Hey buddy get off my rear!!!
Tailgating Behavior: Fair or Unfair?
1. Other's Reports. 2. Behavior involved in tailgating.
3. Forcing ones will over another. 4. Are there moral implications?
5. Do I tailgate? 6. I conclude that tailgating is?????
7. For future generations. 8. Epilogue.
Kristin Subia is the first student that I found with report on tailgating. Her self witnessing report was a good one. Interesting because she seems like she has thought about it a lot. She starts by talking about how people feel about being overtaken and how many don't like it. (Including myself) She narrated about how this one driver pulled up behind her and started tailgating her. She looked in the rear view mirror and then ten seconds later to see if he backed off. She says to herself, well this guy has two choices in which he can continue to follow me at the same speed or he can pass. The driver in the rear was making jerking braking movements obviously to tell her that she is going to slow. Since he didn't do the educated thing and pass her safely she continued her speed and waved him by to help him figure out what to do. I thought this was funny myself. She feels that if people are in a rush than it is fine for them to overtake her legally and safely, but she isn't so she shouldn't be bothered by them. Here is her report............
http://www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/459ss97/ksubia/report1.html#6
Denise Tanaka states in her self witnessing report that she is a tailgater herself. She finds that she tailgates when she feels that someone has wronged her first. Usually when they cut her off. She hates it when she is going around sixty five in the left lane and someone going ten miles an hour slower pulls in front of her. She tailgates to get back at people like other drivers who speed up when she is trying to merge and then go slow once she is in back of them. She feels that two wrongs don't make a right. During stress or anger she finds that she is more likely to tailgate someone else. I know how she feels!!!. Here is her report below.........
http://www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/leonj/student2/p35/report1.html
Aaron Takahashi comments on tailgating as a serious problem. He found himself tailgating another car one day driving home from school. It seemed that he was following too close because he wanted to feel like he was a part of the traffic flow and not part of the traffic problem. He was just zipping away. He also commented that in traffic he tends to tailgate the car in front of him just for the purpose of not letting other cars cut in front of him. He was there first and that is where he is going to stay. I think we all know what that is like in busy traffic. I don't like being cut off either. Usually if I leave too much space another car will speed up and cut in front of me then brake. This will cause me to slow down. Here's his report..........
.http://www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/leonj/student2/p34/report1.html#Tailgating
Jenica Guerra is definitely not in denial about her driving behaviors. In her report on driving makeovers she states that she is definitely someone who drives too close. She has been getting comments on it for years. Passengers always comment on how close she is to the next vehicle in front of her. She says that she has consciously been attempting to change this behavior. Comments are not as prevalent as before, yet she still feels that she is guilty of conducting such behavior. It is a hard habit for her to break. Read for yourself.....
http://www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/459ss97/jenica/report1.html#3
Next I found Ryan Mitsui's report and his self witnessing report of pulling the ol' switcheroo on a tailgater. He has a great little story of a tailgater that he ended up tailgating. I like it because of the ending where he states that he could be hurt or even dead, and that it isn't worth it. This really hits on the idea that affective driving can really take over cognitive driving if you let it. Read on......
http://www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/leonj/459f96/rmitsui/reports/report2.html
2. Behavior involved in tailgating.
The behavior involved in tailgating. The most obvious. Following very close when there is obviously no need to and the speed is greater than two miles an hour. That is my short definition for tailgating. The behavior involved can include many feelings or attitudes or none of the above. First of all there are those drivers that just drive close for no reason. Above is a link to Jenica Guerras report where she states that she is one of those types of drivers who just drives too close to the car in front of her. It is simply just a habit and in no way an attitude problem. This can be a problem, yet it is not an example of someone I am worried about as being a problem in instances of tailgating. Many time drivers tailgate in retaliation for other previous events that took place or they have perceived to take place. In this case it can be dangerous because the driver behind you is usually traveling at a high rate of speed and has malicious intent. Some behaviors I have experienced from drivers I assume to have malicious intent, include but are not limited to following closely, then slamming on there brake, before they hit you, to speeding up and passing you with an inch between their front bumper and your back. There are many other behaviors involved in tailgating. In conclusion, don't be a malicious tailgater.
3. Forcing ones will over another.
The idea of forcing ones will over another is not the first idea that popped into my mind when I thought about the reasons one tailgates. It is a real underlying reason for tailgating. I don't think that people actually think about it as a power trip of taking the decision out of the drivers hands who is front of you concerning the distance he or she would like to maintain between the two of you. I do feel that many people tailgate for reasons of retaliations for which they feel you have bestowed upon them some aspect of driving such as going unreasonably too slow, cutting them off, or a variety of other traffic situations. It is true that if you tail someone there is little they can do about it. They have a few decisions, change lanes, speed up, or slam on their brakes. Personally when someone is tailing me, I just slam on my brakes and brace myself. Some people may feel helpless and others not. If you psychoanalyze someone you might find he is in fact living out an ego trip to over power other drivers to gain a feeling of dominance. As for me, I'm not convinced.
4. Are there moral implications?
I do feel that there are moral implications. To start of I like to state that driving is not a completely set and standard thing. Speed limits are not set by god, and neither are many other regulations. Driving regulations are set at an assumed safe limit for normal circumstances. If it was raining cats and dogs and visibility was down to none, it would not be safe to travel at a speed of sixty five on the freeway. I would consider it your fault if you lost control and hit another car in another lane and killed the drivers. I would morally feel wrong. Bringing us back to tailgating. Traveling five feet from the car in front of you, traveling at a speed of fifty five or so. I feel that the circumstances of speed warrant that you stay a car length or so back to leave reaction time. You are unwarrantingly risking the safety of yourself, and all others on the road. It is not your right to risk others rights and safety, in fact I believe the knowing infringement of others rights and safety can even lead to a title of manslaughter in event of a death. Drinking and driving is a serious moral implication that can be punished by a court under the charges of manslaughter if you kill someone while performing this act. In the U.S. it is not even your right to drive a vehicle, it is your privilege. To drive dangerously is socially, and morally wrong.
