Q: What is the best way to deal with tailgaters without rewarding them for their dangerous behavior?
A: By “reward” I’m assuming you don’t mean a trophy or a ribbon. Does getting out of the way of a tailgater feel like rewarding them for their behavior? If so, let’s change the question a bit. How about this: What is the best way to deal with tailgaters so that I am more likely to have a safe outcome?
First though, let’s consider why people might tailgate. I can think of three reasons:
1. They’re oblivious – These drivers may not even know they’re tailgating, or they don’t realize the risks involved in following too close.
2. They’re jerks – These drivers want you to know that they own the road and you’re interfering with their use of it.
3. Someone is impeding traffic – For example, drivers who travel slow in the passing lane; drivers who begin to pass a vehicle on the freeway, and then match speeds with that vehicle; drivers who on curvy roads, drive extra-slow in the curves, but then speed up in the straight sections. That doesn’t justify the tailgating, but it increases the likelihood of it happening.
Number three is the easiest to solve; if you drive at a speed that collects cars behind you, be courteous (and law-abiding) and move out of the way for the faster moving traffic. RCW 46.61.127 directs drivers to pull over at the first safe opportunity when there are five or more vehicles lined up behind the slower driver.
That doesn’t describe you? Okay, good. We’ll move on.
I don’t think slow drivers are the root cause of following too close. Sometimes it’s reason one; the oblivious drivers, but often it’s reason two; the aggressive drivers. The actions of an aggressive tailgater span from a simple riding your bumper to flashing headlights, honking horn and not-so-subtle hand gestures.
First of all, don’t take the actions of a tailgater personally. To paraphrase that classic break-up line, it’s not you, it’s him or her. Maybe she’s having a bad day, maybe that’s how he always drives. Either way, stay classy.
Maintain a safe and steady speed, and move out of the way when you can. The more aggressive the tailgating driver, the more important to remain calm and be clear with traffic intentions. Example – I’m traveling on the freeway, in the left lane, passing a car in the right lane. A vehicle comes up behind me at a high rate of speed and starts flashing its high beams. When I complete my pass I make sure to signal before changing lanes, because in my experience there is a high likelihood that the tailgating driver is going to try to squeeze between me and the car I’m passing at the first opportunity. I want to make it clear that I intend to move right as soon as I can see the car I passed in my rear view mirror. (helpful tip – if you can’t see all of the car behind you in your rear view mirror one of two things is happening – either they are tailgating or you just cut them off.)
If you’re on a curvy road with only one lane in each direction, the tailgater may be hoping for a clear place to pass. Once you reach a straight section of road, stick with the same speed you were going through the curves instead of speeding up right away. That will give the tailgater an opportunity to get past you.
Here’s another piece of advice: avoid the brake check. For those of you unfamiliar with this term, the brake check is when a driver hits the brakes for no apparent reason. It can range from a quick flash of the brake lights to a rapid slow-down. You might think a brake check will get the attention of the driver behind you, but consider the kinds of tailgaters mentioned earlier. The oblivious driver might not even notice and end up crashing into you, and the aggressive driver may consider your brake check a personal insult and become even more aggressive. It can also work like the boy who cried wolf. Tap the brakes a few times for no reason and the tailgater might ignore it when it really counts. You might win in court, but that’s a hollow victory when the crash could have been avoided.
Maybe you still think getting out of the way rewards a tailgater, but the less I’m harassed by an aggressive driver the better, and that’s it’s own reward.
I am writing to comment on your article on tailgating. You omitted any comment on reporting the reckless driver to the police. If you can let the jerk pass then you should be able to get the license #.
A reader emailed the following comment:
Dear Mr. Dahl:
There really is a solution to the tailgating nightmare that confronts thoughtful drivers. The solution goes far beyond your quite accurate advice to get quickly out of the way of aggressive drivers, after signaling properly, of course.
Your Bellingham Herald piece of Aug. 9, 2016, and its unsigned companion on The Wise Drive website is very sweet—advising avoidance—but it ignores the real solution: serious police enforcement.
Your sponsor, the state traffic safety commission here in Whatcom and nearby counties, could do a great public service by imploring traffic cops at all levels to get serious about tailgaters. This advice, of course, extends far beyond our corner of Washington state.
Tailgating is a huge issue. You imply this in your article by calling the perpetrators jerks—and for the record that is what this boils down to. It’s the jerks. It’s not the oblivious or the slow drivers, whom you reference, who constitute the real problem. They fade into the background of this discussion.
