"Tailgating road bullies are scourge of motoring" - Irish Independent

randomer

I drove from Dublin to Belfast yesterday morning, and then back again in the afternoon. What really annoyed me was that on the way back, once I passed Drogheda on the M1, the overtaking lane suddenly became a "driving lane". North of Drogheda, people seem to drive in the driving lane, and overtake in the Overtaking lane.

Articles like this, from todays Irish Independent, really annoy me.

The author seems to think that because he was driving "fast enough" he is entitled to stick to the right hand side of the road. I would like to send the "journalist" a copy of the rules of the road.


Eddie Cunningham, Irish Independent Motoring Editor

I also find his generalisation that the people who stick to the speed limits are 1) Learners, 2) the elderly and 3) parents with young children is completely bizarre. I do not fit into any of these categories, yet I do not break the speed limit and I have never been stopped for speeding. Yet, I have friends in all three categories who certainly do break the speed limit and all have points. How can a journalist get paid for writing this rubbish? If it was a letter sent in from a member of the public then I could understand, but a professional journalist writing this rubbish...

And while I am on this rant, what is the purpose of those "baby on board" stickers...

http://www.independent.ie/lifestyle/motoring/tailgating-road-bullies-are-scourge--of-motoring-1446610.html

Irish Independent wrote:

By Eddie Cunningham


Tuesday August 05 2008

LONG ago, it used to be the gadfly buzzing around that drove cattle and their owners mad. Now, it's the smart-ass drivers who think they own the road and want everyone out of their way so they can flit unhindered in their big car around our country byways.

They certainly bring me out in lumps -- of anger.

I don't want to create an urban-rural divide here, or raise historical sores, but it has been my experience that a lot of those cars have Dublin, northern or English registrations.

This past week I have witnessed a couple of appalling cases of road bullying -- the experts call it tailgating. In one case, the driver in front was brow beaten by the flashing lights, close-to-rear-bumper driving and horn honking of a brat in an '07-reg Golf Gti.

The elderly driver eventually pulled in, no doubt shaken by the experience. The nub of the matter was that he had been driving at the local prevailing legal limit.

But one smart fellow recently got his comeuppance. I was travelling fast enough, I can tell you, but the brat behind wasn't happy. I held my ground until we came onto a good wide stretch of road. What did he do? He passed me on the inside. Well, he must have got the shock of his life when, out of nowhere, a Garda car's blue lights flashed and he was pulled over.

Tailgating

I mention all this to highlight how prevalent tailgating has become.

And there is new research to show that drivers who stick to the speed limit are nearly twice as likely to be followed too closely as those who break the law.

The research, by the Transport Research Laboratory, in partnership with the insurance company Direct Line, found that drivers' impatience is still putting lives at risk. That's the awful thing about it.

The study found that more than 90pc of motorists were followed too closely when they observed the speed limit.

While there are no figures for here, I'm sure the figures for Britain are not far off the mark for our scourge. They estimate that the increased stress brought on by tailgating can lead to an accident: so much so, they reckon one-in-14 accidents stems from such hassle.

The authors note that it is motorists who stick to the speed limits -- such as learners, elderly drivers and parents with young children -- who are most vulnerable. Indeed, many said they felt they had to greatly exceed the speed at which they felt comfortable.

Heartbeat rates also went up when people were tailgated.

Isn't it dreadful? Such unnecessary stress.

The best advice if you feel threatened is to pull over and let them pass.

This is an insidious part of motoring today but, unfortunately, it looks like it can't be as easily eradicated as the gadfly.

- Eddie Cunningham

enda1

What a dick. If there was room for the driver to pass on the inside then he was in the wrong to begin with.

I hate those kinda drivers but its not unique to Ireland either. There are worse over here on European roads, the Belgians and Dutch. <Shudder>

Gregor Samsa

randomer wrote: »

The author seems to think that because he was driving "fast enough" he is entitled to stick to the right hand side of the road. I would like to send the "journalist" a copy of the rules of the road.

