The tailgating I’m inquiring about is one car length or less (maybe two at highway speeds). The kind where the following driver is too close to avoid a rear-end collision if the lead driver has to hit the brakes suddenly. Where the lead driver is doing at least the speed limit, not dawdling along 5 or 10 mph under it.
I’ve observed tailgaters tucked in behind big box trucks at less than a car length, so close they’re invisible to the truck driver and completely blinded to whatever’s ahead of the truck.
Where is your cite? Yes, yes, you link to Cecil’s article, but no where in there does he say that not following a safe driving distance will make traffic jams worse? In fact, I read it differently.
I say that if people were all following at a safe driving distance there would less over-reaction, because people would feel safe - less jumpy. With good driving practices they would know that they had ample time to react and could act accordingly. Note that Cecil talks about the theory and then talks about the practice clearly differentiating between the two.
(bolding mine) He starts by telling us how many cars a highway can support with safe driving distances. He then goes on to tell us that in practice people instinctively begin to slow down. He does not tell us that safe driving distance is the cause of this.
A quick google of safe driving distance will find you hundreds of cites that espouse the two second rule. Cite
Can you find me cites that say that safe driving distances are subjective? Or cites that say traffic will be better if you don’t follow the two second rule?
A 2 second gap is just enough gap for some dickhead to squeeze in to. So then you have to slow down and establish a 2 more second gap, so the next dickhead will have room to squeeze in.
Is it relevent to the OP? Yeah, I wasn’t tailgating until the dickhead showed up.
I hate it. Hate it hate it hate it. It’s incredibly rude. If you really believe there’s a ton of room in front of me - feel free to pass. I don’t mind being passed at all.
However, blinding me absolutely does not make me feel like I should go faster. If anything it does the opposite. (Or just pisses me off while I maintain the same speed - which is, whenever this happens, above the speed limit and faster than the cars around me.)
Actually I beleive that this is the opposite of what really happens. Congestion is caused by cars following too close, when something (even a lane change) happens it is magnified because there is little room for ajustments.
Personally, I reserve the high beams for the people in the fast lane with a great deal of room ahead of them that don’t move over when I creep up on them a little. I don’t care how fast someone’s driving in the fast lane, they should ALWAYS get out of the way if there’s room and they’re able to do so safely. I drive relatively fast, but I’ll move without complaint if I see someone coming up on me in the rear view.
Why do they do it? Because they are mad, because they are asshats, because they are stupid, because they don’t have any concern for safety, because they think nothing will ever go wrong for them, because they are entitled, and because they are better drivers than you. Also they think you are an asshat for not paying attention to what is going on around you and not moving over like you should.
The problem is that we don’t teach people to drive. We don’t test to see if the teaching taught them anything, or if they can implement it.
Blind people have a legal drivers licenses, you hear about it all the time. 99 year old handicapped people are legal to drive 75 MPH on the expressways…
Until we treat driving like flying with the attendant expenses, problems and limitations, actually driving needs tougher standards due to the proximity that is always present during driving, it is not going to get better.
Ask and complain all you want but it will not change until we take the driving away for the individual and give it to the computers, or we get serious about driving, who gets to, where, when, and have the training and testing and enforcement to accomplish all that.
Drivers will not do it on their own. Never.
Driving is not a right but we ALMOST treat it like it is. Nothing humans do so much of is as deadly as driving automobiles. The only thing less taught and trained on is having children.
My father used to say “as soon as you leave enough idiot space between you and the car in front, some idiot will move into it.” This is the same man who now, at 83, tailgates like an idiot.
The only time I follow what might be too closely to the car in front is during rush hour commute. Of course, we’re not going that fast anyway, but I tend to stay in one lane and take what comes. I find that sometimes my lane goes faster, and sometimes it goes slower. But I will be quite aggressive to keep out some twit who is playing lane roulette trying to save 3.2 seconds on his/her commute by moving out from behind me in my lane, passing two cars, and trying to cut back in front of me. Sometimes, while I am agressively defending my turf in this way, I can get too close to the car in front.
I no longer drive to work, and although it was not for this reason, I find that BART is a lot more relaxing than driving. And walking to and from the BART station is good exercise.
I truly don’t see how two quick flashes, even of high beams, constitutes “blinding” you.
I have to agree with midget, even if you are going faster than the speed limit, if you are in the fast lane and someone comes up behind you, move over if you can. If you fail to do so, I see no problem with reminding you of proper driving etiquette with a quick headlight flash.
