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Ha.
I was thinking of some kind of squirt gun. Or maybe a rear mounted whip antenna with a tennis ball I can bend over and secure to my mirror so you could whap people on the hood when they follow less than a car length.
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Flashing brake lights can very well indeed be escalation, even though it’s not intentionally meant to cause harm. Escalation is in how it’s interpreted by all parties, not just one party. Even if the person flashing their brakes doesn’t intend to escalate, they still are because they are feeding into the aggressive driver’s anger and impatience. Flashing break lights in most tailgating situations feeds into escalation, even if it’s not intended (although from my experience brake checks are just a way of the tailgatee’s way of getting a bit of satisfaction and not accomplishing anything effective).
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I know just the shop you need…
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You know, with all the car hackz, I’m sure it’s trivial to deactivate tailgaters engines via the cell network. The hard part would be figuing out their car’s IP address. But considering the thought manufacturers put into security, even that would be pretty easy.
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I was in the far right hand lane today (in the US that is the normal, non passing lane) on a five lane part of highway. A person tailgated me, exasperatedly threw up their arms, then moved into one of the four other passing lanes.
I never brake checked them. But I did do what I believe to be appropriate–take my foot off the accelerator. I will not create an unsafe driving environment, but I sure as hell will encourage asshats to get away from me.
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That’s my standard operating procedure these days. Drive in the rightmost lane or second to rightmost, and when people tailgate, take my foot off the pedal. If they’re smart enough to drive, they’re smart enough to fucking go around me. It’s not like I go slower than traffic. If they want to go faster than traffic then they can take a few seconds to move onto a course that doesn’t intersect with my personal space.
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Yep!! As an aside, I think about what I call internally “lateral pressure” when it comes to driving on big roads. And it can be counter intuitive. For example:
If you know you are coming quickly to a major intersection where two highways meet, it is almost always faster to merge right. This is because of the fallacy that left lanes are “fast lanes”–so you get lateral pressure from people trying to merge into fast lanes.
Vertical pressure is a seperate distinct phenomenon that mostly affects jetpacks.
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… both, (tailgater a bit more, but not alone), plus all the people not stopping to see if they can help. Oh there’s an accident, la-di-da, no time to stop, I need to get to Walmart before it closes to buy two buckets of margarine, fuck him. GAH!
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In my neck of the woods it’s more like: “emergency services are qualified to help. I’m qualified to treat heatstroke. Also if I’m at work late again, I’ll be out of a job and not be able to donate to the hospital that tailgating jackass put themselves in.”
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Wait, how is it helpful for 20+ cars to stop to “help”? Should all the cars stop to help? Just a few? How many is the right number? How exactly do we help here? Get out and run over? Call 911? Offer homespun medical remedies? Ask if they’re OK? What?
The car seemed to come to a natural stop in the median in a reasonably safe way, to me.
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A brakelight-flash works on “not paying attention, carelessly tailgating”. But you’re right, it often doesn’t work on deliberate, malicious tailgaters.
Which is why the light-flash is not the only tool in the armoury.
For me, tailgater-response tends to follow a sequence:
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Activate brake light without actually braking / very gradually increase distance from the traffic ahead (just roll off the throttle a smidge), so as to reduce the chance of needing to brake sharply in the immediate future.
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If the tailgater persists, I’ll generally then do a triple-tap on the rear brake, to clarify that I am actually attempting to communicate rather than just dragging the brakes. An aggressive dickhead may interpret this as a provocation, but since they were already driving in the manner of an aggressive dickhead that doesn’t really make any difference.
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If the tailgater continues to persist, keep up the slow deceleration until they back off or pass. Pull it down to walking pace if you have to. If there is no room to pass, pull over if possible. The aim is not to “punish” the tailgater, the aim is to remove the danger.
This is all distinct from the issue of slow traffic blocking the overtaking lane (which is a different variety of driver dickishness, but is not what happened in the OP video).
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Should all the cars stop to help? Just a few? How many is the right number?
greater than zero.
