If I am being tailgated on minor roads I signal left and pull over (on a safe stretch) to alow the tailgater to pass. They shoot off and I carry on without them filling my mirror.

However, there is a situation I am not sure about. It happens every now and then, and it happened yesterday once again, so I am here for a bit of guidance.

Fast de-restricted A road, fairly narrow with many gentle curves. I am travelling at 60 in my Fabia vRS and have a Citroen C4 tailgating me. He wants to get past. Pulling over is not an option as the road is narrow and bendy. He is filling my mirror and 'pushing' me to go faster.

I just have to travel and suffer his presence, which is making me feel in danger.

Eventually, he overtakes on some right hand turn hatchings, sending dirt and stones showering over my car:mad:. After a few miles I catch him up behind a convoy of slower cars so his efforts were wasted.

So, when tailgated by morons on fast A-roads, what is the best thing to do in future?

Ian

Gently press the brake pedal so that the lights are activated but you don't slow down, I find this works

I tend to find that just easing off a bit on the throttle usually either gives them the message or allows them to get past a bit easier.

Other than that there isn't a lot you can do... short of stopping and giving them a telling off! lol

I had a scare the other day. Some silly young lass in a newish polo sat too close and I had to brake suddenly... suffice to say the expresion on her face was priceless!

Gently press the brake pedal so that the lights are activated but you don't slow down, I find this works

Or turn your fogs on so they think its your brakes!

It sounds stupid, but i find (when it's not raining) that washing my windscreen a few times means that sometimes they back off...(they get a light film of water on their windscreen every time you do it)

MPM

I think it's a situation that needs delicately managing without upsetting Mr Tailgater or compromising your route to safety. Ultimately if someone is close behind you, I wouldn't recommend brake lights, emergency stops or anything else which is likely to wind them up. A wound up tailgater will take greater risks to get past and that's likely to make managing him/her a lot more difficult.

Things I'd suggest considering are acknowledging their presence (the normal thanks hand raised should be enough), looking for places where you'd like them to overtake (not always easy on twisty narrow roads, but there's potential for you to pick a safe point and help them past by early signal and slowing down), leaving a longer safety buffer in front of you so that you can slow down over a longer period than normal to compensate for late reactions in the tailgater and finally, don't let them dictate the speed you're happy to travel at.

The other thing to manage is your own "personal state". If a tailgater is causing you a distraction or adding to your stress levels, then you need to find someway of neutralising that so pulling off the road, re-routing, etc are all good options

I'm not sure I agree with your statement about overtaking being a waste of time ... the way I look at it is that he had one less car to overtake as he worked his was through the queue

Chris

Some excellent thoughts - thank you. When somone is following that close it really does add to stress as you are having to think for them as well as yourself.

One thing I never understand is why when I am travelling at the legal limit do they STILL try to hurry me:confused:? I understand travelling at 40 would irritate them, but surely they must look at the speedo and say to themselves "he's doing the legal limit - I want to go more but I'll not push him as he's going as fast as possible already". Do they not know their speed?

I would love to sit and speak to them and see what they are like.

Thanks, TH

Do they not know their speed?

If someone is happy to turn a blind eye to their stopping distances I don't think they'll necessarily pay much heed to speed limits!

Rob.

if you got a tailgater you need to give yourself more space to whatever is in front and give yourself a 4 seconds gap. you also got reduced braking where you got to slow down for obsticles like corners etc without braking to hard and have tailgater end up in the back of you. must admit they are the sort of driver you would love to come up on after they have been up your **** to find them crashed around the next bend flagging you down to ask"excuse me mate can you help ive crashed?" to which i would reply "love to mate, but as you drove like a **** forcing me to drive outside of what i would call safe for this road, no, have a nice day":thumbup:

Flip the rear view mirror to its anti-dazzle position and ignore them...

One thing I never understand is why when I am travelling at the legal limit do they STILL try to hurry me:confused:? I understand travelling at 40 would irritate them, but surely they must look at the speedo and say to themselves "he's doing the legal limit - I want to go more but I'll not push him as he's going as fast as possible already". Do they not know their speed?

Why do you assume that, just because your speedo is showing 60, you are actually doing 60?

My speedo is absolutely spot on!

