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Brake checking - why?

People also need to realize that the annoyance of someone tailgating you is all in your mind, so you can basically make it stop by not paying attention to it. Driving behind you can cause problems in front of you anyway. Sometimes I'll just adjust the mirrors so I can't see the annoying person behind me and go about my business.
 
When I was riding if someone got too close I'd give them the back off hand signal.

One time on the ride to work I was in a middle lane, NOBODY around us, like the highway was empty and someone was tailgating so I let off the throttle and slowed down to like 45 mph sllooowwwwly and then booted it lol
 
The other night I got cut off and honked at the guy. So he decided to brake check me.

Next thing I know I am popping out of the T-Tops yelling, "You wanna go? Pull over and lets go!"

That Camaro I have is a bad influance and I need to chill the f out.
 
I drive a Toyota MR-2

I'm kinda over brake checking and doing things to let people know they're driving like assholes.

I prefer to just drop a gear, or change a lane and get away from them into a safer spot with more exit options.

Cars are getting continually bigger. Even fast food drive thru windows are getting higher and higher to accommodate them. Sometimes it's hard to make eye contact with the drive thru employee without sticking my head out the window.

The bigger cars get, the potential "Sorry, I didn't see you." incident scenarios increases.

People are gonna drive like assholes in their civilian tanks. I just wanna get away from them in my oversized go kart. Not make sure they know they're wrong.
 
I guess that's what I'm having trouble understanding. The tactic is predicated on the tailgater being found liable if a collision were to occur. So you want to get yourself in an accident in order for the other driver to be found liable. Whaaaattt?

Even without a collision I still think it's a counterproductive method of retaliation - to cause the driver behind you to brake, by.......... braking!

FYI as the OP I don't do any of this because it's unwise on a motorcycle as well as counterproductive as I mentioned, but I see a lot of questionable behavior out there.
 
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!
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Germany has moving signs so show zipper merging. Drivers who move over with a 1/4 mile to go get piss when someone uses the open lane. So moving early causes road rage.

zipper%20merge.jpg


xveySdT.jpg
 
I play the slowdown game whenever there’s room to safely pass me on the left. If there’s no room, I just let it go.

As for why ppl tailgate, I chock a lot of it up to people not know that it’s unsafe and a lot to some people being completely obliviously to life. I get in the car w a friend, they start tailgating, and I ask why. Their response is usually a question like “tailgating?” or “huh?”. :facepalm
 
stangmx13 said:
I play the slowdown game whenever there’s room to safely pass me on the left. If there’s no room, I just let it go.

As for why ppl tailgate, I chock a lot of it up to people not know that it’s unsafe and a lot to some people being completely obliviously to life. I get in the car w a friend, they start tailgating, and I ask why. Their response is usually a question like “tailgating?” or “huh?”. :facepalm
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I hate being a passenger with a tailgater, I must put 5 years of wear and tear into their carpet by grinding my brake foot into it. :laughing

I never ride a second time with a tailgater, life is too short for that kind of stress.
 
wazzuFreddo said:
The other night I got cut off and honked at the guy. So he decided to brake check me.

Next thing I know I am popping out of the T-Tops yelling, "You wanna go? Pull over and lets go!"

That Camaro I have is a bad influance and I need to chill the f out.
Click to expand...

Mullet courage. :twofinger
 
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.
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I don't see it that way at all. While super annoying AND if you have to stop quickly, they're certainly gonna hit you, but it's gonna be from a very close distance and a very small speed delta. I'd rather that than someone be not paying attention and smash into me with a 50 MPH speed difference. Those hits hurt...the ones where they're already on your bumper aren't as bad.
 
dravnx said:
). 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.
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All of the above. Not interested in getting a damaged vehicle and whiplash for trying to teach a tailgater a lesson.

This served me well driving around Italy last week...man aggressive tailgating is the norm there.
 
Pull your handbrake up one click. The brake lights stay on without engaging brakes. Then randomly accelerate and decelerate. Flip them off in the mirror. They’ll probably shoot at you or ram you so you win.
 
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...

It happens in New York too, although not as much. I think all the aggro behavior is just a social evolution in response to high density traffic conditions.

As with all things in life, Humans become more aggressive about a resource the more limited any given resource is. When road space is at a premium, people tend to get aggro about it. The occasional traffic jam, folks come together, just liek any other shortage. When the shortage becomes a way of life, it becomes more, "dog eat dog." Which will often invite drastic and irrational stress responses from less even tempered stress managers.
 
I notice the older people get, the more they complain about tailgating.

Is there even a legal or commonly accepted definition of tailgating, with appropriate distances? No? Then why don't we admit that it's just subjective.

Another example of how biased it is, is that nobody brake-checks me (or "lets off the gas" :rolleyes) when I'm in my truck, yet they do it when I'm in my BMW......even though I drive the same way in both.
 
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New Yawk... last time I was there, srsly 75% of the cars there had fucking TIRE TREADS bolted to their bumpers, EVEN THE CABS. :laughing

And most of the cars were heaps of shit. No point in having a car in that giant human terlit.
 
Circa 1985 my father in LA was playing car-vs-car brake-check games win stupid prizes with some guy on the Hollywood freeway.

After a few turns playing tit-for-tat my dad was in the rear position, front guy slammed his brakes, dad slams his brakes and goes spinning off the freeway into the bushes landing upside down.

Fire dept had to cut open the car, dad was banged up, lots of full body bruising from the spin cycle, 2 weeks to recover, but mostly ok.

**

Why do people do it?

Superiority complex issues.
Anger issues.
HaHa I taught you a lesson issues.
 
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Or: "Being in this metal cage allows me to do things I'd be too pussy to do IRL"
 
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