Thoughts on "brake checking"....

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SpoilMeRotten

=^..^=
Jan 3, 2008
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I really don't understand why people do this. In case you're not familiar with the term it's when someone who is driving in front of you slams on their brakes when they think you're riding too close behind them.

Driving home from work today during rush hour in the fast lane on the freeway, I ended up behind some psychotic woman in a old beater who was going about 5 under the speed limit, so I sped up so I could merge over into the middle lane.... and she SLAMS on her breaks so hard that I had to swerve onto the shoulder to avoid hitting her! There was NO ONE in front of her, no reason for her to brake like that! I was SO mad!!!!

Like who do these people think they are? Like they have the right to cause an accident because they don't want you to drive a normal speed?!! They think they should control the freeways? What is wrong with people?

Brake checking is stupid, reckless and illegal behavior (intentionally trying to cause harm to another driver) IMO. If you do this, I'd love to hear why. I really don't get it. Like, why not just get out the way if you see someone is in a hurry? Let them pass you? It makes no sense to me
 
I do it when someone is riding my ass. It's simple. Get off my ass, because any closer, and you'll be riding in my trunk.

I don't go under the speed limit - in fact, 90 percent of the time I'm over the speed limit. However, there is that one person who loves to get behind you and think that riding up on the back of your car will make you move. If I could switch lanes, ya jerk, I would!
 
I really don't understand why people do this. In case you're not familiar with the term it's when someone who is driving in front of you slams on their brakes when they think you're riding too close behind them.

Driving home from work today during rush hour in the fast lane on the freeway, I ended up behind some psychotic woman in a old beater who was going about 5 under the speed limit, so I sped up so I could merge over into the middle lane.... and she SLAMS on her breaks so hard that I had to swerve onto the shoulder to avoid hitting her! There was NO ONE in front of her, no reason for her to brake like that! I was SO mad!!!!

Like who do these people think they are? Like they have the right to cause an accident because they don't want you to drive a normal speed?!! They think they should control the freeways? What is wrong with people?

Brake checking is stupid, reckless and illegal behavior (intentionally trying to cause harm to another driver) IMO. If you do this, I'd love to hear why. I really don't get it. Like, why not just get out the way if you see someone is in a hurry? Let them pass you? It makes no sense to me

Why couldn't you have slowed down slightly to allow the car that was in the middle lane to pass you & moved over that way?

Sorry, the only people i "get out of the way for" is first responders. Unless you're running lights & sirens, not happening. You do know that typically you only gain 8secs with aggressive speeding?

Another thing, I definitely brake, but that's so I can maintain a safe distance from the car in front of me. So if some jerk decides that the space I'm leaving to brake in emergency cases is just the right size for their car, I will brake to create a buffer again. And I don't car if the jerk behind me has a problem with it. You say brake checking, I say, I'm trying to avoid slamming my 3+ton truck into that teeny civic trying to zip through.

BTW, usually I'm 5+mph over the speed limit, staying with the "flow" of traffic, and I HATE TAKING OFF MY CRUISE CONTROL FOR JERKS who don't know how to drive.
 
In the UK the official rule of the road is that if someone is riding too close behind you, you gradually reduce your speed to put more space between you and the car in front of you (rather than responding to the person riding up close behind you by speeding up and getting closer to the person in front of you- which is more dangerous).
 
i always move out of the way if i'm in the fast lane and cars are coming up behind me. but sometimes it takes a minute or two for the cars to clear out so i can move over. I HATE IT when people ride my tail because they are impatient. I'm GOING to move, just hold yer horses!!! i'm not going to go 90mph just so YOU can.
i never slam on the brakes because I *really* do not want someone to hit me. but i will slow down a bit or tap the breaks to get them to back off. riding so close to someone is dangerous and ridiculous.
 
That really pisses me off. I had a guy do that to me luckily I did not hit him because I would have beat him about the head. It is dangerous. You do not have to do that. Sometimes people are not aware they are doing. My aunt's friend drives likes all of the time. It is just mean. Just wait until someone does it to you and see how you feel. When someone is on my tail, I will just slow up and they will go around. The people who do this are going to tick off the wrong person one day and end up under their own wheels. Following too closely is dangerous and it would be their fault if they hit you but what the other does with his brakes is just plain evil.
 
If my dh and I are being tailgated, he just takes his foot off the gas completely.

I do my best to be courteous to other drivers and if I see that someone is obviously in a hurry, I do try to get out of the way. But sometimes traffic is such that you can't!
 
My personal opinion is that if someone is tailgating you to begin w/ you are prolly going to slow, so, move outta the fast lane. b/c 9 times out of 10, that's where these drives are. If I'm down a reg. road and some idiot is tailgating me and speed limit is like 40, chances are I'm already doing 50, so, I go slow to get them to back off. But, if it's the highway and I'm the one going too slow, I gladly move over. I think people who brake check are idiots just looking to cause problems. if I tailgate someone, I get a little close and then back off a little to try to get them to move over. I don't ride their butt for miles on end or anything like that. I did this once and some guy brake checked my by slamming on his breaks on I-95S. I was luckily able to swerve into another open lane to avoid hitting him. It's just stupid to brake check, b/c even if it is the person in the back's fault, the brake checker still is out of his car a couple of weeks to get it fixed anyways, or, it could be totalled and then the driver will have to get a new one.
 
