll never do it again.
What do you mean "i dont care if you are doing the speed limit"? We have laws here in Australia!!
one of those laws… "in australia" is KEEP LEFT unless overtaking. if you sit in the right hand lane doing the speed limit, next to a car doing the speed limit in the left hand lane… you are blocking the flow of traffic.
So you are saying its legal to drive ABOVE speed limit on right lane? Good on you mate! Now you made me wonder where you get your licence from..
*Correction: I wonder if you have a licence at all…
if two cars are both doing the speed limit side by side, and the car behind you is doing the speed limit, how do you move over?
you are only blocking the flow of someone breaking the law. if you want to break the law and speed, you might as well break the law more and do it at yur own inconvenience in the left lane.you are not blocking traffic because no one can go faster than the speed limit.
two carriage truck hauling live sheep in the left… and a car sitting right beside it in the right. both doing 110 on a dual lane road. you either get pissed on (true story) behind the truck… or brake checked by the car in the right… no good comes of tailgaiting. now just overtake and move left already… you can't control what others do. my car has 220 on the speedometer… and there are roads in australia with an open speed limit (140 recommended… they're not sealed)
@unclesnake: If someone wants to speed it's not your prerogative to stop them from doing so by ALSO breaking the law by not keeping left.
@Flying Ace: In Victoria at least, and I'm assuming its similar in other states, its perfectly legal to not keep left unless the signage says otherwise, or if the speed limit is above 80.
@unclesnake: It doesn't matter if there's a car behind you or not. If you're in the right lane of a >=90 road when you're not overtaking, and the left lane is not full, then you're breaking the law.
@Flying Ace: but its my prerogative to not break the law, nor be forced to break the law and speed to allow them to pass, so if a car beside me is doing the exact same speed and we are both at speed limit, my only option is to slow down and go behind them
@unclesnake: In Queensland it is >=90, actually it's >80, but I've never seen a speed limit between 80 and 90.
@unclesnake: Yes, fair enough. My point I guess was more aimed at those whose mentality is that "I'm doing the speed limit so I'm allowed to be wherever I want".
@Flying Ace: agreed, catch 22 when two cars going even at 110, and some punk up ur ass high beaming…i am only going to slow down and duck behind. this shouldnt happen often but can
@macrocephalic: so it is… just to be be smart a$$ given there is no speed limits between 81 and 89 inclusive ">80" = ">=90" :) which is what i think you meant too…. id like to think there are no speed limits like 82 anyway.
i know tassie wanted 52 km/hr to honour david boons drinking record.
Sadly, I once was pulled over by police for holding up traffic. I asked them what they clocked me at - 60km. The posted limit was 60km. I stated I couldn't go faster, as that is breaking the law.
They said I should've pulled over and let people past. What bollocks!
You have to factor in speedometer tolerances too - not every car is the same.
A car may think they are doing the speed limit but there speedo could be 5-10km/h out, so they are actually driving slower than a car actually doing the speed limit.
Thus it's not your job to play road rule enforcer
you're*.
And how do you keep left on a single lane road?
by not driving on the right side of the road…
i think you're just trolling at this point
You were down voted because Aussies like to own their lane. There's no place for rules or common courtesy on the roads here.
Whenever someone tails me in the left lane, I press my foglight button.
Although there are no front foglights fitted on my entry-level model, it dramatically brightens both taillights. At first you'd think it's the brake lights, except they're at constant brightness. Should I brake it gets even brighter (I really must look into their configuration).
They quickly get the message.
What does the average tailgater look like?
Normal person?
Rage maniac?
Junkie?
Ethnic?
What?A more useful question is which drivers/vehicles get tailgated more often. eg. Cyclists, Learners, Provisional drivers, slow drivers in the right lane, etc. You'll find that most people have been a tailgater.
Tailgaters look like anyone else. Its a bad habit:
http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/drivers-approve-of-ta…
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2006-10-24/90pc-of-act-drivers-ex…All I know is that Canberra has the worst tailgaters even though its got the best roads, more European cars, least traffic, shortest commute times, least buses, dedicated cyclepaths for cyclists:
http://www.canberratimes.com.au/act-news/citys-roundabouts-s…If you want a generalisation its car drivers. The one's that don't are cyclists, moped/scooters, motorcycles, Semi-trailers, heavy machinery, construction vehicles. If everyone switched to two wheels and encouraged lane splitting I'm sure tailgating would improve!
