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Re: Driving Pet peeves
In article <95170.122611MICHAEL@MAINE.MAINE.EDU>, MICHAEL@MAINE.MAINE.EDU says...
>
>In article <3rltq7$r73@acmex.gatech.edu>, gt3220a@prism.gatech.edu (Tigress)
>says:
>>
>>I agree stopping suddenly for a tailgater is stupid, but I slow down for
>>them mainly for three reasons:
>>1. Tailgaters piss me off. There are better ways of telling me to go
>>faster. If they are going to piss me off, I will piss them off right back.
>
>Very mature.
Do you have a better suggestion to get rid of tailgaters ?
>>2. When some one is tailgating me, I usually find going faster doesn't
>>make them stop, and if I have to stop suddenly, I would rather it be
>>slowly for them so that they have more time to stop.
>
>By this do you mean that you would be making a panic stop?
>This sounds good, but actually it doesn't work that way. Think about it.
>No matter how fast you are going, the tailgater is the same distance
>from your back end. If you slow from speed S to speed S-M where M is a
>constant (say, 10 MPH) it will take them just as long to slow to your
>new speed no matter how fast you are going relative to the pavement.
>What matters is the relative velocity of your two vehicles.
This is not a physic course but it's the real world ! First some
cars brake much better than others by design. Second, I've noticed
that often, tailgaters have cars that seem to be poorly maintained,
so I expect their braking distance to be even longer. Third, I
drive an automatic and often use my left foot for the brake, giving
a faster reaction time... I might still have one foot on the gas when
I begin to brake !! So, in emergency situations, I don't want
a f*cking tailgater in my *ss because I'm almost sure he/she'll
rear-end me.
>>3. Tailgaters usually get the point when you slow down
>
>Maybe. Often not.
Maybe we would need some James Bond gadget car with some device
to repulse tailgaters ? Splash some old oil in their winshield
or something :-) :-)
>>4. If they really piss me off, I will go snail speed, and if they never
>>get the point, I accelerate away from them to show them that I was going
>>slow on purpose, and beat their asses most of the time too.
>
>See (1) above.
Myself, I'll try to safely get behind the tailgater and let him/her
annoy someone else.
--
Alain Southiere | My employers couldn't care less about what
asouthie@volvox.qc.ca (work) | I write here. Even if they did, they'd
alsouth@cam.org (home) | probably wouldn't share my views.
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