Just don't do it on a busy motorway, because 5 miles behind you you'll bring traffic to a halt.
I tend to find just gently slowing down is more than enough explanation of my annoyance, but I'm always careful and aware of the innocent motorists behind the car tailgating me, so it's not something I would do every time, there are more dangerous things than being followed closely through a 30 limit. I don't agree with the brake tapping, and certainly not the handbrake move at junctions, that's just stupid.
If I'm following someone who doesn't slow down at all for a 30 or 40 limit I'll flash them, it works every time because suddenly they're wondering if I'm just annoyed or if there's a speed camera on that stretch and I'm a kind soul and they tend to not risk it.
i think it's too fake to be shocking. Some 10 years ago, there was a commercial by VVN (Veilig Verkeer Nederland) which was pretty good in my opinion, at least way better than this.
It showed a normal day with some kids playing with a kite on a field. There's a road next to the field, and a car is driving on it, a little bit too fast, but not unusual (say about 60km/h instead of 50). Suddenly one of the kids with the kite crosses the road and the next thing you hear is tires screeching. You don't see the accident, the only thing you see is the kite crashing down.
I think everyone here in the Netherlands remembers that commercial very well.
Totally misses the point, there's nothing to indicate the car's speeding, perfectly possible that both cars were within the speed limit. What it highlights is dangerous driving, which is what kills people, not speed, driving at 70 or 170 mph makes absolutely no difference to safety (excluding mechanical failure) if you do it in a safe environment. Dangerous and aggressive driving should be targeted not speeding.
There was an absolute pillock (BMW driver) I met who posed far more of a danger, in a chain of traffic moving about 50 mph on a dark, wet, hilly, twisty tree lined road he decided to pull out and put his foot down quite how he reckoned he was going to squeeze between oncoming traffic was beyond me but he left pulling back just behind me with plenty of upset drivers behind him, we then get to a roundabout where he takes the right lane drives round the outside of 2 cars before turning left. I then caught up with him, overtaking the slower car in the safe opportunity he couldn't be bothered to wait for and showed him how I felt.
I have to agree with pretty much everyone here, its not very realistic (visually, and something like that wouldn't happen, or atleast if it did, it would be a moonshot).
I prefer the VW "Safe happens" commercials, those are good, and happen all the time, however they dont exactly have the gore/bad things you can see after serious car accidents. They are more car vs car wrecks, not.. car vs human. http://www.youtube.com/results ... happens&search=Search
Why only tap the brakes? A friend of mine (some of you have met him and will know who I'm talking about) is a somewhat assertive driver to say the least, the way he figures he only has crap cars, the insurance is probably worth more, so he can't wait for someone to total him. If he sees someone driving badly, he'll overtake, cut them up, slam on the anchors and hope for an impact.
Probably the best thing that will happen from that is that he'll take himself off the road as I suspect most people will just think he's a prat (and probably rightly so) rather than get the message he's trying to give them.
Well of course I don't put the brake lights on if someone else is behind them, as I know for a fact that even the 2 second gap isn't enough to stop the likes of my Clio to the likes of the common Audi. Not to mention the fact some poor guy on his motorbike might be there, so I do make sure that there isn't a huge risk in it.
Each to there own then. The only way these idiots learn is when others put them in their place, so to speak. If I'm having to do this to someone then they have been following me too closely for too long for my liking. At the end of the day if they hit the rear of me it's 100% their fault, even if I disconnected my brake lights.
Fact is following me at 70mph, sometimes so close that I can only see the top half of their headlights is not on. If I wasn't fussed about my safety I wouldn't tap the lights to give them a warning. For all that guy knows I may have to perform an emergency stop or a tyre might blow out, how is that person going to have enough time to react?
I use the hand brake coming up to junctions when coming out of town (i.e 30mph speed limits), and I start braking with it very very early so it's a very gentle stop. So all it usually does is signal to the person behind I'm not happy with them.
Maybe I come across as a bit of an `arse` with what I'm saying but if someone treats me with no respect on the road they will receive none back. I manage to drive everyday leaving plenty of space to cars around me and if I ever have to overtake I make damn sure it's safe. So far I've done this for a year now and haven't even recieved a dent or caused any accident behind me.
These drivers that think they are `elite` need to be knocked down a step and realise that they have no right to involve innocent motorists on their search for some kicks.
