Annoying Tailgaters! Why You Should Follow the Speed Limit and Fight Back with a Bumper Sticker
I’m sure that I’m not the only one who finds tailgaters a real pain. Not only do they force anxious, fearful drivers to speed up, they also increase the chance of a car accident. Not cool, not cool at all.
I get tailgaters on my back all the time. Isn’t this ridiculous? I get tailgated for following the speed limit. I don’t follow the speed limit for no reason. I follow the speed limit primarily to keep a low RPM on my engine and save gas (an increase in 10 km/h in speed increases your fuel consumption rate by over 1% — not to mention driving like a jackrabbit increases your fuel consumption by as much as 30%), be safe (think about it, the limits are there for a damn reason: to keep you safe), and time the traffic lights.
Driving like a jackrabbit does not get you from point A to point B faster. I repeat, it does not get you to your destination faster. It only slows you down. Research has shown (you can looks it up), and experience tells that driving like a jackrabbit generally increases the the traveling time by 4 minutes. Think about it: if you drive like a jackrabbit, you apply a lot of unnecessary braking, which reduces your average speed. Dodging in and out of traffic also slows you down (common sense).
Following the speed limit also allows me to time the traffic lights. The traffic lights are designed so that at a certain average speed, you’ll sail through them all without a problem. If the speed limit is 50 km/h, and you go at 60 or 70 km/h, without a doubt you’ll end up at the red light before you realize it.
Now that we know we should follow the speed limit, the question is: how do you deal with the damn tailgaters? I get tailgaters all the time. The golden rule is: stay in the slow (in my case the right) lane; they can pass if they want to. Don’t ever speed up just because they’re pressuring you to do so. Also use some common sense: don’t go too much below the speed limit. Some people say that you should follow the flow. But if the flow is higher than the speed limit, you simply should not follow it because it burns up your gas and increases your chance of crashing into a tree and killing yourself. Remember, following the crowd isn’t always the best choice: there are those who would vote Bush.
I designed a slick bumper sticker not long ago:
I’ll get a pic of it on my car once it arrives. You can find the tailgating bumper sticker here.
Reader's Comments
I hate tailgaters as well…. no respect for the road…
I love love love that bumper sticker! Thanks for the comment on my post on my driving incident. It made me smile! Yes, most people have a severe disability when it comes to their driving. I think we need one of those electric signs that scroll words across our back windows that read “BACK OF MY A**” Do you think that would help? Pardon the swearing…I don’t ever do that except when it comes to bad drivers! It’s one of my only vices.
haha… I was thinking of installing some sorta stretchable boxing glove at the back of my trunk and press a button to lengthen it and “fight” off jack rabbits
… but then again, that would definitely contribute to unnecessary road rage eh? We all agree that there are tons of no-brainer-jack-rabbits out there… that’s why we have to drive defensively (I’ll talk about it more specifically in a later post) and keep our eyes open, senses turned on, bumper stickers nice ‘n visible 
Thanky ou so much for posting this blog. However, I believe I drive the thin line between being a jackrabbit and going the speed limit.
I live in a decently sized town, so traffic, traffic lights, heavily condensed roads, freeways, and interstates are the norm here. However, everyone drives the same except for a select few. Everyone drives, atleast in my town, as if they forgot to consider the things they’ve learned in Driver’s Ed.
Absolutely NO ONE stops at stop signs or red lights, and absolutely NO ONE goes the speed limit. How hard is it to obey these two simple rules?
The truth is, no one cares. Since they don’t care, they’re the ones who force insurance companies to increase their bills and ignorantly group young teenagers with red sports cars as an almost guaranteed hazard to the road.
Two years ago, when I was 18, I got my first car, and I still have it. I haven’t wrecked in the two years I’ve driven it. This is how I drive:
I signal before I come to an intersection. I stop at each intersection even if there’s not a stop sign in most cases. I look both ways -AFTER I STOP- like everyone else should. I then go the direction I signaled.
I then quickly accelerate to the speed limit. Now here’s the difference in quickly accelerating to 30 or 45 MPH to slowly accelerating to 30 or 45 MPH(the average speed limit in my town).
Normally, every driver slowly accelerates, but since no one pays attention to the speed limit, they always keep slowly accelerating to the point where they go 5, 10, sometimes 15 and beyond over. There is going to be very little difference between my fuel gauge consumption and the typical driver’s gas consumption since they’re burning more fuel by accelerating more and more as time progresses, while I hastily accelerate to the speed limit and keep a constant RPM for a long while.
I also quickly accelerate to form a good habit. When I’m in heavily traffic’d areas, I’m sure to quickly accelerate especially if I’m the first car in line at a traffic light, so that others behind me have the chance to accelerate just as quickly, so the odds of reducing traffic are greater. Obviously no one cares, so that never happens. However, by the time I’m going the speed limit, I’ve passed 2 green lights that have since become red, and the would-be speeders have to sit and wait before they can slowly accelerate over the speed limit again.
All in all, if you drive defensively, are aware of your surroundings, and are in full control of your vehicle, AND you’re obeying the law, then you have the right to drive. Honestly I’d prefer half the people in America’s license to be taken away.
I’m going to make a bumper sticker that says, ‘Get off my ass and go the speed limit.’
Indirectly calling Bush voters ‘followers’ was uncalled for. I may have not have voted for Bush(I was too young at the time), but I’m sensible enough to respect The President of the United States of America, no matter if he’s/she’s conservative or liberal.
IceHedge,
That was by far the longest and most well-written comment on this blog (almost like a short essay)! Thanks for sharing your thoughts
Though, I must add, politics aside, accelerating quickly gives you a low mileage. It’s really what hurts your fuel economy (FE) the most. Think about it: accelerating quickly means speeding up at a higher rpm, which uses up more fuel. Driving with FE in mind, on the other hand, means accelerating slowly, which a relatively low rpm, and speeding up as you go and maintaining a reasonable speed and rpm. There’s my 5 cents.
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I am pro Bush and drive a Prius and drive the speed limit.
wow! you learn something new everyday!
This site might open eyes a bit more, too!
cheers
priuschat.com/forums/prius-main-forum/48467-how-many-gun-toting-mccain-voting-prius-owners-out-there.html
great, thanks!
Love this site . . . I too drive the speed limit and find that people are constantly tailgating me . . . it’s not only annoying, it’s dangerous. I drive as if I live in the neighborhood I’m driving through, but find I get the finger, get screamed at, threatened, you get the picture. I just made a custom bumper sticker that reads “PLEASE don’t tailgate - I drive the speed limit”. A little weak, I know, but anything tougher would counteract the Peace signs all over my little Camry. I guess the “side effect” of all this safe driving is that my 2002 paid-for Camry with 128,000 miles still gets 27mph city. Woo hoo!
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