Tail gating

Badenkate that is a brilliant idea!

Its not just me then. Drives me bonkers so I deliberately tap the brakes. Yes it is bullying. I drive a micra, so feel I can be targeted. If we land up at the traffic lights together and there is no one in front of me. as soon as the traffic light changes to green my foot goes down, and my little automatic goes like a rocket launcher leaving the BMW about a mile behind haha

Badenkate - really clever idea! Might give it a try!

NFK you tear arse!
I have put my fog lights on to deter tailgaters, when I can remember which switch it is.

Around where I live drivers pulling out of side roads in front of you then going slow is rife.then could at least get out of way other bug bear when 2lanesgo to one you always get drivers staying in outside disappearing lane then expect you to let them in in front of you where do they think you are going to go they must think they shouldn't queue like everyone else !!!!!

Try touching your brakes when they are tailgating you. It gives them a fright as they think you are going to stop suddenly.

We have a Nissan XTrail as we need a tow car, and a Peugeut 106 inherited from my mother. The difference in attitude from other drivers is really noticeable. I'm far more likely to be 'carved up' in the little car, very rarely in the big one (which also has darkened rear windows so drivers behind can't see it's a woman driving).

Our old XTrail was the best for defensive driving. We never bothered to repair the dent and scratch down the drivers side after a slight altercation with a post. It gave the car a lot of street cred and no one messed with it!

I'm afraid I always slow down if I've got someone on my bumper. My attitude is "Want to see how slow I can go if I really try?" Years ago I had a Saab 900 turbo which didn't have the turbo sign on the back. That used to be fun because if someone sat behind me flashing or tooting I could put my foot down and take off while they sat there wondering what happened.

When my boys started driving, I told them that the best way to avoid an accident was to keep their speed down, and their distance (I.e.from the car in front) up. Basic stuff, but appropriate.

Happened to me today on a road I was unfamiliar with, winding and narrow, so I stuck to the 40 mph or less on the bends (speed indicated being the maximum not the essential!) but the small van kept on my bumper all the way. I just try to ignore as I know I am driving with care and hope I do not have to do a sudden stop.

One problem with 'flashing' brake lights is that once the 'tailgater' realises that you are doing it they may then ignore your brake lights when you need to break for real causing an accident, its not advisable.
I tend to carry on at my own speed and stay calm and let them do their thing which is either sit there or overtake me.

Can you tell if the driver of the car in front is male or female? I certainly can't, so don't think women are unduly targeted. I'm rarely tailgated, but I deplore the habit and aways slow down or pull over and wave the idiot past.

But what does really annoy me are those who hog the middle lane on motorways and tootle not realising the inside lane is empty. This forces other drivers to either move into the inside lane to undertake or the outside lane to overtake.

I agree with Thatbag that women are targeted more than men. For a few years I had a little Citroën C1 and was constantly tailgated, undertaken and otherwise hassled on the road. I can only assume the sight of a small woman in a small car in front of a malr driver makes his willy shrink! We now have a slightly bigger car, and while it's not so much fun to drive I don't seem to be hassled quite as much. It's a horrible habit though, makes driving unsafe and scary. I wish drivers were more polite and considerate of others.

Tailgating is just one of the annoying/dangerous things on my list of annoyances. Others (mentioned) are undertaking on motorway, middle lane hoggers, and another - drivers entering motorway/dual carriageway expecting those on carriageway to give way even when no room to do so. Feel very vulnerable particularly when transporting grandchildren so have been considering investing in in-car camera, front and back facing. Think you can put stickers on screen advising that filming in progress. BUT own driving would have to be beyond reproach......

I too slow down but I do make sure all my car doors are locked in case a road rage happens. It worries my younger son when I do this but then I noticed he did the same thing in his own car. When I pointed it out he said words to the effect , "Yes but I'm a little old lady and he's a big, strapping male" He considered road rage types were less likely to mess with him.

When I drove my old dented, moss growing on it, Fiesta (mobile allotment shed) I used to get tail-gated a lot even when I was driving fast.

One day I hired a Transit van to take some furniture to my sister. I drove between Oxford and Aylesbury slower than normal because I was unused to the vehicle but nobody tail-gaited me or appeared impatient behind me. I came to the conclusion that drivers behind me assumed it was a man driving a van and, naturally (!) men are better drivers than women so if I was going slowly there was a good reason for it, whereas only a stupid woman would drive an old Fiesta and, whatever speed she was doing was going to be too slow.

One tail-gater annoyed me so much (in a 30mph zone where I was doing 30) that when he followed me into a shop car park, I told him he had been too close and that's why I had slowed down. He was annoyed but, to his credit, did come and apologise to me after he came out of the shop. I think he'd seen the baby seat in my car and had actually realised that he had been driving like a git.

I had an engineer friend who was always planning to weld a steel beam under the chassis of his car and then brake suddenly in front of a tailgater. His car would have been OK but . . . .

I don't think he ever carried that out.

phoenix - I had a friend who did something very similar to you but she chose a narrow one way street in town with lots of people about. She also suggested to the female passenger that she get out now while she could walk away rather than be carried away.
I am like M0nica and slow right down if my brake light flashing doesn't work. We have narrow lanes round here so it works a treat !

Badenkate - "tailgated by experts" - you're right there. We're in rural France and it happens almost every time we go out, I had one today, but he did overtake eventually. I usually pull in at the first opportunity.
I love some of the suggestions above
F in L once put his brakes on sharply and the tailgater ran into the back of him - neither of them was very happy.

Something I've found effective if you have a passenger with you is to get them to hold a mobile phone up as though you're taking a photo of them. It's worked every time so far - they drop right back ?!
It certainly is getting worse here, but if you've driven on the continent for any length of time you'll have been tail-gated by experts ? !

We're lucky in Cambridgeshire. Lots of wide open spaces so you can slow down and let them by.

Then you stick your foot down and do the same to them

Only joking!

Years ago when doing the school run on narrow, windy country lanes there was a woman who often tailgated me.

One day I decided that I had had enough. I stopped in the middle of the road, got out and opened the back of my estate car, and then just stood there. She wound down her window and asked me what I was doing. I said "oh, sorry, my mistake, I thought you wanted to get in the back!"

A friend had a sticker on the back of his van with a big lipstick "kiss" that had underneath "if I wanted you up my a*$e I would have kissed you first"

I hate it too and do the slowing down thing.

I also get frustrated by the people who sit in the middle lane on the motorway, which is now illegal. I have been known to flash them and if they don't move, overtake and then slow down in front of them.

Yes keep tapping your brake sometimes they fall back if you do this.

We have a different problem here none of the cars have been fitted with rear view mirrors and the white vans don't have indicators. I wish someone would invent power assisted steering so that drivers didn't have to pull out right into the middle of the road to turn left.

I will rigidly stick to the speed limit and purposefully slow down briefly if someone is getting too close. I am glad that on the motorways where I do longer drives there are good sections with the hazard ' Watch your distance' markings and these do come in handy for getting people to back off.