Motorcycling and Tailgating

Motorcyclists get annoyed by tailgaters. Partly because they feel kind of vulnerable anyway, it's not as if they have a huge amount of metal between them and the bumper of the car following. And it almost seems like cars are more likely to tailgate a motorcycle than they are to tailgate a truck or another car. I do find that if I drive just above the average traffic speed (about 2 - 5 kph), I can eliminate about 80% of tailgating right there. When there is no traffic around, I usually go the speed limit. That's because of the way traffic enforcement picks on lone vehicles on the road.

I used to have a lot more problems with tailgaters when I was younger than I do now. Maybe it was because I was less tolerant of distances, or I used to get annoyed at distances that I now consider normal. Anyhow, I don't really know why but it does not happen that much to me any more.

My way of dealing with tailgaters is just varying my speed a little bit. This method works for casual tailgaters. Other people tailgate to send you the message that you are driving too slow. Casual tailgaters do it because they are no good at judging distance, or, let's put it under the broader category of just not being a good driver. Now I'm not saying the deliberate tailgater who is in a hurry is a good driver, I'm just saying that there is a "purpose" to that type of tailgating as opposed to casual tailgating.

Speed variations work on the purposeless tailgater, which I would say, for me, is about 95% of my tailgaters, given the speed I drive at. If I drive at a constant speed, they just keep getting closer and closer. A casual tailgater will back off when following a vehicle that is speeding up and slowing down by as little as plus or minus 2 km/h over a 30 second cycle. Their slow reaction time, and poor ability to judge distance are working work against them. So I take the chance that by gently slowing down just a little, they will come closer than they intend, at which point I have already begun to gently speed up, but their reaction time and judgement of distance is bad enough that they cannot respond, so I end up way ahead of them before they know it. I cannot just keep speeding up forever, so I gently ease off again. That is usually just about when their slow reflexes and poor distance judgement kick in and they are trying to catch up. Once again they get surprised by coming too close. Usually the second time is enough to convince them to give me more space and then everybody's happy.

The deliberate tailgater is more determined and will not give up, but on the other hand, they will usually pass you at the first opportunity. A deliberate tailgater is also given to road rage. However my speeding up and slowing down is too gentle to be seen as a deliberate act even by these aggressive types.

Another reason that motorcyclists get tailgated is because many drivers judge distance in the worst way: by apparent size of the vehicle in front. If it looks big, they think they are too close, if it seems tiny, they believe they can get closer. Unfortunately motorcycles generally look smaller than cars and trucks, and so this type of driver will try to get closer.

Big trucks tailgating is an entirely different matter. They are almost always sending you a signal to speed up. This may happen on a down hill run for example, where they would prefer to pick up a little speed and not use their brakes. It's an economic matter to them. Also, the truck is too cumbersome to speed up and slow down, so you can easily make them back off with speed variations, but I don't do that. I usually simply speed up a little, knowing that as soon as we reach the next uphill section they will need to slow down again. Either that, or they pass me if we are on a multi lane road. I rarely go slow enough to force a big transport truck to pass me on a mountain road.