God I HATE tailgaters and it seems there are more of them than not these days! It's a really agressive and stupid thing to do. I feel like the biggest morons can put me and others at risk.......and a bunch of them STILL DO IT IN HEAVILY RAINY/FOGGY CONDITIONS!!!

I saw a button that said "Ghandi would have smacked you." THAT'S how I feel about tailgaters.

Depending on the circumstances, I do one of several things.

I always slow down to increase the distance between me and the car in FRONT of me...so if something happens, I'll have lots of extra cushion and maybe even the moron will react in time to avoid an accident. Sometimes this will actually cause the tailgater to wake up and realize we're not all racing anyway...I count to at least "one-one-thousand, two-one-thousand, three-one-thousand' distance between me and the vehicle ahead.

Sometimes I will pump the brakes (brakelights) to get their attention. Often they'll back off, but usually drift up again. I've also noticed that this is not good to do if I'm getting pissed, 'cause I've started slowing too agressively a couple of times.

Sometimes I'll flip up the rear view mirror (to 'night') so that at least I don't get all cooked up seeing him back there.

Sometimes I'll just pull over and let him go by.

Sometimes I deal with it in therapy...

....And sometimes I will just start gesturing wildly like maybe I will go postal on them or something. This always works, except for the true psychos who just smile and tailgate even more!

This is all crazy of course; and this is the USA, 1999........

Thanks for listening.

Tony '91 Syncro Westy ('Teepee')

>From: Janette & Dick Smith <varieze@ASCENT.NET> >Reply-To: Janette & Dick Smith <varieze@ASCENT.NET> >To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM >Subject: Re: Fwd: Re: Tail lights? >Date: Sat, 28 Aug 1999 00:18:54 -0400 > >Our Honda GoldWing has a lighting group in the trunk area putting it at >most >driver's eye level. These lights are quite bright and red and pulse from >side to side. Since I've had them it has cut the tailgating to almost >zero. I'm even in the habit of holding the brake on all the time as I >sit >at an intersection, day or nite. If some one starts tailgating I squeeze >the brake a little and they usually back off. If not I go to the >shoulder >till they pass us by. These days we feel very vulnerable out there with >all the nuts on the road. > >Janette & Dick Smith >85 Westfalia--Sally Ann >Norwich, NY >----- Original Message ----- >From: David Beierl <dbeierl@IBM.NET> >To: <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM> >Sent: Friday, August 27, 1999 11:50 PM >Subject: Re: Fwd: Re: Tail lights? > > > > At 21:06 8/27/99 -0500, Joel Walker wrote: > > >but now on the camper, i've decided on adding a couple of jc whitney 8" >(or > > >so) LED strips to the rear of the rear upper shelf (where the air > > > > Hi Unc -- The reason the *single* high-level brake light is mandated is > > that in testing with volunteers over several years in the early '90s (of > > various combinations of supplemental brake lights) the *only* one that >made > > a significant difference in rear-end collisions was the single raised >one > > -- and it reduced rear-enders by FIFTY PER CENT vs the expected rate. > > > > cheers > > david > > ps -- OTOH the twin ones are great for pretending to be a police car in >the > > dark :-> > > David Beierl - Providence, RI > > '84 Westy "Dutiful Passage" > > '85 GL "Poor Relation" > >

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