I don't see the part in the article where the writer says he was on a dual carriageway or the right hand lane when the incident occurred. Sounds to me like the guy passed him on the inside on a single lane road.

Max_Damage

I brake for tailgaters.

randomer

phutyle wrote: »

I don't see the part in the article where the writer says he was on a dual carriageway or the right hand lane when the incident occurred. Sounds to me like the guy passed him on the inside on a single lane road.

I never said he was on a dual carriageway, and the journalist never stated that he passed him on a single lane road. He stated that he "held his ground until they came onto a good wide stretch of road". At this point the journalist should have kept to the left hand side of the road and then the other motorist would have been able to pass him on the right hand side.

mcwhirter

randomer wrote: »

I drove from Dublin to Belfast yesterday morning, and then back again in the afternoon. What really annoyed me was that on the way back, once I passed Drogheda on the M1, the overtaking lane suddenly became a "driving lane". North of Drogheda, people seem to drive in the driving lane, and overtake in the Overtaking lane.

Articles like this, from todays Irish Independent, really annoy me.

The author seems to think that because he was driving "fast enough" he is entitled to stick to the right hand side of the road. I would like to send the "journalist" a copy of the rules of the road.


Eddie Cunningham, Irish Independent Motoring Editor

I also find his generalisation that the people who stick to the speed limits are 1) Learners, 2) the elderly and 3) parents with young children is completely bizarre. I do not fit into any of these categories, yet I do not break the speed limit and I have never been stopped for speeding. Yet, I have friends in all three categories who certainly do break the speed limit and all have points. How can a journalist get paid for writing this rubbish? If it was a letter sent in from a member of the public then I could understand, but a professional journalist writing this rubbish...

And while I am on this rant, what is the purpose of those "baby on board" stickers...

http://www.independent.ie/lifestyle/motoring/tailgating-road-bullies-are-scourge--of-motoring-1446610.html

I agree with this writer (Eddie Cunningham) about tailgaters on single lane roads only though. It is stressful if you are doing the speed limit and someone is driving very close behind you especially if they have their headlights on.
However I don't agree that on a dual carriageway or motorway, staying in the overtaking lane because you are doing the speed limit is correct.
This lane is for overtaking only even if you are doing the speed limit.
Many times I have noticed drivers in the republic sticking to the outside lane. This generally doesn't happen so much in the north or britain.
And another thing Mr Cunningham, it isn't ENGLISH plates, it is BRITISH plates. I thought you would know that being a 'professional' writer.

Also the rumour about how 'Baby on Board' signs were developed was after a terrible car crash in canada where the adults in the car were found dead but a baby in the rear seat was not found until a long time after as the car was badly deformed. The stickers were therefore designed to warn the emergency services of a Baby on Board.

Seth Brundle

randomer wrote: »

How can a journalist get paid for writing this rubbish?

He works for the Indo - do you really expect anything better?

randomer

mcwhirter wrote: »

Also the rumour about how 'Baby on Board' signs were developed was after a terrible car crash in canada where the adults in the car were found dead but a baby in the rear seat was not found until a long time after as the car was badly deformed. The stickers were therefore designed to warn the emergency services of a Baby on Board.

That is the first logical explanation I have ever heard for that. Thanks!

I agree with you about single lane roads. I regularly drive below the speed limit depending on the external factors, such as road surface and weather conditions, however I would always try to keep to the left and if there was a car attempting to overtake me I would try to facilitate them by moving to the side of the road when an opportunity arose. The way I read the article, it was as if the journalist took great pride in the fact that he stuck to his guns and stayed on the right hand side of the road preventing the other driver from passing him, even after they came to a "good wide stretch of road".

lightening

"In one case, the driver in front was brow beaten by the flashing lights, close-to-rear-bumper driving and horn honking of a brat in an '07-reg Golf Gti"

This hardly happened on a single lane road? It would take overtaking lane driving for anyone to react like that. Its a pity the article isn't a bit clearer. (I suspect mr. Cunningham is slightly exagerrating in fairness, horn honking?)

alias no.9

mcwhirter wrote: »

Also the rumour about how 'Baby on Board' signs were developed was after a terrible car crash in canada where the adults in the car were found dead but a baby in the rear seat was not found until a long time after as the car was badly deformed. The stickers were therefore designed to warn the emergency services of a Baby on Board.

