By Reza Ganjavi
Police wrote me back after my inquiry about Swiss laws about tailgating as I’m sick of getting tailgated in Switzerland. The drivers who tailgate are bullies. They want to bully you going faster while if I’m not going too fast, I never go too slow.
The real problem is they’re too passive and shy and inhibited to pass a car, so instead they tailgate!! I’ve seen this so many times. There’s a passing lane – no car coming – but the guy is too passive/shy/inhibited/incapable to pass that he honks his horn or tailgates you to keep going faster than the speed limit! I’m very keen to not go over the speed limit in Switzerland because there are brutal cameras (speed traps) everywhere.
And this problem of passivity for passing gets really funny when there’s a tractor going 10 km/h and you see 6 cars lined up behind it because the first car is too passive to pass the tractor which is so easy to do and I do it in my sleep! I can even pass all 7 of them in a shot.
Police wrote: [translated from German]
“As I was informed, you appeared this afternoon at the counter of the police station in Dornach and asked a question concerning distance when driving behind each other on the highway. Concerning the distance regulation when driving behind each other in road traffic, the following articles apply:
- Art. 12 para. 1 VRV (Traffic Regulations Ordinance)
- Art. 34 para. 4 SVG (Road Traffic Act)
- Art. 90 para. 1 or 2 SVG (Road Traffic Act)
~~~
I wrote this to one tailgating jerk but didn’t send it as I didn’t want to bother finding his address.
You came across as extremely arrogant, aggressive, obstinate because even when I signal to you that you need to keep your distance if you did not imply. You continue to break the law. I hope you learn something from this exchange and behave yourself, and be a better man on the freeway, and respect other drivers and their rights and the law and safety rules. If I had the time to waste on you I would make sure you a get traffic fine. But I decided to forgive you and hope that you learned a lesson. And I felt very unsafe and I don't know what you expected me to do. You were trying to bully me to move over to the other line while I was going at the speed limit and there were other cars on the right lane who were going slower than me, and that's exactly why I was on the fast lane. But just because you wanted to break the law and even go faster and you were tailgating me to intimidate me. That is no-go. Behave yourself, clean up your act, think respect. If I had a flat tire or something else happened while you were tailgating me like that, you would have been dead, and I would have been dead because of you and your horrible, irresponsible reckless way of driving.
I went to the police office immediately after I exited the freeway, and I described what you did to them, and they told me that what you did was unlawful. It was illegal. I decided not to file a case against you although I had your license plate, because I don't have time to waste on people like you.
For your information, in case you don’t know, you don't own the road. The road is owned by me and you and other taxpayers, and you don't have any rights or privileges above anybody else. But the way you drive makes it seem like you think you own the gosh darn road.
I don't have time to deal with people who don't have respect for other people's rights, other people's space, and safe driving.