Truckers Tailgating

You asked what is the driver thinking or why. I offered my best suggestion, not a recommendation or justification. Most people are broke. They don't wake up and decide to be. They just do what seems like the least bad thing at the moment and it produces the bad results.

 

LMFAO, I was just telling my wife that YESTERDAY!

 

When I started in the late 80s following distance was drummed into me over and over and it's never left me .
They must not teach that anymore .

 

Those are the ones I used to call "hand holders". As in, "Why is it some drivers can't seem to go anywhere without someone ten feet in front of them to hold their hand?"

 

They're absent drivers. Too busy playing with electronic devices and/or talking on the phone. There's also a very high likelyhood they've never been properly trained. Training is sorely lacking in this industry.

 

Back to you, living in Germany. You were lucky and didn't lose your license.
You may have noticed the system they've set up on overpasses. Camera surveillance plus radar. The tailgater gets filmed from the bridge. There are marker lines at a certain distance across the lane. With the speed measured by the radar and the time elapsed between the vehicles to clear those marker lines, the following distance can be calculated.
And no live stopping at the side of the road. The ticket comes per mail. That way hundreds of tailgaters can be nailed within a short time. The drivers can be identified on the radar picture.

 

I’ll drive on the rumble strips with my set of triples and 100% of the time the person riding my ### will back up in no time.

 

Tailgating is stupid in a car but BEYOND stupid in a semi. I see drivers doing it all the time. They have no sense.
On the passing thing, the professional, COURTEOUS and SAFE thing to do is assist someone passing, not challenge!

 

So are you explaining their stupidity or understanding it!

 

Tailgating , for many reasons stated, is nothing more than our instant gratification society we live in today. It means different things in different vehicles, for example, a dually pickup tailgating a Kia, means, "I'm bigger than you, therefore, I should be ahead of you" mentality. Cars taligating other cars, again, this is taking too long, I should be there by now, perhaps if I "push" this person, I'll get there sooner. Trucks tailgating trucks clearly means, the drivers have lost attention in what they are driving, pushed by HOS limitations, the GD cell phone, "where are you now?", and never had to make a "panic stop" not realizing the semis limits, recipe for disaster. Tailgating irritates me too, but I'm in no hurry these days, and I usually pull to the side, FREAKING out the tailgater, who has no idea what I'm doing, , but they get the message and go around.
Now, what offsets that irritation of a tailgater best? Why, seeing them stopped up ahead by a cop, of course. Sometimes, I toot my horn as I pass, to further pixx them off, who's stupid now, eh?