I frequently wonder where many drivers get their driver's license: Walmart? Certainly not from the state and certainly not successfully trained by competent driving instructors. Why? There is an epidemic of tailgating -- that is, driving too closely behind the car ahead.
The standard general rule is to allow between your front bumper and the vehicle ahead one car length for every ten miles per hour that you are traveling. Yet I frequently experience drivers only one or two car lengths behind me when going anywhere between 40 and 70 miles per hour!
This is both dangerous and stupid -- as the bumper sticker on my car says. Yet some drivers can't take the hint. They are riding my bumper close enough to read my bumper sticker clearly, and yet don't seem to get it. I'm sorely tempted to get another companion sticker that says, Back Off!, though I'm not sure this will help either.
What's going on with this? Are these drivers too jacked up on caffeine? Are they stupid? What?
Slowing down often makes the situation worse, rather than better. Tapping the brakes to flash the brake lights often fails as well. A hand signal out the window to back off usually doesn't help.
Do you get annoyed when you are tailgated? Are you a tailgater?
Drive more safely.
No comments:
Post a Comment