Newsgroups: rec.autos.driving
Subject: Re: Tailgaters abound!
From: dreuben@eagle.wesleyan.edu
Date: 15 Aug 92 06:17:24 EDT
Organization: Wesleyan University


As to why people don't flash:

1. During the day it can be quite ineffective - people (unfortunately) do not
pay attention at all to their rear-view mirrors, and do not notice the
flashing.

2. I tend to think (and have noticed this reaction from people in front of
me) that flashing is perceived as rude. Thus, I generally tend to follow at a
distance, allow the car in front of me who is (usually obliviously hogging) in
the left lane to see me, and hope that he knows to pull out. If they don't move
out of the left lane upon a clearing in traffic, I'll move a bit closer, and if
still nothing, then I'll flash. Its sad to say, but just flashing does not work
with the generally incompetant downstate NY drivers, and this agonizing process
is required to get those brain-dead drivers off the road. (don't believe me?
Drive on the Grand Central/Northern State Parkway sometime, and see what it
takes to get those slugs out of the way...Come to CT on a weekend when the NY
drivers are on the Meritt Parkway...see how they hog the left lane (and see the
CT state troopers do sometyhing right for a change and pull over only NY
drivers! :) ). Or drive in lower Westchester on the Sprain Brook in non-rush
hour periods (when the "Sunday Drivers" outnumber the people who know what they
are doing). take a look at how people heading north will bunch up in the left
lane for MILES ahead of the I-287W off ramp, a poorly designed left exit.

3. Many tailgate because they don't know any better and/or are too lazy to
actually flash their lights.

As to people not tialgating in Brooklyn or Staten Island, well, I dunno where
in Brooklyn or SI YOU drive, but I drive there a good deal and I've been
tailgaited on the Belt Parkway in Brooklyn, on I-278 on SI, on NY-440 on SI,
and just about everywhere else. And I *NEVER* hog the left lane - ie, I will
get out of the way if I see anyone approaching quickly. (Learned habbit [and a
darn good one, I think] from many years of driving on the Masspike, where they
flash you from two miles behind you to get out of the way! )


Just two days ago I was on the Belt passing (some president's name) Ave., near
that garbage landfill / apartment complex (nice combo, eh?) near JFK. Two guidos
in their souped-up Monte Carlos tailgated me (in sequence) while I was in the
MIDDLE lane. I suspected they would adopt normal NY downstate procedure and
pass me on the left and right at the same tim (ie, wait till they line up so
they can both pass me quickly on opposite sides), but the poor guidos had to
get off at those "rest stops" along the water, and slowed from 75 mph to 0 in
maybe 4 seconds....I'm sure they hated to do that to their mag wheels and
all..Total idiots, and increasingly typical of your downstate NY driver. 

I always wondered why NYC residents had such high insurance rates, but with
such poor driving habbits verging on the reckless at times, and the UTTER
lack of road maintenance (try I-678 from JFK to the GCP some time...
assuming your car doesn't get caught in the trenches which the road has 
developed after 27 years of heavy car and truck traffic and not a single 
repavement job during that time)


It is also customary to pull over when possible on a two-lane, double-yellow
road to yield to faster traffic. I don't think it is a law in NY, but in some
states, like CA, it is. That may also serve to explain why you were being 
tailgated on such a road - Flashing is rude as you technically have
no place to go at the moment, and can be confusing or ambiguous. 

I don't generally support tailgaiting, yet when dealing with poor NY drivers
(downstate - I haven't logged too many miles north of Albany, which is upstate
anyhow...sort of) it almost becomes necessary. I trust that upstate, the
tailgaiting is done to avoid the problems listed above (#1-3), as well as due
to multitude of downstate drivers who travel north, making it impossible to
"know" how the motorist in front of you will respond. I too tried to flash all
the time, and never get close, but in NY this just won't work. :(

And if ANYONE doesn't believe my assertions about how utterly pathetic NYC
drivers (and those of the immediate suburbs) are, give me a video camera and
some tape, and in 30 minutes I'll photograph at least 30 moving violations
which one could be ticketed for. (Ie, failing to yield, improper passing,
failure to signal, defective equipment, reckless driving, failure to observe
signs, illegal turns, etc....Stuff you'd never see anywhere else is all too
common when driving in NY...It's not the "Wild West" of driving or anything
THAT bad, but it is getting there...

If you can, jusst bypas NY on whatever route you prefer (and the main bypass,
I-287, will be completed and open in a little over a year or so), and avoid
these people. 

(BTW, if you want to see good drivers, go to PA....VERY courteous, polite, etc. 
Or maybe I've been around the NY Metro Area too long, but PA drivers are
exceptional in comparison to NY. I especially like the way they move over
slighlty in when you are passing in the left lane as an added courtesy. In NY
the only reason they do that is because the guy moving over has a 30% blood
alcohol level and thinks you are a large elephant passing him in the left
lane requiring a bit more room than his sulfurous 1972 El Dorado (with no
brakes and high beams always on) can accomodate!)

Oh, and one final thing: NY Taxi and Limmo plates (they say T & LC on them) are
the worst - they NEVER get out of the way....I think they should be banned from
CT and NJ...shoot them if you see them...they will usually be on a parkway-
type road like the Meritt taking some NYC executive home from work with about 17
cars behind him trying to pass, and eventually giving up and [dangerously and
illegally] passing in the right lane.


Doug

dreuben@eagle.wesleyan.edu
dreuben@wesleyan.bitnet