Tailgating is apparently the most annoying driving habit, but more than half of drivers admit to doing it.
A survey of more than 3000 people by Admiral Insurance found that tailgating is considered the most annoying driving habit.
According to Brake, the road safety charity, over 50% of drivers admit to doing it.
What’s the correct way to deal with them safely?
How to rid yourself of these pests safely.
This all depends on whether the tailgater is passive or aggressive.
An aggressive tailgater has the clear intention of overtaking you. They will actively get right up your backside in a way that says “get the hell out of my way”
A passive tailgater is different altogether.
They’re quite happy for you to take the lead, but have no real intention of passing you. This is probably due to not concentrating and not thinking about leaving a safe braking distance.
We need to approach these two different selfish drivers in different ways.
Aggressive tailgaters
This one is easy, as soon as it’s safe to let them pass, do so.
It can be tempting to hold them up or wind them up. Good advice would be to slow down by gently easing off the gas pedal. This will hopefully lead to them passing you sooner and becoming some other poor motorists problem.
If you try to aggravate them you’ll only make the situation worse, which could lead to road rage, and we all know where those incidents have led to in the past.
Passive tailgaters
To deal with these people will require a bit more thought.
With both passive and aggressive always leave lots of room in front.
Even though it is tempting to make some room between you and the oblivious moron behind you, you may need this extra space for safer braking. And if you get too close to the car in front, then you become the problem!!!
Flashing your brake lights continuously is likely to have little effect, the more you do it the less impact it will have, and if they’re really too close they’re not going to see your brake lights anyway.
Ease off the accelerator in case you have to brake sharply.
If you do get rear ended, it is highly unlikely that you will ever be found at fault if you are hit from behind.
Finally…..
Don’t be a tailgater yourself!!!
Only a fool breaks the two second rule!!!