The jerks, as you properly call them, cause the danger and the anger. They make us crazy when they ride our bumpers, often when there is no place to turn to avoid their life-threatening driving.
Allow me to suggest a point that your traffic safety commission and sympathetic law enforcement officers should be able to act upon: Aggressive tailgaters openly threaten our very lives.
It’s as if they pointed a pistol at our heads.
Ask your fuzz friends how that would go down. I think I can speculate that brandishing a gun would bring lights and sirens flashing and blaring in pursuit of the perpetrator. Not so the tailgater. He gets a pass.
And the sap with the gall to call 911 gets a polite lecture: “There’s no clear evidence, and you can’t prove you were endangered.” The cop is right, of course. He or she didn’t see the offense. The law could and should be strengthened to address this.
The scary issue for your Bellingham readers is driving I-5 through town. This is where “jerks” of all sorts, often big-rig “professional” drivers, barrel through the two-lane 60 zone at 70. They force merging traffic to get the heck out of the way or risk being rear-ended.
Don’t forget, the potential killer is just 3-feet off your bumper in a vehicle he or she can’t control under the circumstances.
The solution: Police in unmarked cars take tailgating seriously and patrol diligently.
Word would get around—fast. Tailgating would be substantially curbed. You and I and our upstanding friends would live another day because there would be fewer jerks on the road.
Sincerely,
Floyd S.
I agree, tailgaters are an absolute menace.
I live in a place near a freeway that’s remote enough to not have consistent law enforcement. But my neighborhood is in between two cities, so nearly every driver there (including me) regularly goes 10 MPH above the speed limit.
I’ve been accused of “brake checking”, especially on downward slopes where you HAVE to use your brakes “for no apparent reason” else your speed WILL ramp up. Bonus points if that downward slope leads to a sharp turn at the bottom.
(I’ve been told to “feather” the brakes to avoid “riding” on the brakes, and wearing them down. Yet, I can’t help but agree w you with the boy-who-cried-wolf thing.)
Mr. Dahl, I really appreciate your article about tailgating and though I am sometimes guilty of it (I’m the oblivious type) I try hard not to tail gate and it irks me when people do it to me. It seems that aggressive tail gating could be seen as road rage or attempted assault and maybe it should be treated as such. I’m totally against anymore traffic laws and I believe that unmarked patrol cars defeat the purpose of traffic patrol. I think a better solution would be to adopt dash cams and envelope roadrage under assault.
Floyd S. Regarding tailgaters, and calling the police. The first thing to do is have the police model following distance themselves before enforcing the law. And not only the police, but all these safety organizations and insurance co. and law makes as well. There are many in these organizations mention that are those you are threatened by when tailgating you. Another issue is making sure all roads not just interstates, have reasonable speed limits so that drivers on all roads even interstates, can respect the fact that someone is looking out for them and giving a reasonable speed limit to obey. After all those conditions are met, than some enforcement might be warranted, but with driving, and police culture these thing take a long time, but are worth starting.
Why not take the licenses of repeat tailgators away for life.
If someone tailgates me I slow down, sometimes way down lol. I love making an angry aggressive moron furious. They deserve it. If they pass you, make sure they see you smile. That will send them over the edge. It’s very satisfying.
After a few more million miles you know you will look at that differently,, but try to imagine how that will look and thanks for commenting.
Good way for you to get shot, showing two wrongs don’t make a right, as demonstrated by two morons.
I would find that outcome very satisfying for society in general.
I don’t trust ANYONE who uses the phrase ” high rate of speed” …trying to sound important only displaying ignorance! Speed is ALREADY A RATIO! JUST SAY HIGH SPEED!
I’ve got grammar issues, you’ve got trust issues. We’ve both got problems.
Thank you for your valuable contribution to this topic, Mr. high school physics instructor.
I do not see anybody giving tailgaiting advice advising the following, The biggest danger of a taigater is if you when driving behind someone and the freeway lanes are blocked so the tailgater cannot pass you. If the person in front of you suddenly hits his brakes for an emergency then you have to do the same, and the tailgater may hit you. The best thing to just to gently slow down till you have a very safe distance between you and the person in front. The tailgater would be forced to slowdown to keep his distance behind you. Do not make it too obvious or touch the brakes, Just a slight going a bit slower, When you have a very safe distance between the car in front of you you can resume your speed and it will give you more room if you have to do an emergency stop, This advice is criitical and life saving if a truck is tailgating you because a truck in no way will be able to outbrake you in case of an emergency stop.