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Location: East of Seattle since 1992, 615' Elevation, Zone 8b - originally from SF Bay Area
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I do tailgate sometimes, not the brake riders but the people that go under the speed limit. If in my F150 they will eventually see me in the rear view mirror and will speed up. Sometime they will even pull over and let me pass.
I do tailgate sometimes, not the brake riders but the people that go under the speed limit. If in my F150 they will eventually see me in the rear view mirror and will speed up. Sometime they will even pull over and let me pass.
Nothing like the lower half of an F150 grill in your rear view mirror to make you either speed up or move over.
Sorry, hairsplitting doesn't cut it. If the car behind is observing the appropriate following distance that brake tap (regardless what led up to it) shouldn't cause an accident.
Should. If everything in the world was as it "should" be there would be no wars and crime.
That little brake tap is more likely to cause an accident than prevent it. And I'm not talking about the driver deliberately trying to signal something to those behind but the instinctive tap before the driver even engages brain.
Define what you mean by “tap”. I’m not getting it. When I tap my brakes, little more happens than flashing the brake lights. Another thing that it does is stop the cruise control. It doesn’t slow the car down much at all. How is that going to cause an accident?
Define what you mean by “tap”. I’m not getting it. When I tap my brakes, little more happens than flashing the brake lights. Another thing that it does is stop the cruise control. It doesn’t slow the car down much at all. How is that going to cause an accident?
The person behind doesn't know that. The brake light indicates brake pedal depressed not how hard depressed. The person following might react with more than a tap.
I brake/slow early mainly because I HOPE it will give that wacky Tailgater right behind
me...plenty of time to see what I am doing and avoid rear-ending me.
^^This^^
Several months ago, I had some idiot tailing me closely in a construction zone with start and stop traffic.
Through one section of road, there were Jersey barriers on both sides, leaving no way to get away from the tailgater behind me. At one point, I glanced in my rear view mirror and saw that he was alternately eating soup (I'm not kidding about that ) and had his face buried in his phone. I kept tapping my brakes in hopes that he would see my lights and back off. More than once, he narrowly missed nailing my car.
I couldn't hardly wait until the road widened back to two lanes and I could get a few cars away from him.
All of this aside, I don't tend to "ride" my brakes, but instead prefer to do the gradual slow down whenever I can without doing it to the point that I annoy other drivers.
I brake/slow early mainly because I HOPE it will give that wacky Tailgater right behind me...plenty of time to see what I am doing and avoid rear-ending me.
Exactly my reasoning, as well. I brake early to give drives behind me more time to notice what I am doing. I have yet to be rear ended (knock on wood), with this method. Of course, I cannot prove that I would have been rear ended had I not been braking early, too, so...
It also causes less wear and tear on the brake pads and rotors, and increases my gas mileage.
I do tailgate sometimes, not the brake riders but the people that go under the speed limit. If in my F150 they will eventually see me in the rear view mirror and will speed up. Sometime they will even pull over and let me pass.
My rule of thumb is that I do the speed limit on all roads below forty-five miles per hour. All roads above forty-five miles per hour, I am usually one to two miles per hour below the limit. No tailgater has ever made me speed up! I have no problem when they legally pass me, as I am almost never in a hurry to get anywhere. One or two miles per hour below the limit nets me almost an extra mile per gallon on my gas mileage, so I feel as though it is worth it!
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) and had his face buried in his phone. I kept tapping my brakes in hopes that he would see my lights and back off. More than once, he narrowly missed nailing my car. 