65% Male 17-40
25% Female 17-25
10% other100% a-hole
Yeah, you tailgate the tailgater if you want to cause an accident
I don't because I'm too scared of ending up in a situation with some nut job. There have been a lot of guns in cars in Victoria and people getting shot.
doesn't everyone still have that bad habit of driving 10ks over the limit or is it just me…? and maybe… if you want to brake check people ( a bad a habit as the tailgaiting itself ) you might want to be sure that your tail lights / brake lights are in working order… the amount of cars i see with faulty rear lights is atrocious. $30'000+ for a vehicle… and the brake lights don't light up… or there's a tail light out… or you think it's a motorbike coming the other way… but it's a doofus in a car with one headlight out. more dollars than cents… (sense… get it?) they couldn't be ozbargainers… could they?
Yes I play that rule, usually 9 over always, particularly in 60-110 zones. Never in 40 zone. Isn't it like only 1 point if you get fined. In any event, I've never been fined for it.
I had my speedo checked by one of those courtesy radars that give a happy or sad face.. I got a sad face today because I was doing 62 in a 60 zone. My needle was just nudging over 60.
So from now on, I don't care what other people say in relation to the speedos being out. I have 12 points and I intend to keep as many as possible!
They have been known to be inaccurate too, unfortunately.
While I would like to believe you, sometimes my commuting for work takes me past about 4-6 fixed speed cameras and another 2-3 radar vans. That's a huge risk to be taking cos those points will go in a week if the radars pick me up doing 4km over the limit.
Then I have the risk of being uninsurable for the next 3 years if my license is suspended, or have to fight each fine at a cost of about 1800-4500 depending of counsel and expert witnesses..
Not really worth the risk to ensure I am driving at the absolute speed limit each second of my life on a road tbh.
had a guy chase me cos i passed him -all the way to my work. this is what can happen if u wrong a reckless driver. dont do it
why bother, it is you who will be hurt/die if they slam on their breaks. i had a maniac tail gate me in spain, 30 mins later he was upside down 10km down the highway.
Depends on the road, but I never tailgate anyone. On the highway/motorway I'll just move out of the right lane after I'm done overtaking. On suburban roads, everyone has their equal rights to drive on the roads at a speed they're comfortable with. If I get tailgated I'll just slow down without braking, they usually get the hint.
I'm one of those people who don't feel pressured at all when I get tailgated, having the 'I don't give a shit about other people' attitude and both dash and rear cams definitely help. I actually get excited when I get tailgated. The rear bumper of my car has a small crack because I stupidly reversed too far at a shopping centre. So now when I get tailgated I'll try stunts like braking suddenly at yellow light, hoping to feel that 'bump' so I can get a new bumper at their expense.
Worked once when a tailgater bumped into my rear and tried driving off. My rear cam caught the whole ordeal along with his number plate. I loved the look on his face when I showed up at his door an hour later with a police officer and a HUGE grin on my face to get his insurance details. Got that sucker to pay for a brand new bumper.
Tailgaters think they're good drivers, but I can always catch them off guard with my shitty attitude. Just keep messing with them till they rage, I feed off that rage…. yum.
Brilliant, you're like an evil Mr Bean
"… I showed up at his door an hour later with a police officer …" <—- really??
"On suburban roads, everyone has their equal rights to drive on the roads at a speed they're comfortable with."
This is actually not true. You are still required to do a reasonable approximation of the speed limit to avoid obstructing traffic, although the cops rarely enforce this. I don't tailgate but I do find people driving at 40 in a 60 zone infuriating. If you aren't confident you can drive safely at 60, you probably shouldn't be driving at all.
And if you're not in a hurry, which you're obviously not if you're going that slow, can you please take 10 seconds to pull over and let people past.
Jesus so many people raging in here.
Tailgating is stupid, doing it as revenge is stupid and just as dangerous.The road rules state that you MUST KEEP LEFT UNLESS OVERTAKING. In fact if you look at the wording, you'll find that it says you generally may not use the right lane, except for overtaking, turning, or when the road is congested.
The reason for that rule is that staying in the right lane, even if you're driving at the limit, prevents traffic alignment flow and 'locks' the right lane. This directly causes congestion. To put simply, the right lane MUST be moving faster than the rest, otherwise the total capacity of the road is greatly reduced which in turn increases the sum risk of accidents.
If you've spent more than a minute in the right lane, you're failing to keep left. You must either speed up and overtake or slow down and leave the lane.
So, please, stay out of the right lane. You're not on any moral high ground when match speeds with the other lanes and are driving at the limit. You're putting everyone at risk and you're breaking the law.
