If someone in front of you on a highway decelerates to such a degree that if you do not either brake or change lanes, you will hit them, then which is it best to do? To brake, or to change lanes without decelerating? (I am not interested in the response that you shouldn’t be so close to the guy in front of you. People slip in so you can’t really have that degree of control over how close you are to the guy in front of you at all times.)
I ask because my wife and I got into a bit of a tiff over this the other day. The guy in front of me decelerated, and I braked in order not to hit him. This got a “what are you doing?!” from my wife, and it turns out she thinks it is very important to never ever under any circumstnces ever ever ever use the brakes on the highway. In that situation, you must simply take your foot off the gas and change lanes. (She concedes that if you can’t change lanes you will have to commit the greivous sin, but it is still a greivous sin and you should feel terrible for it. And you most certainly don’t brake unless you know you can’t change lanes)
My argument is, changing lanes takes a lot more cognitive load. You have to look to see if you can change lanes, and aim for a lane, etc etc all while keeping your awareness on the car in front of you. Cognitive load is bad. It makes you more likely to err. So instead you do the less cognitively loaded thing and you simply brake, then look for opportunities to change lanes if necessary.
Her argument was (and I’m not making this up or unfairly paraphrasing, this is literally what she said) it is less graceful to brake. It is more graceful to smoothly change into the other lane. I think her idea was that less graceful moves are harder for other drivers to cooperate with, but I’m not sure and at this point it was not a good idea to go much further into it.
I’ll be interested in other people’s replies to this, as I’m still somewhat a novice to highway driving, and I don’t believe it was in the driver’s ed books per se.
But my instinct is to agree with you - braking is easier to work out in a hurry, and it’s better not to have to work out something complicated in a hurry. If it happens in a case when I’m reasonably sure that I have a lane open and just need to signal and check my blind spot, I might go for the no-brake lane change.
And I’m not sure that the quick lane change is any easier on other drivers - it doesn’t pass the buck to anybody behind you, but it might complicate the life of somebody trying to move into that lane from the other side.
I’ve thought about this too, but I sort of concluded that it came down to whether you were a more or less aggressive driver. As a less aggressive driver, I’m likely to brake. My husband, a very aggressive driver, is going to change lanes and get around the blockage without having to slow down.
If this is an emergency maneuver, then the default action should be to brake. As you say, it requires the least amount of thought, and in the worst case scenario, you’re scrubbing speed which will lessen the impact. It’s better to rear-end someone at 40mph than try to swerve out of the way at 65 and fail, because swerving can induce side-impacts or rollovers, which are riskier kinds of accidents. Plus you’ve got that pesky extra 25mph to absorb. Once you’re braking, then it’s OK to assess other avenues of escape, like the breakdown lane.
But if it’s not an emergency situation or a panic stop, then I’d side with your wife. If you have ample time to realize that you’re going to have to either brake or change lanes, then check your mirrors/blind spots and if it’s clear, just change lanes. It’s easier on the car and it saves gas. Additionally, when you change lanes, you should match your speed to the new lane before crossing the line. So if the guy in front of you is going 40mph and you slow to 40mph instead of changing lanes, then you need to back off far enough so that you can accelerate up to 65mph before changing lanes again.
Generally brake first, then change lanes if necessary. Not only do you have less to worry about to your left and right, you are reducing speed which buys you reaction time.
Not to mention that whatever just cause the car in front of you to brake suddenly might now be in the lane you just changed into at full speed.
I vote brake. What if someone is also following you too closely? They don’t know that the person in front of you is slowing down. You suddenly move out of the way and they are now faced with the car you were following almost directly in front of them, but going significantly slower than you were.
I run into this regularly: The road to my house is off of a major 2 lane highway and doesn’t have a turning lane to the road, so most people don’t realize it is there. As a result, I begin signaling and slowing down far earlier than I normally would. However, when I am almost stopped to turn, the people behind me don’t slow down, instead they turn into the second lane when they are very close to me. I am always afraid someone is tailgating them and doesn’t realize I am turning. If they would just brake then the risk would be zero.
To me, that depends on such variables as whether a lane change without hitting something is physically possible, just how close the moron behind me is, etc.
