09-28-2004, 10:45 AM
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Made in England
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Join Date: Aug 2002
Location: Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
Posts: 8,180
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by jaybee from UK
I'm mystified about why people tailgate, and even more mystified about why people GET tailgated.
I'm a fast, and savvy driver. If I need to get around you, and you're dawdling along at only 130% of the speed limit, I'll usually just overtake you or if I'm in a hurry, I'll flash/honk - with 'respectful' intervals (varying on age of driver and vehicle) between reminders - until you are behind me. But one way or the other, you better believe I'm going to be in front of you in the next minute or so, regardless. I don't let slackers stand in my way for too long. Tailgaiting does nothing to get you past the lemon that's in your way - it's unsafe, and moreover, it only serves to ensure the driver of the said lemon doesn't pull over earlier.
By the same token, I don't understand why slackers drive so slowly that they GET tailgated. Driving in my car, I want to get from A to B in the shortest time. Unless a particularly beautiful song is being played, or an equally beautiful woman is strolling gracefully on the pavement etc, I'll drive at the max the prevailing conditions, such as road curvature and traffic flow, allow. Time in my car is time that could be spent on better things. I generally don't do pleasure cruises, although I own a convertible. If on very rare occasion I'm being flashed, it's only ever because it's someone who knows me and saying 'hi'. In the extremely unlikely event I were to be tailgated, I'd let the driver pass at the earliest opportunity.
Jaybee.
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Well...
I am not a "slacker" on the roads. I travel at the posted speed limit or a bit above it.
Most people get tailgated because the person behind them doesn't have the patience to notice it is them who are hindering everyone's safety by driving way over the speed limit. For some people fast is never fast enough. You admit your a fast driver so why do the other drivers who are driving the speed limit or a bit over get called slackers. I understand that some people can drive too slow and cause accidents, but I think more are caused by people who think they have some superior ability enabling them to proceed faster than they should. I especially like the drivers who pass me on the city streets with tires squealing and burning only to be waiting for me at the red light. I always remember one fast savvy driver who was passing everyone on the highway nearly causing accidents as he passed by, looking so smug that he got ahead of the crowd. My son who was 10 at the time asked me why I couldn't drive like him and I told him that the guy was rushing to his own accident.Sure enough twenty minutes down the road, there he was under a transport truck dead! BTW if I am going the speed limit or slighty above it and a person wants to pass me and gets upset it is their problem not mine.....
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