Have tested it against several sat-navs and it is very precise so I often find that when i'm doing bang on 30 there is someone sat up my **** who doesn't realise that their speedo isn't acurate and when they are doing 27 there are actually doing 30!

Have tested it against several sat-navs and it is very precise so I often find that when i'm doing bang on 30 there is someone sat up my **** who doesn't realise that their speedo isn't acurate and when they are doing 27 there are actually doing 30!

Not sure I've read what you're saying correctly, but speedo's shouldn't be under-reading so if they're doing an actual 30mph the speedo should be showing at least 30mph and most likely more....

Chris

Oh yeh! lol

Maybe people just like tailgating me round town then!?

I do find then going through a 40 with speed cameras or a 50 with average speed cameras I know exactly how fast i'm going and normally go faster than the rest of the traffic! hehe

Why do you assume that, just because your speedo is showing 60, you are actually doing 60?

My speedo was showing 64 = real 61 MPH.

TH

My speedo was showing 64 = real 61 MPH.

TH

Naughty!

Oh yeh! lol

Maybe people just like tailgating me round town then!?

I do find then going through a 40 with speed cameras or a 50 with average speed cameras I know exactly how fast i'm going and normally go faster than the rest of the traffic! hehe

I do that too, and usually shock people by pointing out that I'm doing +/- half the thickness of the speedo needle! And I rarely to never get caught, never mind tailgated, in NSL when I choose to do NSL.

I do that too, and usually shock people by pointing out that I'm doing +/- half the thickness of the speedo needle! And I rarely to never get caught, never mind tailgated, in NSL when I choose to do NSL.

Ken, do you have any tricks to share?

Too many of my journeys are spoilt by having somone sitting too close. This is even worse whilst travelling in Devon - I had to steer into the verge once because someone decided to overtake on a blind bend.

TH

I just drive normally and if they annoy me give a few hand gestures.

If I'm driving to what I think is the legal limit, and what the car is capable of on the road and conditions then the driver behind should accomodate for that.

But until a tailgater crashes or gets sued/prosecuted they won't learn.

I just remembered that I once got pursued by a tailgater after I slow down to create more space between me and the infront as he was very close to me.

He and his passenger (a young chavvy looking lad) starting waving their arms about at me and signaling for me to pull over... yeh right!

So down whent the right foot (i had my citroen zx 1.9d then and he was in a pug 206 guessing a 1.4 petrol) and I overtook a few cars as he too struggled to do the same.

Luckily I was on roads that I knew like the back of my hand and managed to get one hell of a lead on him (going up the hill helped too as he couldn't keep up) and I managed to turn into my road without him seeing.

There's some right nutters out there you've really gotta be careful how you deal with these situations... you just don't know who that "tailgater" is!!!

Ken, do you have any tricks to share?

Too many of my journeys are spoilt by having somone sitting too close. This is even worse whilst travelling in Devon - I had to steer into the verge once because someone decided to overtake on a blind bend.

TH

Sorry; I'm just downright tricky to keep up with for some reason. That may be partly because I steer to hit the gap, not to miss the obstacle.

I think a lot of it comes down to confidence and how you conduct yourself on the road with regard to getting up to the legal limit and also positioning on the road. There are lots of little signals your car gives away about your current state that are (subconsciously?) evident to a following driver and will shape how he/she treats you.

As I mentioned in my earlier post it's all about management of the environment and it's amazing just how much of an influence you can have on those around you.

Chris

I think a lot of it comes down to confidence and how you conduct yourself on the road with regard to getting up to the legal limit and also positioning on the road. There are lots of little signals your car gives away about your current state that are (subconsciously?) evident to a following driver and will shape how he/she treats you.

As I mentioned in my earlier post it's all about management of the environment and it's amazing just how much of an influence you can have on those around you.

Chris

Well yes, but I can't think what, other than using straight-lining and off-siding, and coming up on slower traffic quick enough to have to brake unless easing will let me be going faster at a possible overtake site, I might do that sends out a "don't messing with me" message.

Well yes, but I can't think what, other than using straight-lining and off-siding, and coming up on slower traffic quick enough to have to brake unless easing will let me be going faster at a possible overtake site, I might do that sends out a "don't messing with me" message.

Chris

I can't honestly say it's a problem I suffer from, but if I did I would probably just ignore them.