Your comment is all nice and good. But what does that have anything to do with tail gating ?
A lot of comments here are people saying they lock speeds with the other lanes or even deliberately slow down to 'teach' the tailgaters, or even tailgate them back?!. No. Either overtake and change lanes or slow down and change lanes. Do not escalate. Do not put yourself and others at further risk.
Not sure where you live, but in Victoria this rule only applies for the very right lane and only if the speed limit is more than 80.
Yet, I agree with everything else you say and this should be the rule for any freeway and any road outside of metro/built up areas.
Qld transport website also says you can't speed to overtake. So what happens then?
You don't overtake. If you need to speed to overtake, then the rest of the traffic is already traveling at the maximum permissible speed. Unless the road is very congested (peak hour for example) you should not not drive in the right lane unless overtaking. It isn't up to you to worry about who is or isn't speeding. There may be a good reason they appear to be doing so — your speedo is likely to be reading faster than your real speed, it may be a police vehicle, they may be trying to get to hospital in an emergency, they may just be in a hurry and they are taking a chance of getting a speeding ticket. Just concentrate on YOUR obligations and don't worry about what everyone else is doing.
What shits me, is when people on the left SPEED UP when being over taken!
Well define overtaking. If I am on the RH lane, and I am overtaking traffic to my left, and there are a number of vehicles in said LH Lane, then it would be safer for me to stay in the RH lane and continue to overtake. The vehicles in the LH Lane might have a speed that varies between 95 - 100, and mine might be a steady 100.
It will take me a bit longer to overtake the 2-3 vehicles to my left, but I'll still be staying in the RH lane to overtake as that's my original intention.
If I've got the space to move to the LH Lane because some douchebro wants to do 115 in a 110 zone, I'll happily move to the LH lane. But it's not always possible in the circumstances, so douchebro will need to wait the 30sec or so for it to be clear for me to move into the LH Lane.
So confined to the example above, I do not believe that this would be an issue of obstructing the flow of traffic, I believe that I would still be overtaking, and doing so within the limits of the road rules.
@ankor: What you described is perfectly fine and legal. You are allowed to "speed up" to overtake, but not to exceed the posted speed limit. Is that where the confusion lies?
What the "speeder" is doing doesn't really matter. Keep in mind that just because you estimate he is traveling at 115 in a 110 zone, doesn't mean that he is. Your speedo could be inaccurate. He could be traveling at 110 real km/h. Suddenly he goes from a douche to a normal person.
I've never been annoyed nor seen any one else get upset by someone pulling out, overtaking and immediately moving left. The blood boils then they just sit there, matching speed and boxing everyone in.
I just slow down a bit and take my sweet time until they leave me alone.
I love how I sit on the limit and cars mow me down.
"See you at the next set of lights mate"
As much as I want to unleash tornadoes on them, and hadouken tailgaters, I like my car and prefer that its bonnet does not fuse with the boot of a car driven by a <feminine hygiene accessory>bag who I just managed to get off my tail…Neither would I want an airbag slamming into my face at 110kph…
I only go into the far right lane to overtake, and I move out of the right lane as soon as I've completed the overtake.
Keep blocking traffic in the right lane and you're breaking the law.
Police issued 174 fines for this offence on Wednesday according to SMH.
http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/lane-hoggers-receive-lesson-from-p…and this:
http://www.caradvice.com.au/461487/stay-in-the-left-fking-la…
Quote: "If you’re doing the speed limit and sitting in the right lane with that look of smugness on your face, because “I am doing the speed limit and it’s okay to be in this lane” – you are my most disliked type of human being."
Get out of the right lane, and don't be an idiot.
If there is someone behind you in the right lane, and you are not overtaking any cars - MOVE TO THE LEFT.
Not only is it against the law to stay in the right lane when NOT overtaking, but it builds up congestion and makes it less safe for EVERYONE on the road when people have to switch to the left lane to overtake you. Slowing down in the right lane because someone is tailgating you is just even worse. It's stupid, immature and dangerous. Tailgaiting is stupid as it is, but slowing down to spite them is JUST as bad. You're retaliating on the road due to someone else's actions - which is exactly what the person tailgaiting is doing. You're both idots, and both making it unsafe for everyone else.
It's also not your duty to to ensure other road users do the 'speed limit' and neither are you equipped or qualified to determine how fast other drivers are going.
Speedos are inaccurate. I know for a fact that when I drive my car, the speedo reads 109km/h when the car is travelling at 100km/h. I have checked this with gps and the complimentary speedchecks on some highways.