Tailgating is against the law. Tailgating causes hard braking.

I recently pulled my travel trailer from OK to Charleston, SC and back. I never drive over 65 MPH for safety and MPG reasons. I always stay in the right hand, slow lane except if I have to take a left lane exit. Since I was always driving slower then everyone else, not once did I have to hard brake. Tailgating is a choice and a dangerous one.

I was never honked at, even by the crazy semi truck drivers.

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cucumber3732842 6 hours ago | parent | next [-]

>I was never honked at, even by the crazy semi truck drivers.

Because you were towing a camper and "slow and in the right lane" fits people's mental model of how recreational/nonprofessional heavy traffic or otherwise "handicapped" vehicles ought to behave.

When you have problems is when you behave to a standard beneath what other people expect from whatever kind of traffic you are.

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its_magic 5 hours ago | parent [-]

In the Atlanta area I've experienced a few times people FLYING up on me in the right hand lane while I'm cruising along at a conservative, gas sipping 55 MPH in my old truck, blaring their horn at me like I'm some kind of maniac.

I don't want to live on this planet anymore.

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duncangh 5 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Driving and living in Atlanta after living in Charleston and Raleigh felt like transitioning from a modern cooperative society to an island of cannibals. The amount of aggression needed to change lanes largely regardless of attempts to signal good faith and politeness is baffling. Driving is a fascinating ritual with vastly differing norms across regions. It would be interesting to learn if anthropologists have studied this

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rramadass 4 hours ago | parent [-]

> Driving is a fascinating ritual with vastly differing norms across regions. It would be interesting to learn if anthropologists have studied this

And Psychologists!

Reading the comments in this thread is quite amusing.

As a driver in India, i can tell you anything goes as long as you don't get into an accident (which may/may-not kill you) or get caught by the police.

No rules matter and the only goal is to "one-up" everybody else on the road and if they are trying to "one-up" you, then prevent it by any means possible. It is a "game of chicken" in its purest form; game theory in action. Rules are mere suggestions only followed by the meek and the weak.

You have no idea how invigorating it is to drive in India.

	▲	toast0 2 hours ago \| parent \| next [-]
		> No rules matter I was only briefly in India and did not drive while there, but the one rule that everyone adhered to was: communicate what you're doing by honking. If you are stopped: honk to let people know. If you are moving: honk to let people know. If you are turning: honk to let people know. If you are proceeding straight: honk to let people know. If you are on a motorbike or in an autorickshaw: honk twice to let people know. Etc.
	▲	its_magic 4 hours ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		I don't mind that sort of traffic, as long as I'm in Somebody Else's Car or an old junker that's already banged up. In these situations, the biggest and ugliest car/truck with the meanest driver always wins.

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ssl-3 4 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

That's easy to deal with: They're behind you. Ignore them.

Setting the side mirrors based on the AAA method works for a lot of reasons, and it helps with this too. So does flipping the center mirror over to the dark side.

Out of sight, out of mind.

They can be elect to stay back there behaving however they want, or they can go around be however they need to be somewhere else.

If you just can't stand it anymore, then just hop off the highway. It can be a good opportunity to stop for some coffee or a soda. Or, you know: Just to get out of the car, stretch out the ol' legs, and taste that acrid city air, think about something or someone in the world that is beautiful for you, and chill down a second.

Or just go up one exit ramp and down the entrance ramp on the other side of the crossroad, if the intersection design allows this move to be made safely and conveniently.

They almost certainly won't follow. They'll instead be disappearing down the highway at warp speed the whole time you're doing this, and you'll probably never across them again in your entire life.

It only costs a few minutes. They may seem interminable, but they're few. The benefit is relief from the mounting agony of dealing with this aggressive driver that might otherwise stick with you the rest of the day and that's good for your brain health.

(And if they do follow after you give them every opportunity to not do that? It's not Hollywood or the national news and this actually doesn't happen much in the real world on an individual level, but: Call the police at 911 or 999 or 0118 999 881 999 119 725 3 or whatever it is, and get some help.)

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its_magic 4 hours ago | parent [-]

It's all fun and games until one gets rear-ended by one of these mental patients.

The solution is just to stay out of Atlanta, or drive faster. I'm OK with that.

