bungeejumper wrote:I agree with Mike4 that a lot of tailgaters simply don't realise they are doing it. It's just become a habit to them to hassle and hustle the car in front, and they don't mean it particularly aggressively. Which is no consolation to anybody, really.
France has long been a haunt for young women driving small cars at reckless speeds in town. (The old "Papa/Nicole" Clio ads seemed to have been adopted as an aspirational behaviour on the other side of the Channel.) But at least the French know that they'll get hammered by the law if they get caught using a mobile phone at the wheel. Not so in our area, where I've lost count of the times I've seen young women nattering away happily on their handsets while within two yards of my rear bumper. Not even room to brake so as to let them get past me.
Speaking of which, I have a vague recollection that it's an offence to brake ostentatiously in an attempt to scare off a tailgater. You don't get much sympathy from your insurance company either if a shunt should result. So by all means touch the brakes, but remember to floor it at the same time. The elderly drivers I see in automatics around here appear to have no problems with pushing both pedals at once.
I draw the line at giving way to a police car, though, unless it's on blues and twos. Suspicious behaviour, as my son in law (a chief inspector) informs me. Highly likely to be drunk.
BJ
You should come down to Italy, where I once remarked to a colleague that it seems 'obligatory' to use a mobile phone while driving. Yes, it's illegal, but the police are too busy doing random checks at the roadside - which, given their recent IT upgrades and number plate recognition software, can be done automatically. I see almost every day women with children not strapped in, reversing while chatting on the phone, trucks negotiating small village roads while the driver discusses his evening meal on the phone. It's got to the point now where I stop my car and do a Basil Fawlty impersonation. I don't give a damn about the driver, but why put their kids at risk?
Which no doubt gives them another excuse for phoning someone.
Steve