I feel that everyone is guilty of tailgating at some point in time. I know I tailgate. I have found that when I am not thinking I tend to tailgate. This is usually when my mind is not on the road. When I am going to work and am late. I often find that I am on someone's tail trying to change lanes. Personally I don't speed up and sit on someone's tail, instead I usually tailgate someone just before I change lanes. I speed up right behind them and then squeeze in front of the car in the next lane slightly behind me. I have noticed that I often speed up and pull in front of someone just to slam my brakes on at a red light. The reason, well to get in the shorter lane at the right. I don't enjoy it when others do this to me because I often am braking nicely and now have to brake hard like the inconsiderate driver that just pulled in front of me.
6. I conclude that tailgating is?????
I conclude that tailgating is in effect dangerous driving. It can be seen as morally wrong, and socially incorrect. Tailgating in either forms (passive or malicious) is wrong. Passive being unintentional bad driving habits and malicious being with the intent to. I feel that the latter, is the more serious of the two. Being that the latter usually involves many other aspects of improper driving and can lead to instances of road rage. I don't know the statistics, but I assume that most instances of road rage develop from instances of tailgating.
For future generations I think a survey would be an interesting way to gain data on the thoughts of drivers over the issue of tailgating. Questions like. Do you tailgate? How many times a week do you find someone tailgating you? Do you retaliate? Do you feel it is okay to retaliate back at slow moving cars by tailgating? Questions like these and others may receive interesting answers and maybe helpful in the self analysis of those taking the survey.
As for myself I kept a log for the past two weeks to see how often I noticed tailgating either on my part or on the part of others.
Tuesday Sept. 14: I left the house on my moped heading for school. Class starts at 10:30 and traffic is light. Heading up University Ave. I am going the speed limit when a large truck pulls up behind me. The other lane is going as fast as myself but I can tell that the truck wants to go faster because of the way he is closing in on my taillight and then easing off, just to get close a few seconds later. I finally get a little bothered and change lanes into the left lane and the truck goes quickly by just to get stopped at the red light where I pull up next to driver and laugh to myself.
Wednesday Sept. 15: Well I just got to work and I'm glad I did. I work at a restaurant in Waikiki. I drove my car to work today, and I wish I drove my moped. Traffic was mid to heavy and everybody was rubbernecking to look at the beach, girls, or the surf. Usually I look too. But I was late. Halfway through Waikiki, for some reason I thought about school and noticed that I was tailgating the car in front of me. It wasn't anything personal aimed at the driver. He was in the fastest moving lane and he was going a good speed, but It still wasn't fast enough. I had to take a breath relax and ease up. If anything I would get there maybe five seconds faster and stress myself out all the way to work.
Friday Sept. 17th: Just got home from the movies. I didn't really notice any tailgating, I wonder if its because its about eleven and there are less drivers. I live in Waikiki and I noticed that the average space between cars is definitely a lot greater than earlier in the day. Even at stop lights cars don't seem to be on each others tails. This makes me think about the definitions of Tailgating. What's the status Quo, one length two lengths or no lengths of a car. The spacing I witnessed on Alamoana Blvd. this afternoon would definitely stand out in the spacing I saw after the movies.
Sunday Sept.. 19: Five forty five and arrived at work via moped. Have to write this down. I haven't noticed until I started this project how much people tailgate me on my moped. If I had been driving a car going the speed limit there is no way anther car would be that close. Other drivers definitely don't respect my space when I am riding a moped going the speed limit.
Wednesday Sept. 21st: I thought I'd do a little experimenting today. I decided to go riding on my mountain bike to see how close vehicles come to me from behind and the side. I started off by going through Waikiki and then up Kapahulu. This wasn't the safest or smartest thing to do, but I rode on streets where there is no bike path and not much of a side to ride on. This forces me onto the road and forces other drivers to pretty much deal with me. I found that most cars in Waikiki drove around me or changed lanes. A few stayed behind me for a while. All were not really aggressive towards passing me. On Kapahulu cars would be right on my tail waiting for a break in the other lane to pass. Traffic wasn't busy so I didn't feel like I was creating a traffic problem. No one yelled at me which surprised me. They just changed lanes and drove past. I know my reaction wouldn't be the same. I would definitely be bothered by it.
Friday Sept. 24th: I rode to work at Bank of Hawaii Kapahulu. Traffic was okay in Waikiki but busy on Kapahulu so I decided to not rid on the road but instead move to the sidewalk as soon as I realized how close passing cars were getting to me. It was definitely a different crowd that I experienced on Wednesday at ten in the morning.
From my experiment I feel that it helped me notice when I was tailgating others. These were the few times when I actually remembered to write down my observations. I didn't have a tape recorder and I didn't think it would work well on a moped or bike which I ride more often than I drive a car.
This report has done a lot for me. I have read others self witnessing reports and done one of my own. I have done a lot of thinking about the subject just by getting the subject into my mind, I notice it a lot more and relate it back to myself. From this report on I see tailgating in a different perspective. I see it from my own perspective, the person behind me and the person in front of me. I feel that everyone of us has at one point been the person on someone's else's tail as well as being the subject of someone else whom is tailing. Cognitive changes have helped me to deal with my affective domain. By controlling my emotional stability in these instances it further helps my cognitive side by allowing it to think of the best reaction for my sensorimotor skills to accomplish. Affective, cognitive and sensorimotor aspects of our driving are definitely interrelated.
Report#1: Tailgating behavior.
Oral Report The Truckers world