I had a dude once tailgate me and honk at me for going 25 in a 35. I had just pulled out of a parking lot and was getting my bearings. It was a two-lane road. I was in the right lane. He finally went around me, and I gave him a dorky wave.

30 seconds later, he was in front of me at the next red light, so to be a dick, I honked at him.

Dude spent the next 10 minutes in front of me going like 10 miles per hour. I wasn't in a hurry, so I thought I'd just let that play out. Later, when I switched lanes to avoid a turn-only, he switched immediately after. I realized that he intended to stay in front of me driving slowly presumably until I got home.

So I eventually faked him out and lost him.

Dude wasted 10 minutes of his life proving some kind of insane point. He had a young daughter in the back seat. I feel bad for her.

Probably irritated that they're in the middle lane instead of keeping right except to pass. (or left except to pass in countries that drive on the left).

I’m convinced regular driving is not good for our brains. I am lucky to live without a car and I am a really relaxed person but it takes about a day driving before I start getting angry at other drivers again.

"space on both sides"

Please keep to the right when you are able.

I'm a school bus driver and I get tailgaters like this all the time. They don't seem to grasp that I absolutely cannot see them at all when they're that close, not in my mirrors nor even through the windows in the back door. It's extra fun when they do it in a 15mph school zone and lay on the horn for good measure. Like yeah dude, I'm going to speed through a school zone in a fucking school bus so you can get to the red light up ahead five seconds sooner, thanks for letting me know.

In my local experience, these are actually just profoundly incompetent. Hanlon's razor.

They tailgate because they are actually incapable of maintaining a following distance (you know the kind, when the road is empty they alternate between mashing the gas and driving well under the speed limit, and somehow if you're a passenger they're totally unaware that they are doing it even if they are not distracted, how it is possible to be this bad at gauging speed and distance I do not understand but these people do exist).

Then as their malfunctioning brain randomly processes that they want to go faster, they overtake, and since the lane is clear they mash the gas.

Then when they are done and they merge back, their brain performs a hard reset and they somehow drive slower than before they passed you. They do not notice. You pass them, and they are not looking distracted; the only explanation is that their brain is doing the simpsons-monkey-cymbals.gif.

I used to have pretty bad road rage. Eventually decided I didn't want to be like that, and started driving the posted limit. Instant relief from stress and I enjoy driving now.

When driving is an activity to make up for constantly being late, you end up like the crazy tailgater. When you abide by limits, you end up like the person in front.

Conclusion after reading the comments: the country information is very relevant!! In Germany tailgating is forbidden, and is also driving in the middle lane. It is forbidden to pass using the right lane in highways. In USA I remember the recommendation was different, try to stay in your lane, they considered the constant change of lanes more dangerous than passing using the right lane.

Moral of the story: Don't judge without the complete information.

Might not believe me but there’s a subset of drivers that actually enjoy the ride being dangerous and thrilling 🤷‍♀️

It’s reckless and incredibly immature, most probably won’t admit it or even understand they do it on purpose. They just enjoy the adrenaline and going fast and being an animal about it

Oh this is one of my favorite stories

I lived kinda far outside of the city that I worked. I drove a 2001 Pontiac Grand Prix GTP, with the 2800 supercharged engine. My commute home often had traffic, and I was tryna get home asap. I found myself behind a car in the left lane, going the speed limit, and I was like manically desperate to get around her.

Finally I have the opportunity to pass, and I roar past her, glancing over to see an older woman in a headscarf, I assume Muslim, with a flip phone wedged between her headscarf and her ear, having a lively conversation with someone. I increase my speed until she is just a dot in the background.

I come to my exit, at the bottom of which is a stoplight, and I wait: white knuckled, sweating bullets, heaving and seething behind the wheel. A car pulls up next to me at the light and look who it is: the same woman, phone to her ear, talking to whoever, oblivious to my existence.

I considered her, then considered myself, and realized I was a fucking maniac likely doing harm to myself and god knows who else, and I didn't get anywhere any faster than someone going the speed limit.

Then and there I decided to chill the fuck out about driving.

