This comment section is a very good case study in why better public transportation is absolutely necessary: a lot of you should not ever drive.
The only reason I accept to not let these people pass is if it forces you do something unsafe, like throwing yourself over to the next lane and slamming on the brakes to match speed with the other cars. Otherwise just give them the lane and let them be a reckless ass somewhere else away from you. Safer that way. It’s not your job to enforce traffic rules.
I just let them pass you. Not worth some lunatic you piss off even more and end up shooting you.
If it’s a 2 lane per side road the best way to get them to pass you is to not break check them but just take your foot off the gas until they get frustrated enough to just go around but this contextually sounds like a single lane sitch which you are correct is dangerous.
I’m a school bus driver and the course material (and test questions) for the CDL state this explicitly. If someone is tailgating you, you slow down. Tailgaters are gonna tailgate no matter what, and slowing down means the damage will be less if they do happen to hit you. If that makes them mad tough tittie (the course material does not use “tough tittie” but you can tell they wanted to).
The great irony of people who tailgate school buses is that WE CAN’T EVEN FUCKING SEE YOU BACK THERE. Even in your fantasy world of the person in front of you feeling pressured and speeding up (which never ever actually happens), it can’t possibly happen if they don’t even know you’re there.
I’m not doubting you at all, but how dumb does one have to be to tailgate a bus? As if you can force a bus into anything.
If you tailgate a larger vehicle, all you do is put yourself into mortal danger.
how dumb does one have to be to tailgate a bus?
Pretty fucking dumb but it’s a low bar. The only upside to tailgating a larger vehicle like a bus is that our stopping distance is a lot greater so the tailgater is less likely to slam into us.
I slow down to allow them to pass me safely and easily.
This is correct. It’s never worth it.
Using phone while driving… Great.
Fuck everyone who ever touches their phone while the vehicle is on. This shit is not okay, ever.
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The phone is clearly mounted on the dashboard.
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It’s not uncommon for people to record their whole trip for social media, not just take to a picture.
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This caption could have been pasted over a completely unrelated screenshot of someone else’s video for all we know.
Don’t touch your phone while driving, but also, don’t believe everything you see on social media.
On your last point… It’s still damaging because it normalises it. UK has very harsh stance on this and you’d get in shit even for point 1. There should be zero tolerance on this. They’re a dickhead driver regardless. Two dickheads don’t make it right.
Incorrect, in the UK you can touch/use the phone if it’s mounted in a cradle. Touch it un-cradled though and wham that’s instant points even if it was out of battery and turned off
It’s not uncommon for people to record their whole trip for social media, not just take to a picture.
That’s still a distraction. Even if they don’t intend to upload the entire recording they are paying less attention to the road in order to pay attention to their “performance”.
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I have some great news for you. Look at what took effect yesterday in my state! Using a mobile device, including at a red light, is now a primary offense (you’ll get pulled over for just that).
This just applies to PA, but it’s a pretty big state with a population between Sweden and the Netherlands, so it’s not nothing!
Doesn’t matter if it’s not enforced. We have no holding phone rules in GA and I routinely see people using their phones while driving.
I live in PA and I’m not holding my breath for this shit to ever be enforced. I’m a school bus driver and last year I had a local cop pass me when I was stopped with my red flashers on letting kids off the bus. He was driving with one hand and looking at his phone in the other - never even saw me.
tbf, going 20 in a 50 zone is probably not a terrible situation to be multitasking in. not at all like multitasking at 50 in a 50 zone
I’m a school bus driver and many of my coworkers use their phones (talking, texting and even doom scrolling) while driving a bus - sometimes even when they have kids aboard. And these buses have internal cameras that are always recording! I don’t understand how they’re not fired or at least suspended for it, but I suppose the driver shortage has something to do with it.
You know, I get it, they’re probably just an asshole. Maybe they’re having an emergency, though. How about just letting them get around in case there is a good reason for driving recklessly? Or maybe just in case they’re nuts enough to make things violent?