How exactly do we help here?
ever heard of a thing called “first aid”? even the emergency services are happy about additional info. how many people are in the car? is someone injured? is there a fire?
Offer homespun medical remedies?
you are not supposed to make them a herbal tea, I’m talking about CPR.
The car seemed to come to a natural stop in the median in a reasonably safe way, to me.
nothing about that looked safe.
Get out and run over?
Use your brain and do it in a reasonably safe way. There seems to be a substantial shoulder on the left side, it would be possible to stop there without risking getting run over.
Ask if they’re OK?
Hell, yes. What’s wrong with that? If you have an accident, you are glad if people help you. This is not rocket science but basic situational awareness and human decency (EDIT . I’ve had this discussion before… still riled up from last time).
Emergency services will take a while to get there. If somebody is seriously injured, he or she may easily be dead by that time. CPR is not rocket science, even an all-thumbs guy like me can learn it in a day.
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Yes, yes, yes. Pull over, let them pass. I had a conversation with someone recently:
Me: “I go three to five over the speed limit, always move right if it’s safe, and have zero points/tickets/violations”
Him: “I’ve had my license revoked. You must get honked at a lot, right?”
Me: “Only by you.”
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I took the bike out for a run up the Old Road (twisty single-laner north of Sydney, traditional sportsbike playground, mostly tight hairpin bends) last week.
Every time I got to one of the extra-fun bits, a slow car or truck popped up in front of me. But on two out of three occasions, the slow traffic immediately pulled over and happily waved me past (no, I wasn’t tailgating; it’s just that the locals up there are used to bikes and react accordingly).
'Twas a lovely ride.
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Places like that are nice. My mother lives in an extremely remote rural part of California.
When I was out visiting last, I had to take several trips into the closest major town for parts to do plumbing repair. There were forest fires at the time, and the main road was impassible, so I took a narrow 1 to 2 lane that wound around on hairpins with a steep drop off of about 700 feet to a river. Everybody was always polite when you met them on the 1 lane bits, and the car facing downhill always backed to the nearest pullout.
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Yes, plus before the car entering from the on ramp became visible (to us video watchers anyhow), it kinda looked like the brake checker was maybe intending to stay in the overtaking lane until he passed one more car. Which further legitimises his place there - it’s always a pain switching into the slow lane for a courtesy to the guy hard on your heels, then having a parade of drivers speed up to pass you to, and not being able to get back out.
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I don’t know CPR, and I’m pretty sure anything I did to help would probably make things worse:
- awkwardly pull my car over
- awkwardly run across two lanes of active highway
- awkwardly make my way into the median
- awkwardly attempt to “help” (?)
Let’s compound that with the effect of, say, four other people who had the same idea. How are those four people going to coordinate? What are they going to do?
Good samaritan just means someone has to help; the idea that everyone has to help is just adding confusion and needless chaos.
On top of that, If I saw that accident, per what was on the video I’d – correctly, I believe – judge that nobody was seriously hurt.
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This seems to be the original source:
https://www.reddit.com/r/Roadcam/comments/49uvk6/i_saw_this_tailgater_get_brakechecked_today_and/
I was weighing about 80,000 lbs, and full of gasoline. She was fine and had an “oh shit” look after her vehicle stopped.
[Dashcam is] Cobra CDR 820. It was only $80. It’s very good during the day, but not very good at night.
I work for a gas hauling company. I drive a day cab, so there’s no bed in it. I have a GPS, CB radio, dashcam, all my paperwork, my hazmat gloves, and PPE for the gas terminals.
This was in Wisconsin. I-41 just south of Green Bay
Furthermore! @LDoBe!
corninyourpants:
Videos like these are why I don’t brake check anymore. Never helps anyone and has the potential to cause accidents like this. Glad teenage me never had an incident like this. Move right and let them pass. Never know why they are in a hurry that day.(truck driver):
Yeah, same here. The worst I do these days, is move to the right very slowly.
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