you probably meant for cases when you have no where to go, but this is precisely what I think people need to consider. If someone tailgates you, look around, are you in the wrong lane? should you move over? if you have no choice then yah, slow down and do what you need to in order to get them off, but dont just simply slow down when the ball is in your court.


one of my friends who drive an RX-8 told me the other day he likes to drive XX speed on the left lane in the highway and he just cruises there. When I asked him, isn't that too slow for the left lane, he goes "naw.. and whatever, they can go around me." I has to rant to him about how inconsiderate that is and that it's illegal for people to pass him on the right, but I dont think he got the message.

 

Did he learn to drive in Wisconsin?

 

I have been tailgated by a Camry Solara V6 yesterday but was able to out accelerate him and found a safer haven in the right lane. I noticed that he tried to catch up but bye-bye. I hate idiots who try to bully and underestimate the Mini capability being a small car.

 

That's pretty stupid. You drive a MINI, not an SUV, just move over. That is why Ritchie Hwy is so slow now.

It is not a matter of impatience, but just having fun and driving. I have a tendancy to go over the posted speed limit for any situation.

 

I drive very quick, but I always have people right on my boot! It drives me nuts. When I move, they seem to follow me, or block me in, just to be an ***. "I'm bigger then you, HA-HA-HA!"

 

Folks must be pretty nice around here...I've never been tailgated in my MINI, and I got my first one early in '03. I wish I had an explanation, but it just doesn't seem to happen much.

 

lol why the flaming...i was just putting out wat I...I would do..
im not telling you guys to do it. and i find tailgating dangerous. like i said. i've been in a couple accidents cause of tailgating. none of which was my fault except one which i mentioned. if you got hit in the rear end multiple times especially when you're young you would agree with me and say tailgaters should in fact NOT tailgate.
and that is that..

if someone is going to tailgate me and **** me off by getting close and endangering not only me but other drivers around me then screw it. ill go slower. just cause im not going as "fast" as he wants me to im not going to move out of the way when the other lane is CLEARLY open. i hate tailgaters and that's that.

but like i said..that's just me..ME i say. so no point in calling me stupid

 

Never been tailgated either...I wonder if it's the twin 3" exhaust or that it's louder at my rear than I realize?

99% of the time I'm putzin with the traffic...the other 1%?...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RjuUVecOTU8

 

and i admit i drive fast here and there on the highway. but i NEVER tailgate. unless someone changes into my lane all of a sudden. ill get close cause i dont want to break hard and ill back off.
if someone is going slow do i tailgate them? no. that's retarded. change lanes and move on. why make other people move when you can just go around.
so i get flamed for sayin that tailgating is stupid? just cause you have an suv means you're the king of the road and everyone has to move aside for you? no. i dont care HOW big/little your car is. a car is a car.

in conclusion....I say..tailgating is stupid and outright dangerous.

 

and i dont mean to vent out. just having a crappy day.

ALSO..to clear things a little further. im not one of those slow drivers that make everyone pass me. im one of those drivers that are way infront of a large group of cars going about the same speed. i drive fast but safe. if that makes sense at all..

 

makes perfect sense.

I think the general idea of what is considered to be good practice is slow traffic move right, even if it's clear. If one is in the left lane and is not up to speed then they should move right, why woudn't they move right if it's clear? Having people go around only increases the danger as more cars have to change lanes, but if that one person was to just go one lane to the right, both lanes could cruise. Further as I have mentioned, it is illegal in some states to pass on the right, though never enforced.

Consider the opposite case, a person going really fast in the rightmost lane and swerving in and out of traffic ( but never tailgating of course), but staying in the right lanes when left lanes are open. There are reasons why it is well known knowledge that slow traffic move right and if people just go on doing whatever they want, it only screws everyone up.

 

well i understand that it screws it up. but not necessarily..i mean just cause someone does wat you said in your scenario doesnt mean everyone that he passed is gonna do the same. people's driving habits stay the same. and it doesnt get messed up just cause of one driver. it may screw them off but they go back to their normal driving.
BUT. i was talking about passing just in general. (such as the opposite scenario you stated..in a way..)
sometimes the tailgater will tailgate you on the right lane. when the left lane is somewhat clear. so does that mean i make way for him? no.
whichever lane im in. im not going to make way for him when im already reaching the limit before getting pulled over for going "too fast". when i speak of someone tailgating me. he wants to go at least 10-15 over the speed limit. that means he's just driving crazy fast. now tell me that's not endangering other drivers around him..

i guess im just stubborn. i dont move for people that are going extremely fast. think about if someone is just cruising and wants to change lane without noticing the fast driver. wat'll happen then?

all im trying to get across is that driving recklessly fast and tailgating is outright stupid and dangerous. that was all i was implying.

 

If in doubt move right is my belief. I once had a rice rocket come shooting up behind me in the fast lane and as he approached I could read on the top of his windshield "Slow Traffic Keep Right". It was written in backwards text like an ambulance so you could read it in your rear-view mirror. Reading that I laughed and moved over immediately. I've often thought of putting that same sticker on my MINI but I'd be afraid of what people at work would think

 

Yes it is plain old stupid and dangerous. I dunno if dirving 10-15 over is considered to be crazy fast, but that's an opinion. anyways, I think I was only referring to the left most lane which is really meant to be a passing lane (of course not in the US), but if you are in the right lanes then I would say that you wouldn't have to move over if it is clear to the left, the tialgater probably has issues.



lol, have you seen the ones they have for the badge grill? I wias really considering getting it, but I think they are too small to actually be read by the person in front of you. If anyone has it and can comment on its readability that would be helpful. Getting it put across the winshield is just a little too much for me, not sure how a cop would take it going in front of me.

