Moron with no neurons

vaudegiant said:

Although none of this is new to any cyclist, it's scary when it's laid
out like this.

http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/no-regrets-for-road-ragers/2005/09/28/1127804512792.html

I love the bit ..."and drivers had better learn to cope with
congestion, which has grown 2 per cent every year and is not going to
stop". Of course it won't stop if you don't think it will, if you
don't explore the alternatives...........I feel another (probably
unpublished) letter to The Age coming on.

Pat

Tailgating? Pah, if someone tailgates me when I'm driving the only
result is me slowing down, or if they're persistent, repeatedly touching
the brakes. In the car I find tailgaters quite amusing and can't imagine
ever doing it myself. Of course tailgating me on motorbike or cycling is
likely to result in a slightly more animated response.

DaveB

DaveB said:

Tailgating? Pah, if someone tailgates me when I'm driving the only
result is me slowing down, or if they're persistent, repeatedly touching
the brakes. In the car I find tailgaters quite amusing and can't imagine
ever doing it myself. Of course tailgating me on motorbike or cycling is
likely to result in a slightly more animated response.

Yeah, I hate tailgaters. But these days doing what you suggest can
easily escalate into more dangerous retaliation. I'm not sure what to do
except to pull into another lane and let the loony through to hopefully
ram a light pole on the next corner. I once tried simply slowing down
(not braking, just foot off the juice) and that escalated into them
pulling out and then back in front of me and jamming on the brakes.

People suck 🙁

--
..dt

DaveB said:

Of course tailgating me on motorbike or cycling is
likely to result in a slightly more animated response

If you are tailgated on the motorbike, just start swerving madly from side to side, speed up and then slow down a few times. The drivers behind will think you're a nutcase and keep their distance :p

(Note: I haven't tried this myself.....)

I cannot explain how scared I get when people tailgate me. On the highway near where I live, there is a section of road where it slows down to 80km/h, then 60km/h quite quickly and that's where I have problems the most. I usually put my hazard lights on quickly and wave them away (I don't really want to be abusive because it makes me as much of a stupid bogan as they are). No-one ever backs off when I do this, so it obviously doesn't help.

I once had a rear ender because I was being tailgated by someone so close I couldn't even see their headlights. I had my dog in the back (was driving a ute at the time) and I was worried the guy behind me would run into me, so I kept looking in my mirror. Anyway, as it turns out, the lady in front of me braked hard and I ran into her car. Technically, it was my fault and I'm happy to accept that, but it would never have happened if the [censored] in the car behind me wasn't tailgating me. The stupid thing is that I recieved a fine for tailgating in the mail when the lady I ran into even said I wasn't tailgating her...

Needless to say, the man with the small wee-wee behind me took off, didn't he? Funny how he was a witness and didn't even stop to offer his details...

I just hate driving full stop these days....

LotteBum said:

I once had a rear ender because I was being tailgated by someone so close I couldn't even see their headlights

I once had a BCC bus tailgating me so close one night I couldn't see his headlights, which is a good effort for a bus. I was already just over the speed limit. I switched on my 100w reversing light and not surprisingly he backed off....

dtmeister said:

Yeah, I hate tailgaters. But these days doing what you suggest can
easily escalate into more dangerous retaliation. I'm not sure what to do
except to pull into another lane and let the loony through to hopefully
ram a light pole on the next corner. I once tried simply slowing down
(not braking, just foot off the juice) and that escalated into them
pulling out and then back in front of me and jamming on the brakes.
People suck 🙁

--
..dt

People just ain't no good
I think that's welll understood
You can see it everywhere you look
People just ain't no good..........Nick Cave (tailgated victim)

PAt

Peka said:

I switched on my 100w reversing light and not surprisingly he backed off....

I'd like to have one of those for when some fwit has their high beams on behind me.

jazmo said:

I'd like to have one of those for when some fwit has their high beams on behind me.

sign me up for one...to flash those bozos who tailgate you, over-take, and then pull in front of you only to travel at exactly the speed limit - go figure!😠 oh and for the idiots who install xenon bulbs into reflector headlights...argh!!!

endroll said:

sign me up for one...to flash those bozos who tailgate you, over-take, and then pull in front of you only to travel at exactly the speed limit - go figure!😠 oh and for the idiots who install xenon bulbs into reflector headlights...argh!!!

I'd never do it, but sometimes I think about fitting a camera flash to the front/rear of the bike. They are easy to set up to fire remotely (ie from a button on the handlebars) Wouldn't that give some of these idiots something to think about. :eek: :eek: :eek:

The reason I don't do it is because then I would have some fool with no brains, no driving skills and no eyesight in a 2 tonne Landcrusher right behind me on my bike. 😠 😠 😠

Probably highly illegal too.