But I miss that car

Story time. There is a long winding road through the woods from a friends place to my old home. It was late at night, we were coming from an overly long D&D session, and as I was a bit tired, I stuck to the speed limit on that road, despite it being nearly empty.

Suddenly, a BMW popped up in the rear view and instantly tailgated me. And kept there, because the road is winding and overtaking in the curves and bends is seriously bad. And as if cursed, whenever we ended a longer straight strip, someone was coming our way, so he could not overtake either.

He tailgated me for about five kilometers, getting angrier by the second judging by his movements, when the last bend came up. From there, it is a longer straight strip towards the city limits, where we knew was a permanent speed trap right behind it.

He started overtaking us in the bend and flew towards the city, probably attempting to catch up on the time he "lost" to us. And we all were waiting. Was the speed trap armed tonight? He was already quite far ahead of us despite the short distance, when FLASH he got caught. With at least 50km/h over the speed limit in the city, this was a sure ticket to lose the driving license.

Funny how this comic is about idiots cruising in the middle lane, when there's space on the right lane while most commenters don't get it and get upset about the tailgating driver (not saying tailgating was right, though). This comic is about you middle-lane-snails. Hate to tell you, but YOU are the problem here.

What is it with people who stay in the middle lane whilst driving slow when there's nobody of the right lane which is were the driving code says they're suppose to be?

1. Foot off the gas. You will slow down.
2. Don't lose your nerve
3. They're gonna pass and then maybe find speed traps for you

Source: garden state parkway and i287.

Let's face it guys and gals: I'm the only good driver on the road. Everyone else is an idiot who doesn't know the basic rules and is constantly doing stupid shit. Do I sometimes get distracted and make a mistake? Of course I do, no one is perfect. But when I do something stupid it's because I made a mistake and when other drivers do something stupid it's because they are idiots who can't drive. Glad we could clear this up.

My favorite experience with this was driving on a two-lane highway with a good bit of traffic in both lanes, going maybe 5 under the speed limit (and driving right behind another car in front, so it's not like we could have gone faster). Car comes up behind, weaving from lane to lane slowly advancing, and ends up behind us. Rides our ass for a good 45-60 seconds, doing that thing where they start to move into the other lane, realizes (when they have a better view) that that lane isn't going any faster and there isn't an opening to pass, then pulls back in behind us, and repeats that for a while.

Finally they saw an opening and pull into the other lane, zips past us, and pulls in in front of the car in front of us. Blue lights come on instantly. We had apparently been driving behind an unmarked police car and didn't know it. We got to look real smug when we passed the asshole driver after they pulled over.

I firmly believe that the vast majority of tailgaters, and in fact drivers just don't know what correct following distance at speed looks like. It's not so much anger as incompetence.

Especially in the US where almost noone leaves a good gap.

I clean my windshield if someone is too close behind.
The wind always carries some spray over the top and hits their car and they have to wipe their windshield.
It might seem petty, but seems to trigger something subconscious that makes them back off a bit.
It always seems to work

If they got space on both sides then you're in the wrong lane.

I've had tailgaters while driving on the fucking right lane, but the worst are the ones that keep blinking the headlights despite me driving close to the speed limit on highways that have speed cameras every 200m.

Yeah, people are trained by society to engage in negative dopamine loops. Like the dopamine we get when we hurt somebody we hate.

Same with people who are desperate for someone to be mad at on the internet.

It's partially how the rich keep people isolated and individualistic.

I was stuck behind someone going 40 in a 55, finally have a good clearing to pass them - then as I'm in the middle of that they decide to match me. Okay...weird, but they're going fast now and on coming traffic is approaching now, so I hit my break to slip back behind them. They hit their break too. I'm guessing they saw the traffic too and they hit their break to let me ahead??

I had to pull into the wrong shoulder to avoid collision. There was still about 5-10 seconds before the on coming car actually passed me, so its not like it was a "near miss", but still too close.

Was I in the wrong here? I felt like an idiot after that, but also being stuck behind someone going 15 under is miserable.