We used to have a great commercial here too. It also showed some happy stuff, and then you heard tyres screetching and the next image was a coffin being lowered.
Or the one where some friends are driving, they crash, some of them are wearing seatbelts. Then you see the people's ghost fly out of their body, except for the person with the seatbelt, the seatbelt keeps the ghost in his body.
No campaign ever has much effect on many people, They think it won't happen to them and then just plod along. Until, it does happen. Then, they complain about no warning or lack of other drivers skill.
But what about the long-term effect? Is it really zero??
Humans suck at estimating long-term risks. We can judge immediate, visible risks fairly well, but when it comes to longer term we're usually far too optimistic. It is hard to kick habits that are harmful in the long run (smoking, fast food) because the consequences, however gruesome, are so far away.
It's the same with bad driving habits, I guess. Perhaps the main reason that older drivers take less risks is that they have seen more "close calls". For example, they forget to look left and right before a road crossing. Or they let their eyelids sag when driving on the motorway at night. It's only afterwards that they become aware of the risk, and start to think. Many of these moments make you a better driver (if you're not too dim). But young drivers simply lack the mileage.
So, I wonder if it will work if they make a shocking movie every 3 months or so. The effects may only become visible after a couple of years of continued publicity.
PS: Funny statistic: 3 out of 4 drivers think they are an above-average driver.
It doesn't matter how many "road safety" videos are made, it won't stop stupid people doing stupid things. I spend 8-10 hours a day on the road and morons are far more dangerous that speeders. Although a speeding moron is the worst kind.
I think in the driving school classes, they should keep showing picture series of crash aftermaths until half of the people on the class throws up. Should be more efficient than repeating "speeding/dangerous/drunk driving is not ok". Something like this: http://fnnc.org/drunk-driving.html
That hit home!
Things like this should be shown more frequently on every tv station, to keep the image in your head every time you step into your car! Like now, i've just read that and right this second i'm thinking *ill never speed again* but the truth is that tomorrow morning i wont be thinking about that and i'll be doing 80 down the motorway!
*on a lighter note i caught a kit car speeding through a speed trap the other day, the video's in my sig* (shameless plug i know)
There used to run some pretty hard-core drink driving/related car ads in Australia at one point. We'd all be sitting down to watch Neighbours, and before that we'd have to sit through the 'guy in combi gets smashed by big truck because he nodded off at the wheel' type commercials.
Couldn't agree more, even though I don't drive and I have not got a license that is a very powerful awareness campaign. Makes me actually not want a license and a car...... the UK ad I though was ok but i think the message could used differently..
@ Bob.... mnmn certainly made me not want to get into the car with him again, heading to a round about at 90 plus only engine braking and stopping is just intime is
I am a really new driver. Sometimes I find myself tailgating, but then I back off after I realize that I am a little close to the person in front of me.
The stupid thing about tailgating is that in the highway code it says you must fall back from the car infront if there is one behind you tailgating, so it actually slows the car infront down because they need to make sure theres double the braking distance.
They're still using the same tactic - my latest favourite is the "Wipe Off 5" commercial where the dude's driving down the road and a girl steps out into the street without looking where she's going and the dude hits the brakes but still hits her (in gory, CSI-style slow-motion) and messes her up bad. They then re-run the scene, but with the driver doing 5kph less than before. This time she only gets a light bump because the driver's able to stop in time. There's a similar one where the victim's a little girl on a bicycle (who rides across the street, also without looking). The message is obvious - don't go 5kph over the limit because it adds several crucial metres to your stopping distance. OK, but where's the message saying "look both ways before you cross the street, you silly tart"? Sheesh! If you're gonna cross the street without looking in either direction I reckon you've pretty much given up your right not to be hit by traffic
Now everyone's waiting for Toadie & Steph to get married.
Shocking I'd say, especially on showing how bad things can turn out for the people, definately good stuff on that...
...But I always have something with governmental ads about speeding and car-related stuff... How bad can they get. 1- why did he turn left? The dog was already basically off the road. And 2- the car wouldn't have actually flipped like that unless he hit some hole of some sort. Cars don't flip for fun. Another thing I dislike from certain of these commercials (thankfully its not always the case, but often), is how is always young-ish people... Like wtf, anyone can get accidents, geez.