But sometimes when the evil SteveA is out and the good SteveA is resting at home..............

SteveA

"DaveB" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

vaudegiant said:

Although none of this is new to any cyclist, it's scary when it's laid
out like this.

http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/no-regrets-for-road-ragers/2005/09/28/1127804512792.html

I love the bit ..."and drivers had better learn to cope with
congestion, which has grown 2 per cent every year and is not going to
stop". Of course it won't stop if you don't think it will, if you
don't explore the alternatives...........I feel another (probably
unpublished) letter to The Age coming on.

Pat

Tailgating? Pah, if someone tailgates me when I'm driving the only result
is me slowing down, or if they're persistent, repeatedly touching the
brakes. In the car I find tailgaters quite amusing and can't imagine ever
doing it myself. Of course tailgating me on motorbike or cycling is likely
to result in a slightly more animated response.

DaveB

What I find amusing when driving is when the driver behind me is so obsessed
with tailgating me that he forgets which lane he wanted to be in and follows
me instead.

Henry.

jazmo said:

Peka said:

I switched on my 100w reversing light and not surprisingly he backed
off....

I'd like to have one of those for when some fwit has their high beams
on behind me.

Maybe it's me behind you and you've got your rear foglight/s on which is
annoying the [censored] out of me.

High beams I can deal with cause of my prismatic rear vision mirror...

--
Brett"gimme prismatic eyes..."S

DaveB said:

vaudegiant said:

Although none of this is new to any cyclist, it's scary when it's laid
out like this.

http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/no-regrets-for-road-ragers/2005/09/28/1127804512792.html

I love the bit ..."and drivers had better learn to cope with
congestion, which has grown 2 per cent every year and is not going to
stop". Of course it won't stop if you don't think it will, if you
don't explore the alternatives...........I feel another (probably
unpublished) letter to The Age coming on.

Pat

Tailgating? Pah, if someone tailgates me when I'm driving the only
result is me slowing down, or if they're persistent, repeatedly touching
the brakes. In the car I find tailgaters quite amusing and can't imagine
ever doing it myself. Of course tailgating me on motorbike or cycling is
likely to result in a slightly more animated response.

DaveB

Tailgating is such a subjective term. A reasonable distance to me may
scare the [censored] out of someone else. TFA recommends leaving a 3 second
gap when driving. IMO this is ridiculous! Why do I think this?
Because I drive the way I ride and race - by watching the road ahead and
*anticipating* what is about to happen.

Leaving a 50 metre gap between me and the car in front (which is what a
3 second gap is at 60km/h) only invites people to do stupid things like
change lanes from a stationary position into the path of fast moving
traffic.

You only have to watch people trying to merge to see how many people *do
not anticipate*. Some driver in front of me on my way home from work
today was driving along completely oblivious to the fact that traffic in
front of them was merging nicely (quite surprisingly actually,
alternating one from each lane the way it should be done) until
confronted with a van who had left a gap in front of them big enough for
one car that this iijit was trying to fit two into. Of course they then
had to brake hard and suddenly the smooth flow of traffic was
interrupted. The freeway butterfly effect (see
http://kevinforsyth.net/essays/driving2.htm) then kicks in and 5 minutes
later some guy is wondering why he had to stop on the freeway for no
apparent reason.

--
Brett"Wow I need to drive less..."S

LotteBum said:

I once had a rear ender because I was being tailgated by someone so
close I couldn't even see their headlights. I had my dog in the back
(was driving a ute at the time) and I was worried the guy behind me
would run into me, so I kept looking in my mirror. Anyway, as it
turns out, the lady in front of me braked hard and I ran into her car.
Technically, it was my fault and I'm happy to accept that, but it
would never have happened if the [censored] in the car behind me wasn't
tailgating me. The stupid thing is that I recieved a fine for
tailgating in the mail when the lady I ran into even said I wasn't
tailgating her...

You ran into the car in front of you and you blame the guy behind you, who
didn't run in to you, for tailgating?

Breathtaking!

Theo

LotteBum said:

I once had a rear ender because I was being tailgated by someone so
close I couldn't even see their headlights. I had my dog in the back
(was driving a ute at the time) and I was worried the guy behind me
would run into me, so I kept looking in my mirror. Anyway, as it
turns out, the lady in front of me braked hard and I ran into her car.
Technically, it was my fault and I'm happy to accept that, but it
would never have happened if the [censored] in the car behind me wasn't
tailgating me. The stupid thing is that I recieved a fine for
tailgating in the mail when the lady I ran into even said I wasn't
tailgating her...

You ran into the car in front of you and you blame the guy behind you, who
didn't run in to you, for tailgating?

Breathtaking!

