Do you slow down for drivers that tailgate?

[JSD]

I don't do it, just poking a bear which can result in aggressive actions that endanger myself.

1. Can continue to tailgate and actually hit me. Even if they're at fault and don't drive off its a huge pain with that will cost me time.

2. Try to pass me on the shoulder or edge of the road, which could again cause an accident, though more likely with someone else than me.

I think that's a safe but slightly paranoid approach. My goal is to annoy that person as much as they're annoying me.

[rondohondo]

What's you're worst Driving experience ?

Mine was a few years ago when I used to deliver Newspapers .

I was turning off a side street onto a main road. Once I was on the main road , my next delivery was almost directly on the left after I turned on the Main road. I looked both ways and proceeded, and with plenty of time before any car was coming .

All of a sudden a jeep , who had to be doing 55 in a 35 , comes flying up behind me, and right as I was about to throw a paper outside my driver side window , he pulls into the oncoming lane of traffic to pass me , very nearly taking off my arm , and causing an accident.

I was soo p---ed that I followed him to the next stop light with my high beams on him and horn blaring the whole way. The light turns red, he gets out of his car and charges at mine . I call him a fruit cup(something worse that I cant type here) . I grab my metal guitar capo ,which can be used as brass knuckles ha , and open my car door. As soon as I opened it the guy started walking back to his car fast and took off.

It was stupid to do looking back , cause who knows if the guy could have had a gun , and problems , but he literally almost took my arm off.

Ugh , what a scumbag

Serenity Now!

[Interceptor]

You know the type that ride up on you in the fast-lane, even though you’re already going a solid 10 mph over the limit? On the highway I'll just move aside and hope they get a ticket, but on a side-street or single lane road, I slow down to mess with them. Am I alone in this?

On the highway, I move aside. If someone is a crazy driver, I want them in FRONT of me, thank you, right where I can see them. I don't know what this "fast lane" is that people refer to; that's the passing lane, and you aren't supposed to travel in it. In a perfect world, people would get tickets for this.

As for side-streets and single lane roads, I only drive as fast as is safe. If you are so close to me that it seems like you're trying to hitch a ride in my trunk, I'm not going to drive fast, because if I have to stop short we're going to have an accident. So I slow down. If you get closer, I slow down more. People usually get the point and back off.

[Roy H.]

I don't do it, just poking a bear which can result in aggressive actions that endanger myself.

1. Can continue to tailgate and actually hit me. Even if they're at fault and don't drive off its a huge pain with that will cost me time.

2. Try to pass me on the shoulder or edge of the road, which could again cause an accident, though more likely with someone else than me.

I think that's a safe but slightly paranoid approach. My goal is to annoy that person as much as they're annoying me.

In my younger, single days, I'd definitely do what I could to irritate the overly aggressive drivers.

Now, as a dad, it's not worth the risk.  I don't think Fafnir's concerns are paranoid, especially driving in the North east (Boston / NY / NY / Philly).  Once, on the way to an interview, I held up a tailgater.  He eventually tried to run me off the road.  I've seen plenty of pretty terrible maneuvers other than that one, too.  It's not worth it. 

[gar]

I will tailgate, flash, honk at drivers going under the speed limit. I am sorry. Too many Q-tips in RI.

[ejk3489]

If someone tailgates me, I slow down and move to the next lane so they can pass me.

I hate it when people purposely prevent people from passing them, this is why some traffic jams happens!

Have to agree with this completely. Being tailgated is never fun, but I'm not going to purposely slow down just so they can't pass me. I mean, the left lane is there for a reason...

But I just want to add that driving in Boston 3-4 times a week for the past 5 years has absolutely made me a more aggressive/bad driver, so I apologize in advance for those that have to deal with me on the road. 

[slamtheking]

You know the type that ride up on you in the fast-lane, even though you’re already going a solid 10 mph over the limit? On the highway I'll just move aside and hope they get a ticket, but on a side-street or single lane road, I slow down to mess with them. Am I alone in this?

Why not just move over into the traveling lane where you should be driving anyway?  who are you, the speed police dictating how fast anyone else can go?

Personally, if someone wants to pass me, no matter how fast I'm going (on a multilane road), I'll happily move over.  Let them be the ones to get caught in a speed trap while I cruise on by (still over the speed limit) and have a good laugh at their expense.  I've had that happen a couple of times -- great feeling.

What I can't stand are slow-driving buttheads.  Yesterday in fact, I'm driving in a single-lane road with a 40MPH limit.  Someone came up to a T intersection about 600 feet ahead of me, ran the stop sign just to get in front of me, and then proceeded to drive between 25-30MPH for the next several miles.  THAT'S an even bigger jerk than a tailgater.

[Roy H.]

I will tailgate, flash, honk at drivers going under the speed limit. I am sorry. Too many Q-tips in RI.

I'm sure that getting to your destination a couple seconds later is worth putting yourself, the slower driver, and everyone around you guys at risk.  Well done.

Slow drivers irritate everyone, but I'm not sure how making the situation extremely dangerous helps anybody.