Emergency services will not pay a blind bit of notice to a baby on board sign for the simple reason that they are left up regardless of whether there is a baby in the car or not, they're much more likely to check for the presence of a child seat and to check if it was occupied. Should they send out teams to search the vacinity of a crash where a car displays a baby on board sign but they find no baby? They're utterly pointless.

randomer

alias no.9 wrote: »

Emergency services will not pay a blind bit of notice to a baby on board sign for the simple reason that they are left up regardless of whether there is a baby in the car or not, they're much more likely to check for the presence of a child seat and to check if it was occupied. Should they send out teams to search the vacinity of a crash where a car displays a baby on board sign but they find no baby? They're utterly pointless.

Yeah, I just did a google on this, and unfortunately it is an urban legend.

http://www.snopes.com/horrors/parental/babysign.asp

Seth Brundle

lightening wrote: »

"In one case, the driver in front was brow beaten by the flashing lights, close-to-rear-bumper driving and horn honking of a brat in an '07-reg Golf Gti"

This hardly happened on a single lane road? It would take overtaking lane driving for anyone to react like that. Its a pity the article isn't a bit clearer. (I suspect mr. Cunningham is slightly exagerrating in fairness, horn honking?)

For Mr. Cunningham to be able to report on the incidents that he has seen, he would (and I'm assuming that he was driving at the time), he would have had to be travelling in the same direction as the two cars involved - possibly in front of them (to see the flashing). However, if he was in front then he wouldn't have seen the distances between the two.
He could have been behind the two and seen the flash reflecting off the leading car but I doubt it. He could also have been beside the two (being overtaken on a dual carriageway) I guess.
He doesn't mention about calling trafficwatch or anything like this - if it is true, shouldn't he be encouraging people to call the gardai to report it?

BrianD3

Article is not very clear - when he states that he "held his ground" it could mean that he refused to let himself be bullied into speeding up while driving legally on a single carriageway road. If that's the case then he was in the right.

Steve

Tailgaiting is the remit of impatient bullies who think they know how to drive but don't.
It is dangerous and does little if anything to aid the progress of the muppet doing it.
Strategic road positioning and timing will always prevail.

Red Alert

I got bullied this morning by a tailgater because I stuck to the speed limit. Had there been an opportunity to let him pass I would have. But why on earth should I break the limit, risking penalty points, just so he can get somewhere 5 seconds quicker?

r3nu4l

randomer wrote: »

I also find his generalisation that the people who stick to the speed limits are 1) Learners, 2) the elderly and 3) parents with young children is completely bizarre.

While I agree the article is the utmost in tripe I have to put forward a point of information:

The journo did not generalise the categories of people who stick to the speed limit. He quoted a study that made this claim.

really crap typical Indo article wrote:

The authors note that it is motorists who stick to the speed limits -- such as learners, elderly drivers and parents with young children -- who are most vulnerable. Indeed, many said they felt they had to greatly exceed the speed at which they felt comfortable.

As I say other than that I agree the article is absolute rubbish. It's not the first time I've heard stories about this guy. I know someone who knows him personally...

alias no.9 wrote: »

Emergency services will not pay a blind bit of notice to a baby on board sign for the simple reason that they are left up regardless of whether there is a baby in the car or not, they're much more likely to check for the presence of a child seat and to check if it was occupied. Should they send out teams to search the vacinity of a crash where a car displays a baby on board sign but they find no baby? They're utterly pointless.