:shrugs:
No one should ever by driving so closely behind someone else that they can't stop if the person in front of them stops. There's just no justifiable reason. The law is in agreement w/ this.
It doens't matter if you "plan" on doing it just a second to change lanes, or if you're daydreaming, etc. . . . It's always your fault if you hit the person in front of you.

*that said* I tap my brakes so they see my brake lights if I'm being tailgated. I would never slam on my brakes, I have 3 kids and a nice car and NO time for reapir shops just to prove a point to someone who obviously doesn't care about me or my kids.
But I WON'T speed up either, I'm not about to get pressured to speed up by someone behind that should've left their house 10 minutes earlier.

I'm not talking about highways BTW. The speed limit in my town is 30 mph on all streets that aren't "main roads" and we're a small little affluent area and the cops are out BIG TIME here. I go 30-32mph and get tailgated EVERYTIME on the roads that are 30mph. Pisses me off.

Leave earlier.
 
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If you zoom up behind someone on a highway and they're in the left lane and obviously NOT moving over, isn't it just as easy for you to move? Honk at them if it makes you feel better, but why in the hell would anyone creep up on someone on a HIGHWAY doing 50, 60, 70 mph??
 
:shrugs:
No one should ever by driving so closely behind someone else that they can't stop if the person in front of them stops. There's just no justifiable reason. The law is in agreement w/ this.
It doens't matter if you "plan" on doing it just a second to change lanes, or if you're daydreaming, etc. . . . It's always your fault if you hit the person in front of you.

*that said* I tap my brakes so they see my brake lights if I'm being tailgated. I would never slam on my brakes, I have 3 kids and a nice car and NO time for reapir shops just to prove a point to someone who obviously doesn't care about me or my kids.
But I WON'T speed up either, I'm not about to get pressured to speed up by someone behind that should've left their house 10 minutes earlier.

I'm not talking about highways BTW. The speed limit in my town is 30 mph on all streets that aren't "main roads" and we're a small little affluent area and the cops are out BIG TIME here. I go 30-32mph and get tailgated EVERYTIME on the roads that are 30mph. Pisses me off.

Leave earlier.

That's exactly what I do.
Half of the time, the people doing that are gesturing wildly because they're talking to passengers or on the phone (even with their headsets), so it's a precaution to make sure they're paying attention. And this is in slower lanes, too, NOT the fast lane.

As for our neighborhoods, the speed limit is 25 around here; there are 2 lane roads, and there are always kids running around in the streets or people walking. I've seriously been PASSED, the person going around me, across double yellow lines, on the wrong side of the street because they didn't like it that I was going the posted speed limit in a neighborhood. :tdown:
 
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I do it when someone is riding my ass. It's simple. Get off my ass, because any closer, and you'll be riding in my trunk.

I don't go under the speed limit - in fact, 90 percent of the time I'm over the speed limit. However, there is that one person who loves to get behind you and think that riding up on the back of your car will make you move. If I could switch lanes, ya jerk, I would!


Exactly.

Regardless if you're on the fast or slow lane, people tend to tailgate (no joke). So, if i was on the original lane to begin with, why would i have to move so that some jerk ,who's going 15 miles over the speed limit, can pass me? And i'm not a slow driver at all!

Also, if you had felt that the woman was making a sudden/fast break (that it almost got you into an accident), maybe you were driving too close to her car.
 
I am not sure that many of you realize it is ILLEGAL NOT TO YIELD to people who want to pass. At least in the state where I am from, but I am sure many other states. You should NOT be tailgating, of course, but... the fast lane is meant for people who want to pass and go faster. If you have someone coming up behind you, you need to move over and let them pass. It is against the law in many places not to let people pass that want to pass when you are in the outermost lane. Plus it's just common sense and common courtesy. Otherwise, you're just being a stubborn jerk. If it is rush hour, and there is no place to even move in any lane at all, that is a different story.

I do think it's terrible of people to slam on their brakes, though!


If we are allowed to post, here is the wikipedia link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passing_lane If we can't post it, I apologize and please remove the link.
 
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:jammin:
I am not sure that many of you realize it is ILLEGAL NOT TO YIELD to people who want to pass. At least in the state where I am from, but I am sure many other states. You should NOT be tailgating, of course, but... the fast lane is meant for people who want to pass and go faster. If you have someone coming up behind you, you need to move over and let them pass. It is against the law in many places not to let people pass that want to pass when you are in the outermost lane. Plus it's just common sense and common courtesy. Otherwise, you're just being a stubborn jerk. If it is rush hour, and there is no place to even move in any lane at all, that is a different story.

I do think it's terrible of people to slam on their brakes, though!


If we are allowed to post, here is the wikipedia link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passing_lane If we can't post it, I apologize and please remove the link.
Ah yes, but the "fast lane" is not the "speed limit free lane." In my state, it is illegal to travel exclusively in the "fast lane." ie okay to drive in it until you can move into the middle lane, but it is not a traveling lane.

I do not believe there is a law stating I have to move over, when going 5+mph over the speed limit & passing the traffic in the middle lane simply because there is an impatient poor time manager behind me. Nor should i endanger myself & people in front of me by speeding up b/c they want to ride my ass. Buy a helicopter or teleportation device if one needs to go faster than driving allows.
 
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