Why drivers tailgate

By: Drivers.com staff
Date: 1994-12-09

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This article originally appeared in Volume 4, Number 4 of Driver /Education, in December 1994.

There are many opinions on why drivers tailgate. But there doesn't seem to be much in the line of hard research that would cast some light on this particular kind of driving behaviour.

Several experts queried in preparation for this article admitted that, while they know of research dealing with tailgating behaviour in general, they could not bring to mind any specific research into why individual drivers do it. Even GM Senior Researcher Leonard Evans, author of Traffic Safety and the Driver , a book that has been referred to as the bible of traffic safety research, seems to have little more than opinion to offer on the topic of why drivers adopt a tactic in traffic that is not only dangerous, but also has several tactical disadvantages.

"Why do drivers choose to follow so closely? It seems to me that it becomes largely a driving habit, rather than a reasoned conscious behaviour," Evans writes. "Drivers appear to do many things for their own benefit rather than for any utility benefit." He goes on to suggest that, in some cases, it may be done as criminal behaviour that's indulged in for its own sake.

Evans also suggests that the lack of speed difference between vehicles allows drivers to feel safe. This, and the fact that crashes are rare events and that drivers can get away with tailgating, makes drivers complacent about the danger. "They have learned from repeated experience that it is safe to do so, in the sense that they have been doing it for years without adverse consequences," he writes.

Challenge for educators

If these views hold true, driver educators have an almost impossible challenge in dealing with the problem. The three- to four-second rule is taught as a rule of thumb for minimum safe following distance.

But selling this driving technique on the basis of safety may be difficult if penalties for tailgating (in the form of accidents) are rare and drivers feel no sense of danger.

On the other hand, more utilitarian penalties for tailgating are quite common. Tailgaters get blocked in more often because they are unable to anticipate problems ahead and select the best lane.

"They feel more stress because they can't use their vision properly and do long-range traffic planning," says driver training consultant David Baker. "Drivers are often more concentrated on defending the indefensible, the space between them and the car in front, rather than on the cooperative aspect of driving in traffic," says Baker. "When they're shown how, they can see and feel the benefits of staying back and having more control. They feel more confident about their control over the situation."

However, it might be a lot easier to find ways to sell these benefits if a great deal more were known about why tailgaters tailgate.

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