Tailgators and Then Some...

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Imagine this scenario. It is late at night, and you are driving in an unfamilar area. You are driving normally when some one begins tailgating you. You probably are perplexed, for you are driving at the speed limit, yet the driver behind you seems to want you to go faster. A few miles later, you look back and still see the same car. What would you do?

This scenario is all to real for me. A few years ago, I was driving home with my paramour and nephew. Soon we noted a car follwing us closely. Apparently, though we were driving 55mph in a 50mph zone, we were not driving fast enough for the tailgator, who was intent on increasing our speed. At first, I pretended not to notice and slowed slightly, but this only infuriated the driver. The driver then activated the high beams, thus blinding me as the light reflected off the rearview mirror.

"Where is this turkey going?" asked my paramour, squinting.

"To a chicken fight," I retorted, stiffling my urge to laugh at the unintended pun.

"He no like lose his money," my nephew chortled. "He must be late already!"

I did not alter my driving in any way, but ducked to avoid the bright mirror. My nephew, seeing my distress, wrote a curse word on a white sheet of paper and held it against the glass. My paramour and I laughed hard, then told my nephew to stop, or we may get into trouble. My nephew stopped, but pulled his pants down and "mooned" the pursuer. I tightened my grip on the steering wheel and began laughing so hard that the whole car shimmied. Looking back, I knew I shouldn't have laughed, for it may have appeared to the others that I was condoning the act of tailgating and my dear nephew's handling of the situation, but it was so funny at the time.

The driver seemed so angry at this point that we began to worry. The driver honked the horn and flashed the beams up and down. The opportunity for the driver to overtake us arised many times, but for some reason, the driver chose to continue tailgating us. It was becoming fightening. I considered the possibility that we could submit to the tailgators intentions, but that would mean breaking the speed limit and the law.

We finally eluded the driver a few miles later by abruptly turning down a side street. The driver, who was driving too fast, could not follow even if that had been the intent. We breathed a collected sigh of relief and relived the events of the day all the way home.

Tailgating can be interpreted as a method of forcing one's will over another driver, but not in every case. For example, there are some people who tailgate out of sheer habit, some who were not taught that tailgating shows a lack of driving ettiquette, and some who simply prefer to follow closely. They are not intending to intimidate or urge the driver in front of them to hurry, but are simply driving in the only way that they have learned.

Here are some interpretations from my peers. Check out these enlightening reports.

Some of us can relate to Nancee Aki who usually is not a tailgator, but does so if in a hurry. I confess that I am guilty of that too. Tailgating may or may not make the slower driver in fro nt of us move faster, but it gives us a momentary feeling of power, does it not? In times when we are late, we tend to do rash things we would not otherwise do.

In all fairness, some of us are not tailgators, but the TAILGATED! This is the case with Todd Crawford who tried to abide by the speed limit was tailgated by drivers who thought the speed limit was not fast enough. I wonder if some one drew a "0" after the "Speed limit 50" sign? Go read this report, it is funny, yet deals with this serious subject.

Finally, I would like to mentionSharla Supnet, who is, like many of us. a hybrid who is not only tailgated, but is a tailgator at times! Furthermore Sharla's motivation for tailgating is occasionally revenge! Read this report, and perhaps we can relate better than we may have previously expected.

We can conclude that the reasons that people tailgate are as varied as the people who drive. Some tailgate unconciously, while others do so with great intent. Since tailgating is potentially dangerous, we must do our best to reduce, if not eliminate our tailgating tendencies.

If you feel that you are a tailgator and wish to modify your behavior, perhaps the best place to start would be to conduct a self assessment, as demonstrated in my report #6.

Do you have any questions? Any comments? Criticisms? ThenE-mail me.