Tailgaters are the UK’s most irritating road users

[Saratoga]

This collision wasn't even a proper tailgating. The driver wasn't concentrating on the road, failed to notice the vehicle I was in or the way the lane narrowed and thought he could get through.

Surprisingly, Volvo XC90s are actually quite wide! I think he was only doing about 30mph but considering I was stopped with the handbrake on....

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And what he hit. This was ALL the damage, nothing inside the vehicle.

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Of course, by then it was quiet enough for me to stand in the road to take photos

[listerd]

i once had a young land up my back side on his moped (that doesn't sound right but you get the idea). it was in a 30mph zone near the boundry house pub in abingdon. anyone who knows the area will know theres a set of traffic lights there. well i tried slowing down well early so he might just pass by but the lights tured red so i had to stop. how he never piled into the back of my ca i'll never know and how he got through the lights without hitting anyone was just dumb luck. what really gets me is when he was following me he had one ahnd in his pocket. bloody idiot.

[ChrisD]

Coming back up the M6 last night, a young lady in a Merc coupe tried for over an hour to undertake myself and 2 cars in front. We were averaging 75-80, even if she had managed to get past without causing a pile up, what about the other 40,000 cars in front of me?.

Which brings me to one of my bugbears- Undertaking.

I do this occasionally, but ONLY if the undertakee has, in my opinion, had several chances to pull in and has persisted in the outer lane.

After all, if there's room for me to "undertake" then there's plenty of room for others to have pulled in.

It really irritates me when the undertakee is apparently being sanctimoneous about speed limits. (like the one who "gave me the finger" when I was following him and not particularly tailgating him either)

Mind you, I am definitely of the opinion that ALL speed limits with the exception of 30 mph in a built-up area should be abolished. Also, the 30 should be rigorously enforced by traffic patrols, not cameras.

[nobber]

i undertake as well , if some one is stupid enough to cruise the middle and right hand lane then i will be stupid enough to undertake them.
what do they expect? a'holes.
i mean really.

[Al Downie]

I was flicking through TV channels some time ago, and saw a clip on one of those 'Police Camera Action...' shows, where a Police car was tail(gate)ing a car which was doing 50mph in the outside lane of a dual carriageway where the limit was 70mph. There was a motorcyclist in the inside lane who was running side-by-side with the slow car, gesturing for the driver to get a move on, and looking back at the Police car, but the rider had obviously been given a signal which made it clear he should NOT undertake. It went on for minutes, with the rider going side by side and the Police car right up the backside of the slow car, still in the outside lane. Then, out of frustration I guess, the motorcyclist started to edge ahead, undertaking at about 50.1mph. And guess who got pulled over for dangerous driving???? Yep, the motorcyclist. Unbelievable. I could just imagine the sanctimonious tw4t copper taking his sweet time to deliver the lecture about how laws are there for everyone's safety, and how it's nobody's fault but his own that he'll be late for his appointment.

[Spanner110]

I had a selfish taxidriver tailgate me for over six miles last night, we were on a 'B' road and he had plenty of chances to overtake but chose not to. I slowed down to get the message across to him but that failed, so in the end I pulled over to let him past and then kept up with him for the next 3 miles with my main beam on just to annoy him. It must have worked because he pulled over in the end and let me go ahead, this time he kept his distance. (He turned off before we got home so he doesn't know where I live, but I am awaiting a visit from plod!)

[TBM]

I was flicking through TV channels some time ago, and saw a clip on one of those 'Police Camera Action...' shows, where a Police car was tail(gate)ing a car which was doing 50mph in the outside lane of a dual carriageway where the limit was 70mph. There was a motorcyclist in the inside lane who was running side-by-side with the slow car, gesturing for the driver to get a move on, and looking back at the Police car, but the rider had obviously been given a signal which made it clear he should NOT undertake. It went on for minutes, with the rider going side by side and the Police car right up the backside of the slow car, still in the outside lane. Then, out of frustration I guess, the motorcyclist started to edge ahead, undertaking at about 50.1mph. And guess who got pulled over for dangerous driving???? Yep, the motorcyclist. Unbelievable. I could just imagine the sanctimonious tw4t copper taking his sweet time to deliver the lecture about how laws are there for everyone's safety, and how it's nobody's fault but his own that he'll be late for his appointment.

Much as I'd want to hit the bloke with a large stick for driving at 50 in the outside lane, if he had a police car on his rear and the motorbike on his left, where exactly did they think he was supposed to go? Through the central barrier?

The biker deserved everything he got for being stupid enough for pulling an illegal manoevure right in front of a police car THAT HE KNEW WAS THERE!

