This is exactly right. I’m not exactly a slow driver (and I never cruise along in the left lane…it’s for passing only, people!), so it isn’t often I encounter a tailgater, but normally a few light taps to the brakes are enough to signal they’re a little too close for my comfort. I’ve almost never had that not work. For a really aggressive person, though, I do slow down to a speed that’s safe for the amount of distance the person is travelling behind me. I do this gradually and not so that the person panics and slams on the brakes. It’s not out of punishment or retaliation - it’s simply to avoid the really unsafe position the tailgater has put me, my family, and him/herself into.
You shouldn’t fuck with the guy for obvious reasons, on the other hand, I don’t want someone riding my bumper at 60 mph. If a warning tap on the breaks don’t workl, the smart thing is to gradually slow down and wave him to go around you (preferably when a semi truck is coming in the oncoming lane 
…just kidding). If you aren’t in any particular hurry and they are, what the fuck do you care if they pass you?
Of course the dream scenario is to slam on the breaks, sending the guy into a ditch and then brutalize him in front of his weeping wife and child while you scream “LOOK AT ME!! I’M A BIG MAN!!” But that’s mostly fantasy.
My dad did this, many many years before I was born. He could tap his brake pedal which would activate the lights, but not enough to actually brake. The tailgaiter swerved to avoid rear-ending him and ended up in the ditch. My dad said he didn’t even stop, and felt really guilty about it for a long time. His only consolation was that he saw the guy get out of the car in his rearview mirror, and the car looked “stuck in the mud” rather than “crumpled in a heap”.
Said he’d never, ever do it again, and when I was learning to drive, the only input he had was “Don’t do that.”
I went through a regular speed trap en route to work this week…must’ve been Monday…where the speed limit on a rural NJ, USA road drops from 50 to 25, as the road suddenly carves through a little old town.
I do 50-ish with some guy pretty close. Not aggressivey close, but he’d prefer to be in front of me.
I come up to the speed trap, slow down to 25 and BINGO. No not an accident, but the “Bingo” refers to me seeing a local cop sitting right there waiting to catch the speeder who didn’t slow down. In my rearview mirror is the F150 driver riding the bumper of my Jetta almost like a bumper car. JUSTICE! This guy is so nabbed!
What happened? NOTHING.
Cop didn’t flinch.
Well, for the purposes of the OP, the tailgatee has to see the reason why his course of action is not the most profitable one for him (so to speak). Bringing up the argument of lower chance of having accident does not really help in this regard, because an accident is a very nebulous threat in terms of behavioral gratification.
Why is moving out of the way most advantageous for the tailgatee? Because of one very intuitive thing: If you slow down, tap the brakes, brake hard and whatnot, it only serves to keep you in a prolonged state of aggravation, not the tailgater. Slow down - the tailgater tailgates. Tap the brakes - the tailgater tailgates. Etc. They don’t care.
But if you move over and let them pass, a short moment of aggravation ensues (“Why, oh why, cruel world, did I have to let that nitwit pass me!”) … and then it’s smooth sailing from then on[sup]1[/sup]. Voilà, immediate satisfaction ensues. Even more when traffic slows down again and you meet your tailgating friend who is now stuck behind the traffic in front of you. (“Ha, ha, assclown, see what you get for passing me - NOTHING!”)
[sup]1[/sup]Unless you keep getting tailgated which might mean YOU ARE MOVING TOO DARN SLOW, speed up to fit in with moving traffic! (I’m ambivalent that way about the subject of tailgating)
Here lies the body of old John Gray
Who died defending his right-of-way.
He was right — dead right — as he rolled along,
But he’s just as dead as if he’d been wrong.
I was going down a rather deserted interstate one morning. I had been on it for miles and I was even in the slow slow lane although I was doing about 75. A Ford Ranger came flying up seemingly from no where and did some extremely aggressive tailgating even though there was 3 other lanes perfectly open. This went on for 30 seconds or so and I started getting really pissed and uncomfortable. I was in my small BMW and this guy and his female companion were in a small truck. My car had outstanding brakes so I figured I could that to my advantage in a psychological way.
I waiting for a good moment and then just slammed on the brakes as hard as I could for a fraction of a second enough to cause a panic reaction in the driver behind me. It worked well and I could see in the review that much chaos ensued. It looked liked the passenger hit the windshield and the truck skidded into the breakdown lane. The second part of my plan was to accelerate out of there as fast as possible and lose them which didn’t seem to be much of a problem.
I don’t feel bad about it. It is a fond memory in fact. I seriously doubt that I would feel bad if the driver was alone and got killed.
It was more tempting in a big car with alot of metal between me and the tailgater, so back then I didn’t care too much. And yeah, road rage often results because it’s usually some git suddenly made to look like a punk in front of his friends, so he has to compensate by becoming even more of a highway tough guy and trying to get in front of you and do the same thing back. Yeah, like you didn’t see that coming, guy’s a regular Hannibal Barca of the interstate system. So there you go up the freeway, some pissant jamming his brakes in your face over and over and you laughing your ass off and giving him eighty versions of the finger. You get the satisfaction of making him almost piss himself, but it was probably easier to just ignore him.
I drive a smaller car nowadays and I’d get my head ripped off my shoulders if another car got some elevation on it, so I don’t do it anymore.
My favorite tactic for dealing with tailgaters on standard roads (1 lane each direction), when I’m already traveling at or near the speed limit is to begin to vary my speed.
Slow down to about 5 mph below the limit, then to 5+. Repeat over and over. Eventually, they either get the message, or they pass (often illegally). I love it when they chose a particular section of straight road (the first in about 10 miles or so), where the speed limit drops to 30mph on a very slight downhill grade… and passes directly in front of the police station. While I hate seeing blues flashing anywhere near me, I do so love it when they are directed at someone who really deserves it.
