Tail gating

It happens much more nowadays as people seem to be so much more in a hurry and just plain aggressive. I always ensure I get their registration numbers and note the driver - just in case.

In effect, it's bullying, dangerous and totally unacceptable. It seems to be more of a male trait.

Well funnily enough it seems to be young women too! And often in huge vehicles. I was tailgated tonight by a young woman. I was driving at the limit and she stuck to me like glue.
The other day through some wretched interminable road works here, a young woman drove appallingly weaving in and out in her huge car, not signalling. . .

A quick brush of your foot brake can often get a tail gater to drop back.

I have sometimes done that and sometimes to no effect.
I'd like one of those signs that says " if I stop suddenly can you?" And I'll like it illuminated!

It's not tailgaters that get me as you can see them! I really hate people who undertake because they appear to come from nowhere. And, it's mostly younger women in bug cars, white van men and boy racers in low slung, souped up, older cars.

Are you talking about motorways Newquay?

I went on one of those nice courses (34 in a 30 zone overtaking a bike) and the tutor said to pull in when possible and let tailgaters past. How else would the next speed camera get to pick them up!

Yes. I pull in too if I can. Otherwise I try braking briefly or even putting on the hazard warning light!

When tailgated and in a situation where you cannot be overtaken (narrow windy road, heavy traffic etc), just take your foot off the accelerator and let your car gently slow down, perhaps to as little as 5 - 10mph. Then accelerate back to the speed limit. 9 times out of 10 the tailgater will then pull back and stay there.

If challenged your reason for doing this is that you are slowing down to a safe speed for the car behind to stop in an emergency and not run into your car.

If it gets too bad I slow down and put on the hazard lights as I deem tailgating to be a hazard to me!

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.

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 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.

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"

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!

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 ? !

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.

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 !

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.

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 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.

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 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.