Don't be so sure about that. Several years ago, on Cape Cod, I was driving from one job site to another. I was on a back road (151?, I think) where there was one lane each direction and the speed limit was (from memory 45 or 50). I wasn't in a hurry at all. I was doing just slightly over the limit, as usual. I eventually came up behind another vehicle, a station wagon. He was going about the speed limit. I left several car lengths worth of gap behind him. No WAY was I anywhere near tail-gating him. Anyway, he comes to a really QUICK stop in front of me. Thought that was kind of odd (there was nothing for him to stop for, that I could see), but I had plenty of time to react and SMOOTHLY brake to a complete stop. When I stopped, I still had a couple of car-lengths between my vehicle and the station wagon. I wasn't sure what he was planning to do, so I left him plenty of room. As soon as I'm completely stopped, he takes off again rather quickly. So I resumed my normal speed, far behind him. (after all, if he brakes for ghosts, I'm going to leave an even larger gap) A mile or so down the road, he again stops QUICK, with no warning. And then takes off QUICKLY again as soon as I stopped. He did this nowhere near a turn, so it wasn't like he was lost. And each time, he would take off FAST as soon as I was stopped. Repeat this several times over the next few miles. I finally figured out that leaving a 5-6 second gap behind this idiot was what he considered to be "tailgating". So I narrowed it to two. Yeah, I know . . . that was rather childish of me. But after having been forced to stop several times for NO REASON at all, I was pretty peeed. When I finally came to my turn, the station wagon continued straight, but the driver was honking and flashing me the finger. Anyway, maybe the driver you were following was THE SAME GUY. You know, the guy who feels like if there is another car anywhere within eyesight, he's being tailgated. -Dave
