I can’t really say that I have only experienced “Tailgaters” whilst living in Perth, Australia, as I used to experience it on a daily basis on the motorways of the UK.  For 5 years I travelled, by car, a distance of 192km (120miles) to get to work and back each and every work day.  I had a few run-ins with the usual prick drivers that have to get that one car ahead of you, even though there is a huge line of traffic in front.

Since living in Australia for the last 18 months I have learnt to relax more behind the wheel as the lifestyle is a lot more laid-back and the speed limits are a lot slower as well. The fastest speed limit on my trip into work is 80kmh. This converts to around 50mph LMAO! In the UK you would get rammed of the road if you did 50mph on any major road  To be honest I actually prefer the slower speed limits and it is surprising how quickly you get used to driving slower. As everyone else (well almost everyone) is driving at the same speed, then the whole experience is more relaxed. There is also the added benefit of using less fuel, as it’s cheaper over here around $1.45(about 66p) per litre. I can fill up the car for about $65 and this will last me almost 10 days, Happy Days!

Tailgaters really rile me up, I am really conscious of not driving too close to the person in front of me purely as it winds me up, so it must wind other people up but I always get at least one tailgater on my journey to and from work.  It is generally the ones in the fast V6 Ute’s or the SS whatever they are.  I am not generalising all driver’s of these types of cars but just voicing my observations.  I have had people that close to the back of my car in a 60km limit that I can’t see their headlights in my rearview mirror.  I really shouldn’t let it get to me so much but the childish side of me comes out and I end up slowing down even more to wind them up.  If they are that desperate to get one car ahead of me they should overtake but they don’t, so is it just an intimidation tactic as they have this big powerful car?

Well, my rant is over, feel free to comment if you drive a powerful car and don’t tailgate people who prefer to save petrol and do the speed limit.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 10th, 2008 at 2:05 pm and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.