Going 20 is the definition of “letting them pass”. Or should she have ran off the road so the tailgating ahole could continue on going 90 in a 50 zone?
Move out of the passing lane generally is the simple and legal thing to do.
This.
Lived in Korea for awhile, and they generally seem to not have this kind of vindictiveness or self-righteousness. They’re usually like, “I dunno. Either they got a reason, or it’s not worth the effort for me to do something about it.”
That said, social pressure is much more effective here, so the vast majority of people fall in line. See COVID
Only time I’ve been close to road rage was when a Mercedes CL had a really bright LED strobe light installed inside it’s front grill and he activating it, if somebody was in his way.
It wasn’t a cop or other emergency vehicle. Just an asshole.
I was lucky to be in front of him for 15 minutes when traffic got compacted enough to prevent lane change.
For a moment I considered hitting the brakes on that particular tailgater.
Have you ever slipped and accidentally honked at someone?
Oh yeah. At a stop sign or traffic light, slow traffic, kinda rested my arms on the wheel and hit the horn on accident. Felt like an ass.
How is that even possible?
Easy. I did it the just other day because I forgot that my new CRF250L is a Honda, and the position of the turn signal switch and the horn are reversed from every other bike I own, and probably not coincidentally every also other motorcycle brand on the planet. Some guy in the lane next to me got super butthurt because he thought I honked “at” him as I was completing my turn, which was quite hilarious to watch. (He was in the far left lane, I was doing a right on red from the right lane. There is no conceivable reality in which anything I was doing would be related to him, if not for the fact that he had Main Character Disorder.)
All fun and games until you get someone willing to escalate 😁
A pit maneuver is easily defendable as an accident if nobody is looking.
What to do when you have a tailgater behind you:
- Foot off the gas.
- Wait until the tailgater tries to overtake you.
- PIT maneuver.
- Keep driving safely.
I was on a 3 lane highway going interstate. Doing 80 in a 65 on the fast lane. Big rig in the middle lane. Slowly gaining and will pass the bog rig.
Then a pickup is coming up in the fast lane TOO FAST. Easily 100mph. She tailgates me. Now boxxed in with me in front and the big rig on her right. A sane person would go in the third lane and pass us since zero other cars around. But no.
She lays on her horn and starts swaying with impatience.
So I match speed with the big rig. Maintaining the box. She honks ways more and sways even more. Shaking her fist at me.I maintain it for another 2 minutes until my wife gets concerned she’ll rear end us and we end up spinning off the highway or under the big rig.
I give in and speed up past the big rig and change lanes to her wacko pass. They speed off.
Yeah it’s never worth it. You never know what people will do.
Very true. Many people act irrationally behind the wheel. Only God knows how pathetic their life must be that they want to risk life and limb to get somewhere 3 minutes faster.
It wasn’t even about going faster at that point.
I was trying to force them to slow down and go around… Instead they went apeshit.
Yeah, better to just get them the fuck away from you ASAP than to be petty. They’re not worth the risk since they’ve already established they’re shitty drivers.
It’s good to slow down to get the traitor off your ass, but be careful: our traitor zoomed around us and cut us off out of spite. My girlfriend pointed out that behavior like that will get that worthless dumbfuck shot one day.
Kevin vs Karen.
Wait, so the dude honked after her because she was speeding 20 above the limit (imo justified), and she’s pretending of taking the high road by slowing down 30 under the limit just to spite him for her being wrong? 🤔
Or maybe it’s oddly phrased and he was going 30 over and the petty lane is justified. (Personally I’d go 40-45, just to be not too slow as to be dangerous).
Wait, so the dude honked after her because she was speeding 20 above the limit (imo justified),
How does this work exactly? It would mean the person honking was also going 20 above the limit. So they sped up so they could honk at the person for speeding?
Just seems like two assholes if you ask me.
Same day different asshole.
Sometimes i really wish i had the time to get into a fenderbender, just so that the asshole behind gets their comeuppance.
Not an actual encouragement for break checking idiots, please be safe.