Driving tips and other life stuff
Why I love being tailgated
Yes, it's true. I adore being tailgated.
When I first passed my test, slowing from 60 for a 30mph zone made me feel like everyone behind me HATED me with a burning passion usually reserved for people who chew with their mouths open.
And actually, I still feel like that. But now I love it.
I know I'm in the right
I'm following the law. They are not. They have not a leg to stand on, my friends.
I feel like I'm teaching them a lesson
I want to stick to my guns to teach them they can't behave like this. If they do it to a learner or a new driver, they're likely to pressure them into speeding up, which lets the tailgater win.
I want to teach as many of these people a lesson as possible.
I'm taking pride in my black box
I have an ingenie sticker on my back window - it explains to following drivers why I'm driving to the speed limit, or below it if the conditions need less speed.
I would bet that most of these tailgaters would not like their young son or daughter to speed because it's dangerous and illegal.
They need to know that not all young people want to grow up to be like them: rude and aggressive drivers.
When you're new to the road, being tailgated can be very intimidating. But if you follow some of our advice on how to deal with it, pretty soon you'll feel like me. We're better than them, guys.
Speed
Acceleration
Braking
Cornering
Fair points, but quite aggressive language… particularly as you’ve spoken almost apologetically about these ‘numpties’ in other articles. I realise tailgaters wind pretty much everyone up, but chucking casual insults around is hardly promoting mature road sense.
As you say elsewhere, we don’t know these people, and for all we do know they may be driving like that because they were never educated otherwise!
Oh no! Sorry you didn’t like it Nige – I’ll admit to a pretty sarcky sense of humour and this was a personal account.
I will say this though: we newer drivers need to be empowered to not feel intimidated into speeding by tailgaters (who, let’s not forget, are breaking the law). I get tailgated every single day because I selfishly insist on doing 30mph in 30 zones. When I first started driving, it made me feel sick and panicky – distracting me dangerously from what I was doing. Taking this approach helped me get over that and now I’m completely unaffected.
Thanks for commenting, I really appreciate input from driving instructors and other road safety professionals.
Honor
Thanks for the reply Honor. When I looked back at my comments I realised they are a bit grumpy lol.
Fully take on board your stance, I guess I just spend a fair bit of time trying to persuade students to ease off on the insults so as not to risk potentially escalating a situation. But yeah, tailgaters / dangerous overtakers and other unthinking drivers are flippin annoying! Usually though the ‘it’s nothing personal / they’re a small part of driving that must be dealt with / show off your skills by driving defensively’ angle works.
Btw, just came across your blog yesterday and have started recommending it to students who are particularly nervous about their test. A very useful perspective.