Tailgaters

spoon059 wrote:

K3WE wrote:
Ummm...the official safety recommendation is to gently slow up 5 or so MPH when being tailgated- so I don't think it's valid to call it "a little game".

#1- most important is that this gives YOU increased reaction time and ability to brake more gently SHOULD you have to brake.

#2- It further encourages the person to pass (as tailgating does indeed have some hazards).

Yeah, some folks are way too dense to get it and STILL tail gate, but the safe answer is to gently slow down and increase your following distance so you can stop more gently if presented with a hazard.

Who wrote this "official safety recommendation" that you quote? I've never heard of it. Did they ever suggest that if someone is tailgating you while you are in the left lane, perhaps you are contributing to the problem?

Your points are valid about increasing reaction time (although if you are worried so much about the guy BEHIND you, are you paying sufficient attention to the guy in FRONT of you?), but again I so that I hope you aren't playing these games in any lane other than the RIGHT LANE.

You are entitled to drive as slow as you (legally) want to drive in the RIGHT lane of a multi lane highway. Its the clowns that think they are volunteer state troopers and regulate the speed of the entire roadway by farting around in the left (passing) lane that cause so many issues. People that want to speed will continue to speed. All that you do by driving so slowly in the left lane is encourage those speeders to pass you on the right interrupting the natural flow of traffic and making it more dangerous for everyone else.

It's disturbing that you have never heard of the recommendation yet go on in great detail about lane usage. You seem to know very much about etiquette- which is important, but know not as much about safety which is more important.

I first heard it repeatedly in drivers education in mid 1970's.

I heard it again in the mid 1980's during defensive driving trainings from the insurance company for the company I worked for that required driving.

I then heard it in three separate defensive driving trainings in the past 6 years from another company I worked for that required driving.

It makes perfect sense to increase safety when you are being tailgated. I hope you might take it to heart.

As to your strong attention to RV's blocking passing lanes, yes, they should not. I am often aggravated by too many RV's, too many Truckers and too many car drivers that park in the passing lane, and block traffic for 5 miles, if not LONGER! That is illegal in most states, as well as a gross violation of courtesy. I am even more aggravated by a small number of posters here who in so many words say, "I have full rights to run whatever legal speed in whatever lane I please and no obligation to do anything to keep towards the right and allow folks to pass".

On the other hand, there are similar numbers of a$$es that tailgate folks who are using the passing lanes to make very reasonable passes that are over with in a minute or two... or tailgate the******out of folks when highways get saturated and the left AND right lanes are a continuous line with EVERYONE under the speed limit.

For those tailgaters, and the tailgaters who stay there with wide open passing lanes which is what the OP was talking about, the safe thing to do is slow down a bit to improve your ability to stop smoothly and avoid being rear-ended and encourage the tailgater to pass you.