Also, if a crash is that bad, quite often the 'Baby on Board' sign is not sitting pretty in the window anymore but may be anywhere in the wreckage or even 50 metres down the road...

Stealdo

It never ceases to amaze me how regular posters on this site see 'tailgating' anywhere and automatically assume that it's a motorway/dual carraigeway, that the person in the lead car is in the overtaking lane and that they have been there for long enough to have had an opportunity to pull in. There is nothing in that article at all, just like in another recent thread to suggest that it was in an overtaking lane. Why is it that so many people here cannot condemn tailgating without making a huge point about hogging of the overtaking lane?

The whole argument of if there was room for someone to pass on the left there was room for you to move in is a nonsense also when you consider what's safe vs what's possible. I think I posted this before but it's worth remembering for many of the people here.
A car travelling at 120kph covers 33 metres every second. It takes the average person about 1.5 seconds (while alert) to react to something on the road ahead of them, move their foot to the break and for the breaks to begin to slow the car. That's 50 metres you've travelled before the car begins to slow down. The recommended gap to leave between you and the car in front is 2 seconds, on a motorway at top speed that's 66 metres. The same applies to a car behind you travelling at the same speed. Moving back into the driving lane too early is a seriously dangerous and bad habit also. I actually think it gets me more annoyed for someone to chop in too early in front of me, especially as the majority of drivers seem to drop their forward speed as they change lanes rather than maintaining or matching it.

I get annoyed by people hogging the overtaking lane just as much as most people here, but you have to be sensible about it. It doesn't give you a license to drive like an idiot and then blame the person in front of you.

lightening

Stealdo wrote: »

It never ceases to amaze me how regular posters on this site see 'tailgating' anywhere and automatically assume that it's a motorway/dual carraigeway

Yeah, good point, its just his description of the Golf driver seems weird, hardly the actions of someone on a single lane. Who in their right mind would flash their lights, tailgate AND beep their horn at someone driving along at the speed limit on a single lane road? I have never seen this happen. The article could have been a lot clearer.

craichoe

enda1 wrote: »

What a dick. If there was room for the driver to pass on the inside then he was in the wrong to begin with.

I hate those kinda drivers but its not unique to Ireland either. There are worse over here on European roads, the Belgians and Dutch. <Shudder>

No way man, the Belgians and the Dutch are not HALF as bad as the Irish. The Dutch HATE it when people Keep left ..... and when they have German plates ... but thats a different story

Maybe the close following driver had a genuine emergency?

Maybe he was rushing to collect a sickly relative?

Don't just assume they were doing it out of impatience.
It could be you some day in that situation and I guarantee you penalty points would be the last thing on your mind.

Steve

ronoc wrote: »

Maybe the close following driver had a genuine emergency?

My point was that there are more effective and safer ways to overtake than tailgating and getting upset.

Tailgating isn't a penalty points offence, is it?

Dolph Starbeam

ronoc wrote: »

Maybe the close following driver had a genuine emergency?

Maybe he was rushing to collect a sickly relative?

Don't just assume they were doing it out of impatience.
It could be you some day in that situation and I guarantee you penalty points would be the last thing on your mind.

Stupid point imo, the reason why he/she is speeding does not matter in the slightest.

As you say some things are morre important than penalty points, peoples lives are at stake when people tailgate.

enda1

craichoe wrote: »

No way man, the Belgians and the Dutch are not HALF as bad as the Irish. The Dutch HATE it when people Keep left ..... and when they have German plates ... but thats a different story

I've driven from Brussels to Lyon twice this year and many times to Paris, Lille, cologne and other places and believe me, the Belgian's in particular! but also the Dutch are the scourge of Europe's roads (and Spanish tuck drivers!!). At least on the continent people deal none too kindly to cars sitting in the outside lane!

The Irish are bad too though, that's true.

Joseph Kuhr

randomer wrote: »

The way I read the article, it was as if the journalist took great pride in the fact that he stuck to his guns and stayed on the right hand side of the road preventing the other driver from passing him, even after they came to a "good wide stretch of road".