 

I've always wanted to put up an electronic scrolling ticker-tape banner--you know, the LED one, that can display messages, scroll, flash, etc....like at some stores, etc. That way I can tell folks behind not to tailgate me, or other such messages.

But I've read that it's illegal in many places to have something like that. :impatient Besides I doubt such tailgaters would take too kindly to it.

But I can dream, can't I?

 

I have to say, there really isn't a fast or slow lane. The speed limit is the limit for ALL lanes! It might be a good idea to have a designated passing lane, but it ain't officially so!

 

True, but not travelling with the flow of traffic is a hazard to other motorists, and there are signs posted on most major interstates that state "Slower traffic keep right"

 

This is one of my favorite observations from Bernard Henri Levy in The Atlantic.
To summarize, Americans clog all three lanes of traffic going identical speeds because of our overwhelming commitment to equality and democracy.

n the road again. The highway. The great Interstate 94 that leads to Chicago, where we have to be before tonight. Distance. Space. These centimeters on the map, so deceptive to a European. This sense of space and thus of time passing, which is the real sixth sense one has to acquire when traveling in America. And then this legalism, too, this extraordinary sense of the law and the rules, which shapes people's conduct in general and that of motorists in particular. No excessive speeding, for instance. No screaming matches from car to car, as we have in France. No way, either, even on the outskirts of Battle Creek, where the traffic is at a complete standstill, to persuade Tim, the young man who is driving, to try to make up a little time by using the breakdown lane. Or this other detail, perhaps even more bothersome, which says a lot about the anthropology of American automobile customs: in Europe the point of having a road with several lanes is to reserve one for slow cars, so that the fast ones, the ones in a hurry, which often happen to be the prettiest and most expensive cars, can drive as fast as they like in the lane reserved for them; here that is not the case. Both lanes are being used at the same speeds. Quick and slow, big and little, and thus, whether you like it or not, rich and poor, powerful and weak—all use their lane of choice interchangeably. If you're late, make sure not to blow your horn at the ******* who's blocking your way and who in France would comply and move over. You can shout, "Get out of the way, moron, and let me pass" all you like; that would make him give way in France. Here, not only will he not give way, not only will he keep going at his imperturbable pace, sure of his right of way, but you'll see through his window, if you finally manage to pass him, his indignant, alarmed, incredulous look—"Hey! Big and little, we're all in this together! This is an automobile democracy!" A real lesson, in the field, of equality of conditions where we French flaunt our social distinctions, our privileges. And a real example, once again, of the perspicacity of Tocqueville, who, more than a century before the birth of the highway, noted that "the first and liveliest of the passions inspired by equality of status" is "the love of equality itself." There we are.

 

Yes, except that, in most states, there are laws on the books requiring (1) motorists to keep right except to pass and (2) slower traffic to keep right. MAny a year ago in Maryland, a group of housewives took it upon themselves to go out on the Beltway and drive side-by-side at exactly 55 to force people to slow down. They were arrested and charged with an assortment of offenses, including failure to maintain reasonable speed for the conditions, even though they were going the speed limit.

 

Great post. Unfortunately, I drive on the 94 going into Chicago that they are talking about.

 

I think everybody knows it has nothing to do official; rather this is for those who complain they get tailgated all the time and might not realize they are not free of fault either.

Also, legally, when you are coming out of a parking lot or whatever, I dont have to let you in, I can just block the space since it's not an intersection. It's a matter of courtesy, I know that doesn't mean much in the US, but at age 22 I still have the idealistic belief that we can bring it back in the US.

 

The lowest common denominator almost always ends up in the left lane...

You're lucky you don't live in Michigan...

 

minjae, I didn't CALL YOU stupid, just your actions.

How is going 10-15 MPH over the limit crazy driving? I am not saying I go that fast all of the time , but 10-15 is normal.

How long have you lived in MD? You really drive in MD right? Well, you do live in SP and have to deal with RT.2, so I can see how going 10-15 over is crazy to you since you can't reach the limit on that road anymore because of the traffic.

 

ok ok..wat i meant was going OVER 10-15 mph. but i drive on rt 2 everyday.
and like i said im usually the one that's driving by myself cause im way ahead of the larger group of cars going slow.

anyways...hope to see you around. especially seeing that most mini's driving around rt 2 area dont wave.

 

There are lots of posts in this thread defending high-speed traffic in the left lane and casting some well-deserved grief on the slow pokes that don't seem to grasp the idea of moving over to the right to let the faster traffic pass on the left.

However, that does not give the faster driver the right to tailgate the slower cars, no matter how impatient he or she might become. I was recently a passenger in a car traveling up I-81 in VA; the guy driving thought he was helping to "convince" the car ahead of him to merge right by getting right up on his bumper like he was drafting Tony Stewart at Daytona. Needless to say, when you're not in control of the car it's not a good feeling to be doing 85 mph while only 5 ft behind the car in front of you...and he had no right to be putting the car in front of him in grave danger of getting rear-ended just because the slower speed didn't suit him. I made it clear that I was getting pissed but his schedule was king and he raced on...

I'll never get into a car with that joker behind the wheel again -- at least until he learns to slow down and "smell the roses."