I hate it more when the tailgater follows behind me closely with their brights on, on the highway.
It’s only happened once - it was two lanes each direction and the putz had the whole other lane free.
He chose to stay behind me.
There was no way I was pulling over on a dark highway with this yahoo behind me while driving alone.
My husband - a large excitable man, moreso in his youth- was being tailgated on a narrow gravel road. He eventually slammed on the brakes and angles his car so they couldn’t go around, whereupon he leaped from the truck to have a chat.
The extremely panicked tailgater immediately slammed their car into reverse and got the heck out of there.
Not advisable and I tried telling him - “then the tailgater whips out a gun and shoots you.” but he was yound, stupid and bulletproof back then.
While it no longer surprises me how agressively some people tailgate, change lanes and all that, I’m always suprised at how bad some of them are at it. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been effertlessly cruising along at the speed limit, when some guy frantically changes lanes several times, jumps into and out of the carpool lane only to get stuck behind a slow moving cement truck. “Nice move Cha Cha. Now you see why nobody was in that lane?”
Not to denigrate your dad’s compassion, but the very same thing would have happened if your dad had had to legitimately brake for some reason. In fact, if he had actually braked, an accident would likely have resulted, with your dad being the one “cumpled in a heap”.
IMO, the other driver’s fate was of his own making. He was posing a danger to all if he was driving so close that brake lights caused him to swerve so abruptly. Your dad performed a public service enabling the danger to be removed with no damage to any but the one who caused it.
I always make sure to know where the “sweet spot” between activating the lights and actually braking is. It’s fun to see the car get smaller in my rearview.
Some of my college friends used to start slipping pennies out of the windows when being closely tailgated. It seemed like a funny retaliation at the time but upon further reflection seems rather dangerous and irresponsible.
I heard that you can set up your exhaust system to emit a lengthy flame of unburned
fuel at a flick of a switch (via a sparkplug or other such device). THAT will certainly
get their attention.
The two stories which stick out for me is the jerk who decided to ride my rear
bumper-until a cop joined the party for a couple of blocks, at which point Nutso
Tailgator eased off 4 car lengths and suddenly became the Divine Driver. Cop turns
off the road and all of a sudden there he is again 2 feet in back of me, so he most
certainly KNEW that he was doing something illegal, but didn’t care (except to avoid
a possible ticket). The other time was going down the interstate in heavy traffic and
a total driving rainstorm with a semi riding me as close as he could get. I was in the
right lane, with cars going past on the left, and nowhere for me to go.
True enough. But I think from my dad’s perspective it was the difference between intending to flip someone off with your middle finger, but actually ppoking their eye out with it.
The tailgater was ultimately the author of his own fate, but my dad was being malicious.
When I have someone who just won’t get off my bumper, I will usually just ease off the accellerator and make sure they have a way around me, just like everyone else. If they don’t go around or move back a little, I’ve definitely been known to use the little squirty thing to wash my windshield. If the person is that close, they’ll get some of the water on their windshield too. Totally harmless, but it makes me giggle, and giggling about a tailgater is better than seething about one.
Well, clearly the semi was just drafting.
Wha?
Oh, and I agree with the others who feel that a gradual slowing is the best solution. It is rare that someone continues to tailgate me at that point. They go around me, speed off, and then I can spend the rest of my drive fantasizing about how they wrecked their car and completely embarrassed themselves later on down the road.
Also, John DiFool, those exhaust flames are amusing but very illegal, at least in California. I knew that beforehand, but I have a specific recollection of watching an episode of Pimp My Ride where they added just such a switch to someone’s car, and were then told it was illegal. I believe they ultimately modified it so that the exhaust emitted bubbles, which are equally as bad-ass in my book. 
I used to do that when I was much younger and foolish. Then a guy I did it to tried to kill me- he cut in front of me using the median strip, then slammed on his brakes- several times and he woudn’t let me pass, either.
I also say “No” to slowing down. If they are tailgating me, I just get over and let them pass. If I can’t- I motion politely to the cars in front of me an throw my hands up like I can’t do anything.
Impeding Traffic is a moving violation here in CA, and cops are quite capable of pulling over both cars.
I just can’t see the wisdom of risking my life and my driving record to “teach a lesson” to someone who most certainly will not learn said lesson.
I’m a fan of easing off the accelerator for tailgaters.
I, too, have had to deal with a semi tailgater while the other lane was occupied. I was passing a long row of cars - I in the left lane, they in the right.
A semi barrels up behind me at about 10mph over the speed limit (70) - at the time, I was about 5 over.
He’s less than a car length from my bumper. Very irresponsible. Very dangerous.
I have two choices to alleviate the situation: accelerate to pass the cars on the right more swiftly - with him likely riding my bumper the whole way; or decelerate to reduce the potential damage of an impact and, quite honestly, mess with the guy at the same time, until I could get over in the right lane behind the line of cars.
Yeah, I picked B. A involved speeds I’m not comfortable with with conditions that make them even less comfortable; B provided a little backlash to an aggressive jackass.
Of course, I couldn’t drop my speed suddenly, at that following distance, so I had to reduce it very slowly.
I think I was at about 65 when the line of cars (which had grown in the meantime) finally got past me and I was able to pull into the right lane.
I understand how frustrating it can be to be behind someone slower that you, so if there’s no way around me, I tend to be a bit forgiving if someone is a little too close (not so much the they’re right on my ass).
When it’s a 2-lane road (one lane each direction), I’m inclined to pull over to let them pass. If there’s more lanes, I’ll try to move out of the way if I can.
But if they have free lanes to go around me, then I’ll take the foot off the gas and gradually slow, to a crawl of necessary.