Not really sure where you were going with all this. Sounds like pretty extreme, weird behavior that you are advocating.

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Dylan16807 4 hours ago | parent [-]

> Sounds like pretty extreme, weird behavior that you are advocating.

Advice for when someone is following closely in anger that summarizes to "try getting off the highway for a minute and if that fails call the cops." is suggesting you perform "extreme, weird behavior"? I don't understand your reaction at all.

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its_magic 3 hours ago | parent [-]

The people in question weren't angrily following me. If that were the case, there's no need for any theatrics.

The first weapon to be employed is a Middle Finger. If that proves ineffective, it's followed by a lugnut taken from a coffee can that I keep handy. If and when things get to that level, the person usually wises up quick and finds a new hobby. There are other tools available if the nutcase decides to escalate further.

No, in this case it was just people speeding along at 95 (in a 70) who were terribly offended at my dangerously slow driving, who wished to register their indignation as they flew by, momentarily held back but undeterred as they sped off to their Bright New Tomorrow. Message received, loud and clear.

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ssl-3 3 hours ago | parent | next [-]

So just... let them go. It's easy to do.

Escalation usually doesn't improve things, including for the person displaying the universal finger (or throwing the lug nut).

You've got a choice: You can keep plodding along in your truck while you escalate and retaliate and get all grumpy and stuff, or just keep plodding along in your truck without any of that noise.

The errant, instigating driver won't really learn anything either way.

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its_magic 3 hours ago | parent [-]

[flagged]

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34 minutes ago | parent | next [-]

[deleted]

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ssl-3 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Prisons are full of people who are sure that they were right.

	▲	its_magic 2 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Like the prison you live in, for example.

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cindyllm an hour ago | parent | prev [-]

[dead]

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Dylan16807 3 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

> The first weapon to be employed is a Middle Finger. If that proves ineffective, it's followed by a lugnut taken from a coffee can that I keep handy. If and when things get to that level, the person usually wises up quick and finds a new hobby. There are other tools available if the nutcase decides to escalate further.

I, uh, okay but I hope you realize that this is far more extreme than what the other person was suggesting!

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its_magic 3 hours ago | parent [-]

[flagged]

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Dylan16807 2 hours ago | parent [-]

Taking a break is less extreme than throwing a lug nut at a moving car.

Exiting and immediately reentering a freeway is also less extreme.

Calling the cops if someone that is raging at you follows you when you do that is not extreme.

Nobody suggested "driving all over creation".

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its_magic 2 hours ago | parent [-]

[flagged]

	▲	Dylan16807 an hour ago \| parent [-]
		Because I refuse to... throw stuff at people? And are we in different societies now?

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cindyllm 5 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

[dead]

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rconti 7 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Even that can be tricky, with the indecisive behavior people use when merging.

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tadfisher 6 hours ago | parent | next [-]

That one's easy: leave space in front of you for those merging onto the highway.

So much of road etiquette boils down to leaving adequate space so others can maneuver around you. Trying to optimize your travel by destroying any gaps as soon as they appear actually has the opposite effect.

	▲	HPsquared 6 hours ago \| parent \| next [-]
		James May calls this "Christian motoring". Golden Rule etc
	▲	dekhn 6 hours ago \| parent \| prev \| next [-]
		While leaving space is nice, the person on the highway already typically has right-of-way.
	▲	rconti 5 hours ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		It's really not. I drive at an upper-percentile pace, so I am rarely dawdling along in the right lane. However, on the rare occasion I've found myself going slowly in the right lane, it's stunning how incompetent most people are at merging. It's like they don't even consider looking for an opening in traffic, matching the freeway speed, etc. They just lumber in front of you at 43mph, and maybe, if you're lucky, look in their mirrors after they've already caused you to slow for them.

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bloomingeek 4 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Very true and it's the reason I will always leave several car gaps in front of me in heavy traffic. Just because I have electric brakes on my travel trailer, it doesn't mean I can slow down normally, they just assist. Most people really don't think about that, of course, so they ignore the trailer and just weave in and out.

Speed is a very dangerous thing when pulling any type of trailer and it always amazes me when I see a truck pulling one at break neck speeds and somehow thinking they can maneuver normally when someone causes a situation where they have to make a split second decision.