I’m just curious if other state’s DMV manuals have any sections that leave your scratching your head after reading this quote in NH’s*:
This is the first time I’ve ever seen the 3-second rule applied to the distance between you and a following vehicle, and I’m not sure how you’re supposed to manage this. Floor it if the truck gets too close? You don’t really have a hell of a lot of say about how closely the vehicle behind you follows…
Any other baffling items in yours?
*page 93 for those playing the home game
I was taught to maintain a cushion behind you as well. I mean, if there’s something you can do to keep the person behind you from hitting you, you should attempt to do it. One thing you can do, in theory, is slow down a bit. Again, in theory, if the person behind you is ‘1 second’ behind you and you slow down, they’ll be ‘2 seconds’ behind you. Of course, in practice, most people just end up even closer when you do that. Whether it’s because you’re going slower and they just end up closer or because they’re annoyed that you slowed down so now they’re just being obnoxious on purpose.
Sometimes speeding up is an option as well, but again, most people will keep the same distance from you as you accelerate.
If someone’s really close, the safest option is to just swallow your pride, move over and let them go tailgate the next person. Some drivers just have to be right on the back of the car in front of them (and everyone is always driving too slow), might as well be the guy in front of me and not me.
When someone follows me too closely (especially on a freeway) I slow down a little bit. Almost invariably, the tailgater will change lanes soon and pass me in another lane.
If that doesn’t work, I slow down a little more. Lather, rinse, and repeat as necessary. The tailgater will be certain to changes lanes sooner or later, and usually sooner rather than later.
As for the crap in the DMV drivers handbook: Well, not exactly confusing, but really annoying when it matters:
When I was learning to drive (late 1960’s), I swear, if I remember right, the drivers handbook included citations to the Vehicle Code. That is, for every rule discussed, it told you exactly where to look in the formal official law to find it. But the handbook doesn’t have that any more.
If a case comes to court, the court will not be interested in what you read (or what you thought you read) in the handbook. The court will go by the letter of the law. So it would be real nice, while you’re studying the handbook, if you could look up any law in the Vehicle Code if you wanted to get the full legal detail. That’s not easy to do now.
Where the 3-second rule makes sense with a following vehicle is when you are overtaking a truck (or other slower vehicle) on a multi-lane highway. Then you should not get back in the truck’s unless you are 3 seconds in front of them.
Yup. My brother drives big rigs and this is probably his biggest complaint. It’s especially bad when approaching a stop light and somebody zips right in in front of you. Nothing silly about the rule at all.
Years back, Virginia told us to use the 2-second rule to control our following distance safely, and forget about the older “calculate distance in feet per mph speed” formula. Then on the exam, there was a question asking us to use the formula and convert mph into feet of following distance. I asked the DMV personnel if it was a trick question.