Memo to the guy in the gray Toyota Highlander (I think...) who was tailgating the white BMW Z4 on the Gardiner Expressway westbound just past Spadina Avenue at about 4:30 this afternoon.
Assuming you can read, of course.
Yes - that was me in the Bimmer.
A few questions, which I always wish I could ask people who drive like you do:
1. Do you really think the brakes on your SUV are better than those on a BMW sports car?
2. Do you really think your reactions might be quicker than mine? Do you have as much experience racing and rallying as I do?
3. Since you were the one tailgating me - about one metre off my rear bumper at about 40 kmh - I wonder why YOU were so mad at ME? I was just trying to leave a couple of car lengths between me and the car in front, a distance I had to increase because you were leaving no space behind me.
4. Are you not aware that in a rear-ender collision, the guy behind (you) who hits the car ahead (me) is almost always adjudged to be at fault?
5. Did you feel so much better when you roared up beside me, cut me off (missing my car by mere centimetres) and in doing so, got maybe 10 metres closer to home? Did your manhood grow?
6. If I am such a “fudging may-pole” (I'm not really good at lip-reading...) why did you want to drive so close to me in the first place? A rational person would want to stay as far away as possible from an idiot like me.
But I guess we're not dealing with rationality here.
Check out the facebook group iDriver... this guy would fit right in .. the first being "idiot" lol. Sadly I see them everyday on my trek to and from work ..and that is in the back country ..north of the city..
Posted by: Symonsez | June 05, 2012 at 12:47 AM
It wasn't me, I drive a compact, but I can answer your questions.
1 AND 2. If I am in an SUV than I can see what's happening in front of you. Are you planning to slam the brakes on suddenly and for no reason? Doesn't seem likely. Also, even if I was in a normal sized car, I could still see in front of you, and can you even think of the last time you truly crushed your brakes on the highway? I am confident that however much better your brakes are, that in all likelihood you will not hit them at 100%, and thus I can make up for the lesser quality of my own by hitting them harder.
3. I'm not mad. I'm trying to communicate to you that you are driving like a grandma. Those rallies you claim to have participated in must have been embarrassing for you.
4. See 1 and 2. I am unconcerned in this matter. Plus, worst case scenario, what's the most you can slow down in the time it takes me to close the gap? 10kmh? That'd barely hurt the bumper. Or were they really not that close?
5. Roaring past you had nothing to do with manhood. It was to make sure you were aware how annoyingly slow you were going, and how much better I'd feel if next time you'd pull over and let me pass. It's called COMMUNICATION. If people's license plates were their cell numbers this wouldn't be a problem. And you wouldn't be embarrassing yourself with angry road rage blog posts.
6. A rational person would not have needed to ask these questions. They would have, as I have, rationally deduced the answers. Also, they would have recognized that three of them are basically the same question.
Posted by: MikeyMike | June 05, 2012 at 03:35 AM
Dear Mr. McKenzie,
How do these people get licenses? This is why as a senior that is required to take a retest every two years, I feel put upon when we see the type of driver you describe on a daily basis. Even when in the driving lane you look in the rearview mirror and see someone closing ground at a tremendous rate of speed. This agressive driving seems to belong to a younger set of drivers than to us older more experienced drivers. I would suggest the person you came in contact with is mentally unstable and should not be out on the road.
Sincerely,
Bill Trent.
Posted by: Bill Trent | June 05, 2012 at 08:55 AM
I see this happening almost every day on the way to work.
I can't speak for every case, but on 2 lane (or greater) roads a lot of times the problem is that the person being tailgated is in the left-hand lane (the passing lane) doing the same speed as traffic in the right-hand lane (the driving lane) so no-one can get by them.
I don't understand why people don't seem to understand that the left lane is for PASSING other cars, not driving in (it's in your drivers handbook) - if you're in the left lane and you see cars approaching behind you you're supposed to move out of the way into the right-hand lane if it's clear, or speed up/slown down and move over if it's not.
And it wasn't me this morning tailgating you :-) I drive a car not an SUV, and I'm usually in the driving lane watching everyone line up behind a slow driver in the passing lane.
http://www.mto.gov.on.ca/english/dandv/driver/handbook/section2.7.2.shtml (for Ontario at least)
Posted by: Rick | June 05, 2012 at 01:52 PM
It would probably be safer if we used our horns to convey "move over, I want to go faster than you", instead of tailgating... but I'm also not sure I relish the idea of the noise pollution this might create. It's an important message to be able to send to drivers in front of you, at times, but other times it's completely inappropriate, like when traffic is of sufficient density that the passing lane no longer exists as such. And this is a completely reasonable situation; you can't expect everyone else to be stuck in traffic going slower than they wish and still leaving the passing lane open for you, so at that point the system collapses. And we don't need the NY-style mentality where honking is the action of choice in that scenario.
In all other cases, if you can tell there is space in front of someone who is driving in the passing lane, and they aren't going any faster than the driving lane... give them a nice gentle honk until they get the point. It might be annoying, but it's safe!
Posted by: Mark | June 06, 2012 at 04:32 PM
@symonsez
Your point regarding aggressive driving as a communicative act is accurate, but misguided. Please do not attempt communications that use vehicle proximity as their lexicon. Despite your claim that the potential for catastrophic damage is very low (which is debatable), the fact remains that the "communication" in this case did not succeed: otherwise, the article on which you comment would not exist.
It is imprudent to attempt to correct slow driving through punitive maneuvers (aka, "communications") from other drivers. Please resist the temptation to "communicate" your frustration with the driver ahead. Consider the terminal line of Wittgenstein's Tractatus: "Of that which we cannot speak we must pass over in silence."
Wittgenstein did *not* add, "...or pass over really, really frikin' close an' fast so's the dumb ol' turd learns his frickin' lesson."
And he drove an SUV.
Posted by: dr sills | June 09, 2012 at 02:20 PM