I’d have to decide it at the time of the situation, can’t formulate a rule in advance.
I vote brake (do we need to stipulate that you always need to leave a proper stopping distance at all times?). Changing lanes is far more dangerous than braking.
This needs to be emphasized. If you cannot discern what has caused the car in front of you to brake, you should always assume that it is a situation that involves the entire road, not just this particular lane. Hence, braking behind them is the safest plan. For all you know, the car in front of you might get the same idea, to move over to avoid what is in front of them, leaving you in a pretty bad spot.
Yes, yes and yes. Hit the brakes as a general rule. Change lanes only as a second option and only if you’re aware of all surrounding traffic.
Always be aware or what is going on behind you and in all surrounding lanes, as werll as watching what’s happening in front of you. Check your mirrors constantly, this should be second nature. You should pretty much always know exactly what your position is in traffic, who’s around you and what they are doing.
True story - I was on the freeway in the middle of three lanes and saw a wall of brake lights ahead; traffic had come to a complete stop for some reason. So I was braking and slowing down, preparing to stop, when I realised the car behind me was still barrelling along at 70 mph and was absolutely not going to be able to avoid rear-ending me. I slipped into the left lane toot sweet and 3 seconds later Mr I’m Not Paying Attention slammed into the car that had been right in front of me, causing a second accident that contributed to a giant traffic stoppage.
(I felt sort of bad that I exposed the rear-endee to trauma but it was him or me.)
That’s why people who brake constantly drive me so crazy - to an experienced driver, a brake light is a signal to pay heed - “Something going on that you need to pay attention to here!” When a driver brakes and brakes and brakes and brakes, it’s like crying wolf - “Hey!” “Hey!” “Hey!” “Hey!” “Hey!”
Most cars have ABS now. Some even sense when you’re in panic stop mode and apply max braking power. Just use the brakes. In a situation like that, you really don’t have time to evaluate all the factors, check for a clear lane and react. If you do, then make the choice.
Once you’re on the brakes, the handling dynamics of your car change dramatically. Much of the weight is being transferred to the front axle. When this happens, the rear of the car becomes lighter and loose. If you change direction rapidly, you may lose control, further increasing your chances of an accident.
I would hit the brakes. It takes too much time to do a safe lane change in that situation. Of course if someone cut in front of you really close a quick lane change or other evasive maneuver may be needed.
From what you describe, it sounds like not moving over would mean three cars involved in the collision instead of two. As mercenary as it may have felt, I think you did the right thing, fewer wrecks is better.
Well yes, yes I did.
But my bigger point was: be aware of what is going on not only in front of you, but to either side and behind. At all times: stay focused on your driving.
I lived off of an interstate access road when I first moved to Austin and I dealt with this all the time. My roommates and I would hit our turn signal after the last turnoff before our development. There was plenty of time for us to signal and slow down before the turn but the behavior of the cars behind me always made me somewhat anxious. I routinely saw cars make last minute swerves into the other lane after the car behind me decided to switch lanes instead of just slowing down.
As far as actual highways go, I will brake first and then figure out if it makes sense to switch lanes. I have seen enough multi-lane accidents and random accidental debris (i.e. mattresses, plywood, office desk) to know that you may have no idea what is waiting for you.
I’m trying to understand what the driver in front of you really did, and why. When you say he decelerated, were you following him and he used his brakes, forcing you to react quickly? Or was he slowing down because he was going to take the next exit, as drivers often do, and you came up on him, but you had time to safely change lanes without braking?
I’ve noticed many drivers, when coming up on a slower car, stay in the lane until they get close, hit their brakes to slow down, then check traffic and switch lanes. As opposed to noticing much earlier that they’re gaining on the car in front of them, and changing lanes before they get close, so that they never need to brake. I’m wondering if that’s what your wife means by “It is more graceful to smoothly change into the other lane.”
Thanks to my extensive sim racing experience, I almost always have a mental map in my head as to where surrounding cars are at, so if I judge that shifting lanes is the safest alternative that is what I’ll do.
There are all sorts of factors that go into this, but hitting the brake is usually the best course of action. If there’s a car in the other lane, it’s your only option.
Now the best course of action is to anticipate; if you’re coming up on a slow driver, change lanes before you need to brake.
