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Brake checking - why?

M

MotoCat

New member
Joined
Jul 26, 2005
Location
Bay Area
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Yes
It's a slow day at work so I figured I'd post a question I've always wondered about and never fully understood. I get that tailgating is bad, so in response the driver in front would "retaliate" by brake checking. This would in effect require both vehicles to apply their brakes.

But how is this a "win" for the guy in front? They have to do the same thing -
apply the brakes - as the guy behind them so I'd consider that a wash. Wouldn't a more effective "punishment" (yet also stupid) be to let the tailgater by, and then tailgate them in return?

My next post on a slow day will be about the death stare...
 
Also keep in mind that depending on their level of attentiveness, the tailgater may end up rear-ending you. Which, depending on your willingness to forge through the insurance BS, may be considered either a win or lose.
 
When somebody tailgates you immediately, they are an asshole, they are putting you at risk by taking away your options in a case where you need to suddenly slow down or react to a situation you come upon.

It's a very aggressive move and is a reflection of their 'me first, fuck everybody else' attitude in life.

The thing about brake checking is that if they hit you, it's their fault 99% of the time. What it does is forces them to get the hell off your ass.

I don't brake check people, but when some asshole immediately tailgates me, I let my foot off the gas and slow the hell down. If they want to keep doing that shit I'll keep slowing down to let them know I'm doing it in response to their asshole action. I move out of a lane for faster traffic at my earliest convenience, but I take my sweet time for flaming assholes.
 
Climber said:
When somebody tailgates you immediately, they are an asshole, they are putting you at risk by taking away your options in a case where you need to suddenly slow down or react to a situation you come upon.

It's a very aggressive move and is a reflection of their 'me first, fuck everybody else' attitude in life.

The thing about brake checking is that if they hit you, it's their fault 99% of the time. What it does is forces them to get the hell off your ass.

I don't brake check people, but when some asshole immediately tailgates me, I let my foot off the gas and slow the hell down. If they want to keep doing that shit I'll keep slowing down to let them know I'm doing it in response to their asshole action. I move out of a lane for faster traffic at my earliest convenience, but I take my sweet time for flaming assholes.
Click to expand...
I did the slowdown once to this idiot who flew up on me, we ended up going 42MPH on the freeway. I was so confused why they didn't just go around...I was in the slow lane of three lanes with minimal traffic and going 70 before this lol wtf.

I then moved on with my life and don't remember where that car ended up after I floored it away from them.

Brake checking is fun. People just enjoy being mean.
..OP, stop tailgating lol
 
Move over and you won't get tail gated, not that complex of a situation to understand.

If you brake check someone you're probably already in the wrong lane.

Who's more willing to get into an accident is normally how these things go
 
Got brake checked yesterday.

Came up on some buttplug plodding in the fast lane, went to go around him, broseph blocked me out, so I got back behind him. And for my troubles, he flipped me off and slammed on his brakes.

100% pure, unadulterated asshole.

Funny thing was, traffic came to a halt and I was at my exit. So, I smiled and waved and he had a fucking fit. :laughing



To me, brake checking is fucking stupid. I get aggressive tailgaiting is stupid, too. Even if the guy runs into you and he's at fault, is it really worth the hassle of dealing with getting your car fixed, insurance companies, etc, etc? Really, it's dumb as hell.
 
I used to be an avid brake checker. Tailgate me and you get a brake check. I don't know when or why but suddenly I realized it's a pretty agro thing to do and I don't want that energy in my life. I don't even play the slow down game the way Climber does (well maybe occasionally). I move out of the way a soon as practical and safe. I might put on my turn signal to let the a**hole know I see him, acknowledge their problem and will do what I can when I can do it. I think it might be a sign of my aging wisdom. Things just don't get under my skin as much as they used to. Life is easier that way.
 
I don't understand break checking at all. If it's meant to be a retaliation for someone putting your life/property at risk all you've done is up the odds of something bad happening. Cruising is for the second and higher lanes. Passing is for the first lane. If you're not passing stay out of it. That's the view I hold and as long as traffic is permitting I stick with it. If someone tailgates I just redouble my effort to make sure I don't get hit by scanning ahead more. No change of pace unless the car in front does. At some point a tailgaiter will go around. I let them make that choice with as little interference as possible.
 