[KG Living Legend]

 I just hit the James Bond button I installed. It disables the car's electronics.

[Amonkey]

Anybody got stuck in traffic yesterday on the Cape? Last night there was a fatal accident that actually closed Sagamore. My wife and i left the Cape at around 8:40pm and just past exit 2 we got into standstill traffic (probably just at 9pm). We didnt pass the bridge until midnight. It sucked arriving home past one in the morning but the fact that it was a fatal accident putsnthings in perspective.

[GranTur]

It's dangerous to slow down. Two wrongs don't make a right.

You have no idea who the person is behind the wheel or why he/she is doing it.

Plus there's the minute chance they are doing it for more genuine reasons than you think, like pooping your pants or rushing to the hospital. You never know.

Or maybe they are just crazy or immature. Either way, make way for the psychos.

[slamtheking]

You know the type that ride up on you in the fast-lane, even though you’re already going a solid 10 mph over the limit? On the highway I'll just move aside and hope they get a ticket, but on a side-street or single lane road, I slow down to mess with them. Am I alone in this?

Why not just move over into the traveling lane where you should be driving anyway?  who are you, the speed police dictating how fast anyone else can go?

Personally, if someone wants to pass me, no matter how fast I'm going (on a multilane road), I'll happily move over.  Let them be the ones to get caught in a speed trap while I cruise on by (still over the speed limit) and have a good laugh at their expense.  I've had that happen a couple of times -- great feeling.

What I can't stand are slow-driving buttheads.  Yesterday in fact, I'm driving in a single-lane road with a 40MPH limit.  Someone came up to a T intersection about 600 feet ahead of me, ran the stop sign just to get in front of me, and then proceeded to drive between 25-30MPH for the next several miles.  THAT'S an even bigger jerk than a tailgater.

new story from driving home after a get-together yesterday that reminded of this thread.

Was about 500-600 feet behind this guy (him - high speed lane; me - traveling lane) when he decides to whip a beer can out his window over the top of his car and into the traveling lane.  fortunately I had enough time to avoid the can. 

Anyway, this clown constantly runs up on people in front of them until they get out of his way.  Turns out the that road (24 north Tiverton/Fall River) leads to a split getting on to 195 East/West.  The clown has to switch to the traveling lane to go East and gets stuck behind a guy he had been trying to get past for almost a quarter mile.  I ended up passing him in the other lane (going West thankfully) and saw he was drunk, shirtless, slamming his hands on his steering wheel while swearing up a storm at the guy in front of him.
If I had a phone on me I would have called the drunk driver tip line.

This would be that perfect example of why you get out of a tailgater's way.  I'd be amazed if this clown didn't ruin someone's day with his road rage.  better to get out of the way and not have to deal with him. 

[Fafnir]

I don't do it, just poking a bear which can result in aggressive actions that endanger myself.

1. Can continue to tailgate and actually hit me. Even if they're at fault and don't drive off its a huge pain with that will cost me time.

2. Try to pass me on the shoulder or edge of the road, which could again cause an accident, though more likely with someone else than me.

I think that's a safe but slightly paranoid approach. My goal is to annoy that person as much as they're annoying me.

In my younger, single days, I'd definitely do what I could to irritate the overly aggressive drivers.

Now, as a dad, it's not worth the risk.  I don't think Fafnir's concerns are paranoid, especially driving in the North east (Boston / NY / NY / Philly).  Once, on the way to an interview, I held up a tailgater.  He eventually tried to run me off the road.  I've seen plenty of pretty terrible maneuvers other than that one, too.  It's not worth it.

I've seen an accident happen when someone tried to pass on the shoulder (it was scary and I still don't know the result as I was driving away and it wasn't bad enough to make the paper) and I've certainly seen many rear-end accidents both at low and relatively high speeds.

I won't say I don't understand the temptation or haven't ever done it myself. But as Roy says at some point I decided it wasn't worth it.

[saltlover]

You know the type that ride up on you in the fast-lane, even though you’re already going a solid 10 mph over the limit? On the highway I'll just move aside and hope they get a ticket, but on a side-street or single lane road, I slow down to mess with them. Am I alone in this?

Depends where I am.  On the Pike in Western MA where it's two lanes, and the right-hand lane is typically a lot of trucks doing the speed-limit, I'll keep going my original speed and move over if there's opening where I won't have to slow down to be at the speed of traffic in the other lane.  But I used to live on a residential street with several posted 25 mph signs, that was also used as a cut-through for people avoiding traffic.  They'd go 35 or 40, so I'd gleefully slow down to 20, or slow down at a yellow light instead of speeding through it, to teach them to go another way.

[fairweatherfan]

When I'm driving, I like to speed (not excessively, but ~12 over), so I love people that want to pass me.  The more cars going my speed or faster in front of me, the more likely I can get away with speeding.  So I do everything I can to let faster traffic by.

People who tailgate pretty hard when I can't get over are obnoxious, but I don't try to provoke them - I don't speed up, but I don't brake on them or anything either, I just get over when I can.  Their comeuppance can come from the cop down the road, not from me.