Driving is not a race, it is a dance. You need to move yourself from point A to point B safely and economically (time & money). This becomes a complex problem because you cannot predict with complete assurance the behavior of all the other drivers.
Many people believe that allowing another car ahead of them means that they are losing some advantage. In fact, this is not the case. By allowing plenty of room between your car and other cars, you can more easily maintain your speed, resulting in far less braking and acceleration. Your chances of an adverse encounter will be minimized.
As far as tailgaters – let them by. They’ll pile up at the back of the pack ahead, leaving you more room to keep your separation from the other cars. Tailgaters are using up their safe braking distance from you – the best you can do is add their distance to yours. Then, if the car in front stops abruptly, you can slow more slowly so that the tailgater won’t plow into your back end. You can use both cars stopping distance when necessary.
There are two kinds of tailgaters (at least two). Some are in a hurry, and are consciously trying to make you speed up. While these aggressive drivers are dangerous and annoying, the more dangerous type are blissfully unaware of where they are. They just always drive on the bumper of the car in front of them. If there isn’t a car in front of them, they drive as fast as they can. This second type of tailgater is really scary to ride with.
I get them behind me on the two-lane roads around here, when I’m already going 5 over the speed limit. A flash of lights saying “Please let me pass” would mean me pulling over; am I obligated to do that? Can’t they be polite until a passing area comes along?
When I am going under the speed limit on purpose (it’s leaf season and beautiful out, or it is crappy snowy weather), I pull over well before anyone is right behind me.
Of course not; the polite use of the double flash which is quite old actually was for when the situation was safe, really meant only for interstates, not local roads.
It is an old trucker signal, at least I learned it from an old trucker.
Besides if it being used politely and you choose not to move over, the driver can then choose a time to switch to the slower lane and pass you.
There is a law in NJ at least that states slower traffic should keep right and only use the left lane for passing. I hope this explains the old fashioned use of the double flash as opposed to the nutjobs that will get on your bumper, blast their horns and leave their high beams on.
What I see in this thread is a lot of people who are admittedly exercising bad driving habits and trying to rationalize them. If you frequently find yourself needing to flash your lights in an effort to get people to move aside and let you pass, then you are obviously driving too fast for conditions. Please notice I said frequently. Flashing your lights, to signal another vehicle to move over, is rude behavior, at best, and can be a contributing factor in your being charged w/ road rage , or reckless driving.
Aggressively driving to “teach someone a lesson” is, in fact, an act of road rage and is not only illegal, but an example of very poor driving ability. I don’t care how “right” you are, or how “wrong” the other driver is. If necessary, call the police, but don’t take matters into your own hands.
Being a good driver starts w/ having a proper attitude. It requires that you be alert to your surroundings and aware of the probable, or even possible, actions you may need to take. Good driving requires that you be patient and courteous. It means that if your in a rush, or late, that you accept the situation and NOT break the law and/or endanger others in trying to make up your lost time.
If you only find yourself frequently getting angry at other drivers, but not taking aggressive action, you still have a problem that you need to address. Anger is a distraction that can make you less ready to respond appropriately in an emergency.
When I was a young man I thought I was a very good driver, I couldn’t have been more wrong. It wasn’t until I was middle aged, and had a few years driving an 18 wheeler, that I began to understand what being a good driver really means.
Attitude toward what your doing is far more important than the physical ability to handle a vehicle.
Oh, I let them in, and back off accordingly. It’s just that here I am, doing my best to maintain a safe distance, and some dickhead interprets this as an invitation to squeeze into my safety zone. As soon as he does, then I’m, through no fault of my own, tailgating him.
Yeah, pretty much. I try not to tailgate, but when someone insists on oblivously driving past all the 55mph signs on Rte.1 while cruising at 40mph, I will creep up on them hoping that maybe they’ll start paying attention.
I don’t even want to speed – I just want to drive the damned speed limit.
I guess. But the flip side of the equation is that if some person frequently finds someone driving uncomfortably close behind them and * there’s a 1/2 mile line of cars behind that one *, then maybe they are driving too slow for the conditions.
Well meant as your advice may be, it doesn’t really help if your main commuting route has a speed limit of 50 - 55 that people routinely ignore, often driving 10-15 mph under the limit. I don’t know how to avoid becoming angry under those conditions.