Unfortunately, there is an entire legion of people; I'm not sure if it's a united front or if it's made up of cells; who are dedicated to slowing down traffic.

They, like I said, plod along in the fast lane then do anything in their power to keep you from passing them. Then go into fits of rage when you do manage to pass them.

I seriously do not get it. What THE FUCK do you care if I pass you? There's no trophy at the end. No purse.

My only solace is that if someone behaves like this, their life must be pure suckage and this is the only power they have. To fuck over everyone else on the road who is trying to get somewhere.

To think; our highways could be so much faster and more efficient if it weren't for this Legion of Pricks.
 
Life is too short for all this drama. Don't tailgate on a ride, you are on a bike get the hell around the car. Don't brake check anyone, asshole move that can cause lots of paperwork.


Side note. When driving in Germany I rented a car and was told the only thing I would for sure get a ticket for was if I tailgated anyone on the autobahn.
 
Brake checking can be situational. Some people need a reminder to not be a jerk. But, I mostly refrain from doing it for the many reasons already stated (dealing with an accident, potential injury). Unless I am passing I don't drive in the left lane so its usually not a problem.

I do have a funny story about it though. One night at about 2:30 am in Truckee a coworker and I were returning to our hotel after a night of bat trapping at Sawmill lake for Nevada Irrigation District. As we were driving down Donner Lake Rd, in front of the Safeway some guy comes flying up behind us and tucks himself in about 2-3 ft from our bumper. My inital reaction was to tap my brakes, but I refrained because someone else was in the vehicle with me. After about 200 yards of this red and blue flashing lights lit up the dark night...it was a cop. He pulled us over asked what we were doing out so late and informed us that our registration was expired. I told him who we were and that I had no idea the registration was expired because we were in a rental vehicle. He was very confused, but told us to get the registration taken care of and left. I often wonder would would have happened if I had tapped my brakes...Sorry officer a deer ran out in front of us, you shouldn't have been following so close.
 
Ridley said:
Brake checking can be situational. Some people need a reminder to not be a jerk. But, I mostly refrain from doing it for the many reasons already stated (dealing with an accident, potential injury). Unless I am passing I don't drive in the left lane so its usually not a problem.

I do have a funny story about it though. One night at about 2:30 am in Truckee a coworker and I were returning to our hotel after a night of bat trapping at Sawmill lake for Nevada Irrigation District. As we were driving down Donner Lake Rd, in front of the Safeway some guy comes flying up behind us and tucks himself in about 2-3 ft from our bumper. My inital reaction was to tap my brakes, but I refrained because someone else was in the vehicle with me. After about 200 yards of this red and blue flashing lights lit up the dark night...it was a cop. He pulled us over asked what we were doing out so late and informed us that our registration was expired. I told him who we were and that I had no idea the registration was expired because we were in a rental vehicle. He was very confused, but told us to get the registration taken care of and left. I often wonder would would have happened if I had tapped my brakes...Sorry officer a deer ran out in front of us, you shouldn't have been following so close.
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Similar to that, I had several friends get speeding tickets in Connecticut when they had a car get on their ass in the fast lane when they were driving along at the speed limit gradually passing somebody and sped up to let the car on their ass get past soon, but it turned out to be a cop car and pulled them over. Total chicken-shit move by the Connecticut cops and one they seemed to like to pull on out of staters. :thumbdown
 
dravnx said:
Things just don't get under my skin as much as they used to. Life is easier that way.
Click to expand...

that's basically the crux of it right there. calm down while driving, people! No one of us is the center of the universe. get along. consider the effect of your aggressive actions on others.

the problem is that people are rewarded for their aggressive driving. if they tailgate, most people tend to move over. That rewards them with saving time (at the expense of others' safety) and also mentally. Some study I read showed huge swings in happiness and anger when passing or being passed. It's a lot like the effects of a drug.

although in very dense traffic I will tend to tailgate for safety and peace of mind. For safety to prevent cars from weaving back and forth in lanes thus decreasing unsafe lane changes to riders, and peace of mind to prevent ultra-assholes from using emergency lanes, turnoffs and turn lanes solely to pass cars and cut back in at the last second. What's that meme? you're not a genius by doing that; you're an asshole and you are making people around you become assholes.
 