Theo

Quoted message said:

Tailgating is such a subjective term. A reasonable distance to me may
scare the [censored] out of someone else. TFA recommends leaving a 3 second gap
when driving. IMO this is ridiculous! Why do I think this? Because I
drive the way I ride and race - by watching the road ahead and
*anticipating* what is about to happen.

Leaving a 50 metre gap between me and the car in front (which is what a 3
second gap is at 60km/h) only invites people to do stupid things like
change lanes from a stationary position into the path of fast moving
traffic.

You only have to watch people trying to merge to see how many people *do
not anticipate*. Some driver in front of me on my way home from work
today was driving along completely oblivious to the fact that traffic in
front of them was merging nicely (quite surprisingly actually, alternating
one from each lane the way it should be done) until confronted with a van
who had left a gap in front of them big enough for one car that this iijit
was trying to fit two into. Of course they then had to brake hard and
suddenly the smooth flow of traffic was interrupted. The freeway
butterfly effect (see http://kevinforsyth.net/essays/driving2.htm) then
kicks in and 5 minutes later some guy is wondering why he had to stop on
the freeway for no apparent reason.

--
Brett"Wow I need to drive less..."S

I can see this is going to be an entertaining discussion. I leave a 2 sec
gap. Yes, people jump in, but consider:

Reaction time alone is in the order of half a second. If a top duel drag
racer; someone who drag races for a living and practices extensively, makes
a .4 sec reaction time, it's considered perfect. There are limits to how
fast your nervous system can send information and how fast you can process
is, even if you're intently watching for a signal to the exclusion of all
else.

However, you're not watching a single light. You can easily find yourself
watching the dodgy looking p-plater coming out of the side street to the
right just as a pensioner dodders out from between parked cars to the left,
causing the car in front of you to prop. Watching the traffic hasn't helped
because it's not the traffic that's at fault.

Real life 'my helmet saved my life' type story: Driving in right hand lane,
car in front of me changes into the left lane. Without an indicator. Just in
time to avoid the stopped car waiting to turn right. Coming over a crest. My
2 sec gap to a moving car just became a 2 sec gap to a stopped car. Couldn't
go left because there was a car next to me (head check cost me half a sec
although I was already braking, but stopped me barging into another car,
yay!) I stopped just in time. Much heavy breathing, swearing etc.

So I do look as far up the road as I can, but lots of others don't. Add in a
mix of vehicles that you can't see past such as vans, 4WDs, trucks etc and
things get even hairier. So leaving a gap has saved me not only from hitting
someone in front of me, but it's allowed me to brake early and gently enough
that the oblivious git behind me has had enough time to react and not hit
me. In addition, there have been plenty of times where it's allowed me to
react to a situation easily rather than with maximum sturm und drang. No
less damage to the car, but far less wear and tear on the nerves.So I let in
half a dozen cars over the course of a trip? Assuming that they all leave 2
sec gaps as well, (which they generally don't) it's costs me about 12
seconds. Maybe a couple of minutes if I catch a red light which I otherwise
wouldn't have. I cope. 🙂

LotteBum wrote:

<snip>

Quoted message said:

I just hate driving full stop these days....

Me too... however...

My drive to Dayboro this morning was lovely. I only saw a few other cars
going in the same direction as me. It's the first time I've been to
Dayboro in a car, normally I ride my bike. If I get the job, I might
find a place on the northside and ride to work each day. Nice and hilly.

Tam

jazmo said:

Peka said:

I switched on my 100w reversing light and not surprisingly he backed
off....

I'd like to have one of those for when some fwit has their high beams
on behind me.

--
jazmo

Some loser left his high beams aimed at me when I was driving home
from... um... some competition or something... anyway he was about 200m
away and still on high beam so I started flashing mine at his. [censored].

I'm also fond of adjusting my rearview mirror to shine a tailgater's
lights back in his/her eyes.

Tam

Theo Bekkers said:

LotteBum said:

I once had a rear ender because I was being tailgated by someone so
close I couldn't even see their headlights. I had my dog in the back
(was driving a ute at the time) and I was worried the guy behind me
would run into me, so I kept looking in my mirror. Anyway, as it
turns out, the lady in front of me braked hard and I ran into her car.
Technically, it was my fault and I'm happy to accept that, but it
would never have happened if the [censored] in the car behind me wasn't
tailgating me. The stupid thing is that I recieved a fine for
tailgating in the mail when the lady I ran into even said I wasn't
tailgating her...

You ran into the car in front of you and you blame the guy behind you, who
didn't run in to you, for tailgating?

Breathtaking!

Theo

Yes, Theo, it is breathtakingly stupid of you to read, "Technically, it
was my fault and I'm happy to accept that," and interpret that as
blaming someone else.

Tam

Tamyka Bell said:

I'm also fond of adjusting my rearview mirror to shine a tailgater's lights back in his/her eyes

Heh, good trick but how do you know when you've aimed it in the right place?