diff --git a/docs/api-guide/routers.md b/docs/api-guide/routers.md
index 3c3a6ae3f..f16fa9468 100644
--- a/docs/api-guide/routers.md
+++ b/docs/api-guide/routers.md
@@ -66,6 +66,13 @@ This router includes routes for the standard set of `list`, `create`, `retrieve`
     <tr><td>POST</td><td>@action decorated method</td></tr>
 </table>
 
+By default the URLs created by `SimpleRouter` are appending with a trailing slash.
+This behavior can be modified by setting the `trailing_slash` argument to `False` when instantiating the router.  For example:
+
+    router = SimpleRouter(trailing_slash=False)
+
+Trailing slashes are conventional in Django, but are not used by default in some other frameworks such as Rails.  Which style you choose to use is largely a matter of preference, although some javascript frameworks may expect a particular routing style.
+
 ## DefaultRouter
 
 This router is similar to `SimpleRouter` as above, but additionally includes a default API root view, that returns a response containing hyperlinks to all the list views.  It also generates routes for optional `.json` style format suffixes.
@@ -83,6 +90,10 @@ This router is similar to `SimpleRouter` as above, but additionally includes a d
     <tr><td>POST</td><td>@action decorated method</td></tr>
 </table>
 
+As with `SimpleRouter` the trailing slashs on the URL routes can be removed by setting the `trailing_slash` argument to `False` when instantiating the router.
+
+    router = DefaultRouter(trailing_slash=False)
+
 # Custom Routers
 
 Implementing a custom router isn't something you'd need to do very often, but it can be useful if you have specific requirements about how the your URLs for your API are strutured.  Doing so allows you to encapsulate the URL structure in a reusable way that ensures you don't have to write your URL patterns explicitly for each new view.
@@ -91,7 +102,7 @@ The simplest way to implement a custom router is to subclass one of the existing
 
 ## Example
 
-The following example will only route to the `list` and `retrieve` actions, and unlike the routers included by REST framework, it does not use the trailing slash convention.
+The following example will only route to the `list` and `retrieve` actions, and does not use the trailing slash convention.
 
     class ReadOnlyRouter(SimpleRouter):
         """
diff --git a/docs/css/default.css b/docs/css/default.css
index 5c6c72ced..a4f05daa8 100644
--- a/docs/css/default.css
+++ b/docs/css/default.css
@@ -301,4 +301,5 @@ td, th {
 
 table {
   border-color: white;
+  margin-bottom: 0.6em;
 }
diff --git a/rest_framework/routers.py b/rest_framework/routers.py
index 6c5fd0048..9764e5692 100644
--- a/rest_framework/routers.py
+++ b/rest_framework/routers.py
@@ -18,7 +18,6 @@ from __future__ import unicode_literals
 from collections import namedtuple
 from rest_framework import views
 from rest_framework.compat import patterns, url
-from rest_framework.decorators import api_view
 from rest_framework.response import Response
 from rest_framework.reverse import reverse
 from rest_framework.urlpatterns import format_suffix_patterns
@@ -72,7 +71,7 @@ class SimpleRouter(BaseRouter):
     routes = [
         # List route.
         Route(
-            url=r'^{prefix}/$',
+            url=r'^{prefix}{trailing_slash}$',
             mapping={
                 'get': 'list',
                 'post': 'create'
@@ -82,7 +81,7 @@ class SimpleRouter(BaseRouter):
         ),
         # Detail route.
         Route(
-            url=r'^{prefix}/{lookup}/$',
+            url=r'^{prefix}/{lookup}{trailing_slash}$',
             mapping={
                 'get': 'retrieve',
                 'put': 'update',
@@ -95,7 +94,7 @@ class SimpleRouter(BaseRouter):
         # Dynamically generated routes.
         # Generated using @action or @link decorators on methods of the viewset.
         Route(
-            url=r'^{prefix}/{lookup}/{methodname}/$',
+            url=r'^{prefix}/{lookup}/{methodname}{trailing_slash}$',
             mapping={
                 '{httpmethod}': '{methodname}',
             },
@@ -104,6 +103,10 @@ class SimpleRouter(BaseRouter):
         ),
     ]
 
+    def __init__(self, trailing_slash=True):
+        self.trailing_slash = trailing_slash and '/' or ''
+        super(SimpleRouter, self).__init__()
+
     def get_default_base_name(self, viewset):
         """
         If `base_name` is not specified, attempt to automatically determine
@@ -193,7 +196,11 @@ class SimpleRouter(BaseRouter):
                     continue
 
                 # Build the url pattern
-                regex = route.url.format(prefix=prefix, lookup=lookup)
+                regex = route.url.format(
+                    prefix=prefix,
+                    lookup=lookup,
+                    trailing_slash=self.trailing_slash
+                )
                 view = viewset.as_view(mapping, **route.initkwargs)
                 name = route.name.format(basename=basename)
                 ret.append(url(regex, view, name=name))
diff --git a/rest_framework/tests/test_routers.py b/rest_framework/tests/test_routers.py
index 10d3cc25a..a7534f70b 100644
--- a/rest_framework/tests/test_routers.py
+++ b/rest_framework/tests/test_routers.py
@@ -50,7 +50,7 @@ class TestSimpleRouter(TestCase):
             route = decorator_routes[i]
             # check url listing
             self.assertEqual(route.url,
-                             '^{{prefix}}/{{lookup}}/{0}/$'.format(endpoint))
+                             '^{{prefix}}/{{lookup}}/{0}{{trailing_slash}}$'.format(endpoint))
             # check method to function mapping
             if endpoint == 'action3':
                 methods_map = ['post', 'delete']
@@ -103,7 +103,7 @@ class TestCustomLookupFields(TestCase):
 
     def test_retrieve_lookup_field_list_view(self):
         response = self.client.get('/notes/')
-        self.assertEquals(response.data,
+        self.assertEqual(response.data,
             [{
                 "url": "http://testserver/notes/123/",
                 "uuid": "123", "text": "foo bar"
@@ -112,10 +112,39 @@ class TestCustomLookupFields(TestCase):
 
     def test_retrieve_lookup_field_detail_view(self):
         response = self.client.get('/notes/123/')
-        self.assertEquals(response.data,
+        self.assertEqual(response.data,
             {
                 "url": "http://testserver/notes/123/",
                 "uuid": "123", "text": "foo bar"
             }
         )
 
+
+class TestTrailingSlash(TestCase):
+    def setUp(self):
+        class NoteViewSet(viewsets.ModelViewSet):
+            model = RouterTestModel
+
+        self.router = SimpleRouter()
+        self.router.register(r'notes', NoteViewSet)
+        self.urls = self.router.urls
+
+    def test_urls_have_trailing_slash_by_default(self):
+        expected = ['^notes/$', '^notes/(?P<pk>[^/]+)/$']
+        for idx in range(len(expected)):
+            self.assertEqual(expected[idx], self.urls[idx].regex.pattern)
+
+
+class TestTrailingSlash(TestCase):
+    def setUp(self):
+        class NoteViewSet(viewsets.ModelViewSet):
+            model = RouterTestModel
+
+        self.router = SimpleRouter(trailing_slash=False)
+        self.router.register(r'notes', NoteViewSet)
+        self.urls = self.router.urls
+
+    def test_urls_can_have_trailing_slash_removed(self):
+        expected = ['^notes$', '^notes/(?P<pk>[^/]+)$']
+        for idx in range(len(expected)):
+            self.assertEqual(expected[idx], self.urls[idx].regex.pattern)