The closer you tailgate, the more space I leave between me and the car ahead of me. If you flash your headlights at me, I'm going to flash my brake lights at you. I'm already going 10mph faster than the lane to the left at 80-90mph with only 0.7 to 1.2 second gap between me and the car ahead on a wet road. If I were to somehow let you pass me you'd save an entire 1 second on your whole trip, so chill.
Poor planning on your part does not constitute an emergency on my part.
The hand signals you were giving were amusing and it was an enjoyable story. I appreciate the entertainment during a busy commute, but as I recall peter rabbit has two ears, not one. Perhaps in your version Farmer McGregor already caught him once and he lost an ear when he escaped?
-Adam
So a guy was tailgating you in the right lane? Why didn't he just pass?[/quote]
I drive in reverse.
-Adam[/quote]
Well depending on which lane you were in, you were either being a total cock, or the guy behind you was the douchebag.[/quote]
I wrote that incorrectly, and have corrected it now.
We were in the far left lane on a 4 lane freeway doing 85 in a 65 zone. Even if there was space in the lane to the right, they were traveling 75 or so, and it would have been unsafe to change lanes without a large gap. As it was there was no space, and this woman was tailgating me within 4-5 feet.
I was already traveling at a high speed with a short following distance (less than 2 seconds, sometimes less than one second - which at these speeds is still quite far, but not far enough unless you absolutely trust the 5 cars in front of you, and two lanes to the side(s)).
So when they rushed up to me and started flashing their lights I let off the gas and tapped my brake lights briefly to indicate I was slowing down. My goal was to put enough space in front of me that both I and the car immediately behind me would be able to stop safely if the cars ahead suddenly stopped. Technically my foot was off the gas very briefly as I tapped the brakes only hard enough to trigger the light - the engine controller hadn't responded to the release of the gas by the time I pressed it again. At this speed, slowing down safely means keeping the gas down only a little bit less than before.
I'm driving a rather lightweight car with four wheel disc brakes, so as long as I'm paying attention when the cars ahead of me brake I should be ok, but the car behind me will have a difficult time stopping as quickly as I can, though I was concerned about the wet roads.
Fortunately I could see the several cars ahead of me, so unless the car immediately ahead of me acted alone in braking suddenly, I'd have a bit more notice than just one set of brakelights, which is why I wasn't following at an even greater distance.
Still, when I get an idiot behind me like that I try to make them pass as soon as possible - the further they are away from me, the better.
Whether I'm a douche or not, I'll let you judge. I'd rather be the douche than the smear on the pavement though.
-Adam[/QUOTE]
Eh, if you had cars in front of you then there was nowhere she was going to go anyway, thus the tailgater was a moron. Actually, I hate it when people pull that crap (try to tailgate and intimidate their way to the front of the left lane pack). I would have probably slowed down to 70 mph, just to piss her off. You probably got flipped the bird because you brake checked her. You did it to warn her that you're slowing down, she probably took it as you telling her to fuck off.
The worst is when they tailgate you; you let them pass by moving over to the right, and then they slow down to the speed you were originally doing in the left lane, which is exactly what would have happened had you moved out of the way despite the heavy traffic to the right.