Bowling4Bikes said:
although in very dense traffic I will tend to tailgate for safety and peace of mind. For safety to prevent cars from weaving back and forth in lanes thus decreasing unsafe lane changes to riders, and peace of mind to prevent ultra-assholes from using emergency lanes, turnoffs and turn lanes solely to pass cars and cut back in at the last second. What's that meme? you're not a genius by doing that; you're an asshole and you are making people around you become assholes.
Click to expand...
My wife grew up here, so she doesn't like it when I tell her that California has the majority of the asshole drivers in the nation.

But it's true, I've driven in most other states and nowhere do you encounter that kind of asshole behavior as we see in the Bay Area and down around LA.

In every other state, when there is a sign showing a lane merge ahead, people have already merged over with over 1/4 mile to go, only in this state do you have the ASSHOLES who don't merge until the very last foot and often go in the breakdown lane to gain a few extra spots. They're too fucking ignorant to realize that the very behavior that they're practicing is causing over 75% of the backups in the first place. Simple Stupid!
 
GordonGekko said:
But how is this a "win" for the guy in front? They have to do the same thing -
apply the brakes - as the guy behind them so I'd consider that a wash. Wouldn't a more effective "punishment" (yet also stupid) be to let the tailgater by, and then tailgate them in return?
Click to expand...

It's a 'win' because if something happens, the person behind you is screwed, liability-wise. Getting behind them to tailgate wouldn't make any sense, because you're just transferring potential liability to yourself.
 
Climber said:
When somebody tailgates you immediately, they are an asshole, they are putting you at risk by taking away your options in a case where you need to suddenly slow down or react to a situation you come upon.

It's a very aggressive move and is a reflection of their 'me first, fuck everybody else' attitude in life.

The thing about brake checking is that if they hit you, it's their fault 99% of the time. What it does is forces them to get the hell off your ass.

I don't brake check people, but when some asshole immediately tailgates me, I let my foot off the gas and slow the hell down. If they want to keep doing that shit I'll keep slowing down to let them know I'm doing it in response to their asshole action. I move out of a lane for faster traffic at my earliest convenience, but I take my sweet time for flaming assholes.
Click to expand...

Yeah, that's pretty much me. Sometimes you ARE in the slow lane and its still not good enough. I guess you are just supposed to tune out to the danger that the guy behind is posing and ignore it. Modern life.

I think slowing to a crawl is much more agro, though it's tempting.
 
Climber said:
My wife grew up here, so she doesn't like it when I tell her that California has the majority of the asshole drivers in the nation.

But it's true, I've driven in most other states and nowhere do you encounter that kind of asshole behavior as we see in the Bay Area and down around LA.

In every other state, when there is a sign showing a lane merge ahead, people have already merged over with over 1/4 mile to go, only in this state do you have the ASSHOLES who don't merge until the very last foot and often go in the breakdown lane to gain a few extra spots. They're too fucking ignorant to realize that the very behavior that they're practicing is causing over 75% of the backups in the first place. Simple Stupid!
Click to expand...

Yup. A few years back I was in Idaho and there was an accident. As soon as I saw the first sign to move over I did. As we crept along a car with Ca plates went bombing down the open lane that everyone had moved out of. At the end of that lane, where the cops set up cones, was a state trooper who had a huge smile on his face pointing at the CA driver to pull over so they could have a "talk". I enjoyed seeing that self centered asshat get called out for his behavior.
 
remarkably, I was in los angeles area a while back, coming down a hill on a 4-lane road (2 each way). 1 of the 2 lanes was gradually coned off to merge into the other 1. Since we were all going downhill, we could see the blockage a good ways ahead of us.

what happened then was legendary...

everyone moved into the the clear lane voluntarily, leaving a good 1/4 mile of clear lane for some asshole to use. But to my extreme surprise, no one did! we all waited patiently and respectfully all the way past the merge with no one passing.

I was shocked and may never forget that moment.
 
Honestly. I am just replying because I want to concur with the title. WHAT IS THE POINT? The title SAYS IT ALL.

It's a highway--you're going to work, she is going to work. You're in a hurry, right? Then, WHY are you brake checking people, you want to go to work* LATER???

* - Or home.
 
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