TripleS wrote:Yes, that's all fine; if we can easily arrange for the tailgater to overtake us without us pulling over and stopping for a few minutes, that's the logical thing to do, but I don't think it should be necessary to do any more than that. Would any of the real experts here - e.g. vonhosen, Reg Local, Playtent etc., and a few others actually pull over and stop in order to get rid of a tiresome tailgater? That seems a rather extreme and unnecessary measure to take, though it might be the choice of those lacking experience and confidence; but I wouldn't expect established and fully competent drivers to be making that choice.
Best wishes all,
Dave.
I can think of a number of times... and I lack neither experience nor confidence...
one example, coming back from a local town along a fast A road in the Z3, I cam up behind a rover 200 which was dawdling along at 45-50, so I overtook it and carried on... a few minutes later said car comes rocketing up behind me - car full of teenagers, now driving at a silly speed coming up close behind me being silly... what did I do - I controlled the situation, I held the road for the next 400 yards or so as it would have been dangerous for them to overtake (slowing down but holding the crown to stop overtaking), then I slowed down further, they went past, I turned off and took a different route home...
could I have held them off? - easily, I could have driven that road (bright clear and dry day) at a speed faster than their car could have managed, I had oodles more power than them, lots of ways I could have held the high ground in not letting them overtake - but the only analysis I could make of their driving suggested that they were potentially an accident waiting to happen and there have been too many deaths on that road already, not only did I not want to be in any accident they had, I didn't want any responsibility for any accident they might have and while their driving was their choice, has anything happened I would undoubtedly shared some of the blame had I continued in a way which 'encouraged' their driving
part of being an advanced driver is that perhaps we need to take more responsibility for not just ourselves, but our interaction with the context in which we drive, and therefore sometimes that includes the choices made by other drivers... In that example, I don't think they really had the experience or ability to continue that scenario, so I had to make the choice... had it been an older chap in a fast porsche or something, just being a bit of an idiot I might have made a different decision...
Alasdair