This is a huge pet peeve of mine and I just wanted to see everyone's reaction. What irritates me more than anything on the road is when you are in a line of 6 or 7 cars behind a slow moving truck and the person in back of you still feels it is necessary to kiss your bumper because he wants to go faster. Now, If I am driving 25 miles an hour in a 50 and there's no one in front of me, then I can understand a little tailgating, but boy I really freak out when someone tailgates me when I can't go anywhere. There is just an unwritten law of the road, and for life in general, that says there is a certain amount of respect due to other drivers and people in general. You are operating a potentially lethal weapon at high speeds, and accidents can happen anytime, and when I see someone stay a reasonable amount of distance in back of me, even though we might both like to go a lot faster, it says to me "i realize any or all of us could die at any moment by crashing, and i respect you and your life enough to stay the *$@# back and only accelerate when the opportunity presents itself"

 

I hear you....and I hate that as well.....I'm just waiting for someone to hit me in the back, so I can hop out the car and whoop dat azz......

 

Give em the old brake check. Give a quick jerk to the brakes and they'll get scared and back off a little bit.

 

what i usually do, if the person is really, really pushing it, is slam on the brakes real hard and keep doing that a few times, and they generally will either make faces like they are going to kill you, or they'll back off b/c they realize it's their fault no matter what if they rear end you.

 

haha, yea just brake check them. usually works but ya never know they may end up doing it more
Be careful there are some crazy peoples out there

 

i did that a coupla times but once i slammed on the brakes so hard that i woulve been rear ended so hard if i hadnt jumped on the lane next to me while slammin the on brakes....

 

i agree w/conrad.

but when it becomes a problem. i stop, and pull my ebrake up, and sit there for 2 mins.

 

( them....)

 

Be careful people. Road rage can be deadly.

 

Brake check with my BBKs = not good.

 

yeah, for real, especially with alot of people out here in texas with guns in their cars....people have been known to shoot other drivers while driving because of road rage here in houston, so be careful, you don't want to **** the wrong people off or you may end up with more than you bargained for...

 

I have to agree 100% with you on this one. I don't know what is going through people's minds when they are behind the wheel. Slamming on the brakes a couple of times usually gets them to back off. I also hate drivers who constantly change lanes in the middle of bumper to bumper traffic like they know some secret that know one else knows to get through the jam faster. Oh well, I guess dealing with people like this comes with the privalege of driving.

 

People think they save a lot of time by driving aggressively.

 

If people are tailgating me while I'm in a long line of traffic, I usually just ignore it and make sure to slow down with plenty of distance. But, if they are one of those jerks that speeds up when I pass them and then tailgate me a 80mph, then I brake check them. Slam on the brakes real hard, while watching the rearview mirror so I can accelerate just before they rear end me. That usually scares them off and they go back to their normal 45mph cruise.

 

Last time I brake checked my car got totalled.

 

Were you faulted on this?

 

A perfect example of why it's a bad idea to "brake check." For all you know, the person behind you may be running from the police and will ram you like nobody's business. Not to mention they could also be driving a stolen vehicle. I used to do things like that before I came to my senses. I never slam on my brakes when someone is tailgating me anymore.

 

first notice. i tap the brakes so they see em light up. kinda like a hey stop it. next ill slow down to the speed limit or 1mph under. telling them by riding my bumper im not gonna go any faster. if they still dont back off i take my foot off the gas and just coast until they back off. only once did i come to a complete stop in the middle of the road. i just stat there for a few minutes. then started to drive again. the other car stayed pretty far back then.

 

I give them a taste of my rear strobes

 

i just slow down slowley with my e-brake so my lights never come

 

very good ideas...i particularly like the pulling the ebrake and slowing down and the stopping in the middle of the road, on another note though, people are really, really crazy, gone are the days when you can get in a fistfight, everyone with either a gun, a knife, or nothing to lose. it's a shame because the same kind of people that you hate from school, work, or whatever are the same people that get behind the wheel, i wish everyone would just settle down and enjoy life.

 

i uderstand ur pain , wit the ******** tail gating behind, i have learned that a nice brake check teached them a lesson.

 

Tailgaters are definitely one of my pet peeves. I installed a rocker switch on my dash (beside the dimmer) that activates my reverse lights for them. Doesn't matter what gear, speed, etc, the reverse lights come on as soon as I hit the switch. This is very effective at getting people off my butt, and in a hurry. In a sick way it's funny to watch their expression in my rearview mirror when they think I threw it in reverse at 70 mph and they are only 5 feet from my bumper. After I reverse light them, they tend to stay really far back. As for the legality, I guess I could be cited for "white light visible from the rear while in forward motion" (I forget the R.S. #), which is a minor traffic violation. The tailgating person could be cited for LA R.S. 32.82, "following too close".
Check state laws before doing this. Most states will have something about white light on the rear (license plate lights excluded). This is what most will write you for when you have a busted tail lens (and why the red tape makes them legal). Most states will have a "following too close" statute, too. Unfortunately, it's not used very often (except accidents), because it is hard to prove. It's a judgement call, and traffic violations usually have to be personally witnessed by the cop, not just reported by a citizen.

BTW, before I "reverse light" them, I check to make sure that they would be the only ones in an accident if one occurs because they overreact. However, I doubt they have that same courtesy when they are climbing up my butt at those speeds.

The instructions for the reverse light switch are on the board from awhile back. I forget who posted them, but he and I both installed one. There's a wire under the driver's door sill you tap in to, but I forget which one.

Dave

 

I can't stand tailgaters, especially when there is traffic as far as the eye can see and there is no where for me to go or when I am going along minding my own business and there is a lane to the left that has no one in it... obviously they could change lanes and go on!

So does anyone have or know where to get a how to for the reverse light switch? I checked using ghetto google search but couldn't find anything. All I'd really like to know is the proper wire to tap into. Everything else shouldn't be that hard to do. I'm sure that I'm not the only one wanting to know how to do this!

 

I agree that it is annoying... I just drop gears to slow down w/o the brake lights... but don't do much else, cuz like someone else said... there are some crazy people out there just out looking to start something.... esp around here in the DC Metro area....

 

Why is that?

 

He means his brakes are superior to most...
So if he brake checked someone, they would probably be in his back seat.

Back to the subject at hand....
Why tailgate when you can... pass-em-on-the-rite(right)?

 

"sorry, I would have been here sooner but the guy in front of me had a BIKE RACK!"

show? anyone??

 

Yes Jeff's brakes are , but you should still be able to brake-check regardless of how good your brakes are.
It's not like Porsche owners can't brake-check.

 

No brake check,that can be bad in some cases...I like to drop the gear from say 3rd to 2nd so no break lights come on,then go about 15-20 mph to **** em off.Works usually...same with the people behind you with their high beams on....

 

This thread is pointless. If you hate having someone tail you, move over and let by.