Originally Posted By: L_Sludger
Some years ago on a California freeaway with frequent sharp slowdowns, i fell in behind a middle aged woman in a Camry once. (First mistake). When traffic got heavier in front of her, she would full on panic stop her car repeatedly even though the slowdown was still a ways away from her. The rear end of that car jumped up about a foot every time she did it.
She had both hands on the wheel, staring straight ahead. She was really out of her element. To this day I'm convinced she was horked up on drugs and driving impaired.
Ps, it wasn't brake checking to deter tailgating. I stayed 5 car lengths and then 10 car lengths behind her.
I live in a town with a very high level of elderly people. Some of the circumstances that one happens to find oneself in are somewhat unique to that element. Ergo, driving defensively is not just about being aware of everyone around you, it is in this case, being aware of the potentially limited cognitive and physical functions of these people and planning accordingly.
Today's example:
I was headed home and turned off a main 4-lane onto a relatively busy 2-lane that is skirted by a very generous bike lane on the eastern side. Two blocks up a light goes red and I'm the second car at it. Watching my rearview, there's a Cadillac driving in the bike lane, then back into the main lane, then back into the bike line. This immediately causes concern and I cut my wheels to the left to potentially go around the car in front of me (light is red, there's no oncoming) as he hastily approaches with no sign of slowdown. As he sails up my rear side I stab the gas and maneuver out of the way, however my abrupt movement must have jarred some fizzled out brain cells back to life as he slams on the brakes, stopping about two feet into the space my vehicle had occupied only a moment earlier. Watching in the rearview, the look on his face is one of astonishment, confusion and indignation. He obviously shouldn't be driving, and he probably knows that deep down in there somewhere.
And this would be far from the first episode where I've had a senior sailing up behind me. Sometimes tapping your brakes to flash the lights gets them to clue in, other times evasive action is necessary and sometimes they hit you. Shortly after we got the Expedition we were rear-ended by an elderly couple while we were stopped behind a city bus. They came sailing through the lights into a line of stopped traffic that you'd have to be entirely blind not to see. He hit the brakes half-way through the intersection, probably 20ft from my bumper. That was the saving grace. It caused the front of his van to dive and he buried his hood into my hitch receiver assembly, rather than the bumper. He wasn't so lucky, as the guy that was following him ended up in the back of the van.