If he'd have slowed right down, allowed the 50mph muppet and the police car to pass him, he could have watched with glee as the police pulled the muppet over for obstruction and ridden happily on.

Don't get me wrong, I've been biking for over 20 years and have performed many such manoevures myself to get past aforementioned myopic, self centred muppets*, but never infront of a copper......

*before anyone starts shouting at me, if a driver is so self centred that he is oblivious to all other road users, then there is a very good chance he'll sweep me off my bike in an equally self centred and stupid manoevure so I will get away from them as quickly as my little wheels will take me.

[Al Downie]

Ah, no, sorry, for the purpose of brevity I didn't explain it very well. During the minutes when this was being filmed, the motorcyclist did frequently pull back alongside the police car and gesture to the coppers to do something about the plonker who wouldn't budge from the outside lane. They weren't interested though - it was absolutely clear they had decided thay were going to wait for the motorcyclist to screw-up. Just bored and inventing some amusement for themselves, I reckon.

[Al Downie]

I had a selfish taxidriver tailgate me for over six miles last night, we were on a 'B' road and he had plenty of chances to overtake but chose not to. I slowed down to get the message across to him but that failed, so in the end I pulled over to let him past and then kept up with him for the next 3 miles with my main beam on just to annoy him. It must have worked because he pulled over in the end and let me go ahead, this time he kept his distance.

On a related note, I once got stuck behind a very slow car on a really long, twisty road - it was dark, and the loon had his rear foglights on. I stayed about 50m back, but got completely hassled after a while and there was a huge queue of cars behind me, so I drew forwards and tried to see if there would be a place to overtake, but the flippin' foglights were too dazzling. Couldn't see a THING past this car! I flashed my lights off-and-on, honked my horn a couple of times, but to no avail. I even pulled out speculatively to see what the road ahead was like, but when I did so the slow car sped up and I still couldn't see anything because of the flippin' foglights, so I pulled back in again. This continued for a few miles and I was getting *really* frustrated, but eventually I saw a roadsign that said "Dual carriageway 2 miles ahead", so I just resigned myself to being stuck there for the next ten minutes. And when the dual carriageway finally came, I gave one more indignant flash of my full beam and honked my horn as I overtook and looked over to scowl at the driver, and then I saw that it wasn't some old absent-minded duffer, but a woman in tears, probably because she thought I was trying to molest her on a dark night. Still shouldn't have had her flippin' foglights on though.

[Beedoc]

I nearly always ease off the throttle for those overtaking, so why do so many do the opposite to me when I'm overtaking .

[militarymick]

I nearly always ease off the throttle for those overtaking, so why do so many do the opposite to me when I'm overtaking .

Ans.=TESTOSTERONE

[Al Downie]

Ans.=TESTOSTERONE

Nah - this is another symptom of 'old duffer' syndrome: having travelled at 30mph with a huge queue behind them along the twisty country road because they're not in a hurry, they get to a reasonably straight bit where they feel safe so they speed up at exactly the same time as everyone is trying to overtake them. Flippin' annoying old bampots.

[Beedoc]

Nah - this is another symptom of 'old duffer' syndrome: having travelled at 30mph with a huge queue behind them along the twisty country road because they're not in a hurry, they get to a reasonably straight bit where they feel safe so they speed up at exactly the same time as everyone is trying to overtake them. Flippin' annoying old bampots.

I disagree. It's a conscious decision and quite obvious.

[philburt]

Ah, no, sorry, for the purpose of brevity I didn't explain it very well. During the minutes when this was being filmed, the motorcyclist did frequently pull back alongside the police car and gesture to the coppers to do something about the plonker who wouldn't budge from the outside lane. They weren't interested though - it was absolutely clear they had decided thay were going to wait for the motorcyclist to screw-up. Just bored and inventing some amusement for themselves, I reckon.

Why the hell did he not just pass him? If I am not mistaken the highway code allows passing on the left of slow moving traffic. It is a long time since I have read the highway code though!

[Beedoc]

Why the hell did he not just pass him? If I am not mistaken the highway code allows passing on the left of slow moving traffic. It is a long time since I have read the highway code though!

The thing is, as I understand, it wasn't slow moving traffic, it was a slow moving solitary car. So the biker could "undertake" by then go into the same lane as the said vehicle.
This is different from those busy periods on the M6 and the like, when you can take the inside or second lane and undertake all those desperate not to demeem themselves by using them - even if they are all but stationary.
Semantics, but enough for pedants (coppers without a shout!).
Why the Police didn't get the car to pull over is beyond me? But the biker should have bit his lip and stuck it out... if you see what I mean.