You didn't read it very well did you. He was doing the legal speed limit. I too will never pull into the hard shoulder to let someone speeding go by. Hard shoulders are full of debris, hence bad for your tyres and bad for your undercarraige not to mention extremely dangerous when travelling at 100kmph (main reason being people park in them and people creep into them at perpendicular junctions). The rule is for slow drivers to pull into temporarily to let other motorists by, they should never under any circumstances be used as a regular lane which is what a lot of people seem to be suggesting.

Having said that, for multi-lane roads I do agree that middle lane and outside lane hoggers should be equally criticised for bad driving.

gabgab

SteveC wrote: »

Tailgaiting is the remit of impatient bullies who think they know how to drive but don't.
It is dangerous and does little if anything to aid the progress of the muppet doing it.
Strategic road positioning and timing will always prevail.

There is a man that knows his stuff, see it all the time. People that think the laws of physics do not apply to them, what is even worse is being on a bike, particulalry in the rain, people in cars think that 5 feet at 60kmh in the rain is enough to stop..... Ridiculous,

The article is a waste of time, he would of used his time a little better if he had put in som actual facts rather than a story, eg: the stopping distance and reactions of a highly trained driver, so we can see what the best guys and girls are capable of, then maybe it will sink into the brains of untrained drivers,

enda1

Joseph Kuhr wrote: »

They're for slow drivers to pull into temporarily to let other motorists by

I don't think that's their puropse. I think they're for emergency use (flat tyre, no fuel etc.)

eth0_

enda1 wrote: »

What a dick. If there was room for the driver to pass on the inside then he was in the wrong to begin with.

Exactly. Wouldn't it be hilarious if the guards prosecuted him for admitting he drove in this manner?

It's people like him who really tick me off when driving on the motorway, not tailgaters. Tailgating is exceptionally rare in comparison to finding some moron driving along in the overtaking lane.

r3nu4l

MOG7 wrote: »

Stupid point imo, the reason why he/she is speeding does not matter in the slightest.

As you say some things are morre important than penalty points, peoples lives are at stake when people tailgate.

Stupid point imo, if I had someone dying of blood loss or a heart attack in my car you can be damn sure I would be driving as fast as I could to get them to a hospital. You're right, peoples lives are more important than penalty points. Speeding in emergencies ftw! :pac:

That said, tailgating is always a bad move, I agree with you there.

/please note (for the benefit of the humour impaired), while my point is serious, some of the way I'm putting it across is not.

Joseph Kuhr

enda1 wrote: »

I don't think that's their puropse. I think they're for emergency use (flat tyre, no fuel etc.)

Edit: Apologies I meant to say the rule is for slow drivers...not that the purpose of a hard shoulder is strictly for slow drivers to pull over.

On a motorway yes. But the broken yellow line hard shoulders (maybe they have a different name?) have a dual purpose (it is in the rules of the road)....extremely dangerous rule I agree and the reason why it is strictly for slow vehicles who are holding up traffic.

Joseph Kuhr

eth0_ wrote: »

Exactly. Wouldn't it be hilarious if the guards prosecuted him for admitting he drove in this manner?

It's people like him who really tick me off when driving on the motorway, not tailgaters. Tailgating is exceptionally rare in comparison to finding some moron driving along in the overtaking lane.

guys read the article before getting on your high horse. Where does it say he is hogging the middle or outside lane? He doesn't mention what kind of road it is, its safe to assume he means a single lane road at which he is doing the legal speed limit. he doesn't need to pull over for anyone and in fact Should not pull over under any circumstances other than to let an emergency vehicle pass.

r3nu4l

Joseph Kuhr wrote: »

He doesn't mention what kind of road it is, its safe to assume he means a single lane road at which he is doing the legal speed limit.

Now you make yourself seem foolish by making the assumption that it wasn't a dual carriageway. He doesn't clarify at all, therefore NO assumptions can be made about the road he was driving on.