"There is no excuse for driving faster than you can react to the car in front of you coming to a full stop. None at all."
Not offering this up as an excuse but rather sort of a pattern of behavior.
When I leave lots of room between me and the car in front of me, it invites crazy behavior for people cutting into that big open space. Especially with people that don't know how to merge onto a freeway.
It's sometimes hard to tell if following technically too close is actually safer for that reason.
Note that I've never rear-ended anybody, but I've certainly had some exciting panic stops.
I used to get annoyed at people cutting me off and used to try to close the gap in front of me.
That is just known as tailgating, it is 100% more dangerous, and the mentality that leads to it is a minor form of road rage -- getting annoyed at other drivers and rationalizing dangerous behavior because of it. And all you're doing is, very definitively, rationalization -- tailgating is never safer. That is a form of "I am very clever and counterintuitive" rationalization or how otherwise fairly smart people wind up making dumb decisions.
If you allow enough space -- which should really be well over a semi-trailer of space -- then you allow people to "cut you off" but everyone is ultimately safer.
You get where you're going at basically exactly the same time as well. Even if you get caught at a light, you'll probably make it up at some other light where you'd never make it anyway because the backup is 2+ lights long anyway (or else you're driving somewhere at some without any traffic and it doesn't matter anyway).
It also greatly helps to just get the fuck out of the left lane entirely and get out of the mentality where you give any fucks over it. That goes equally as to if you are one of the left-lane speed police OR if you're one of the left-lane-is-for-passing police. Both of those people are actually road ragers. Stick with one of the other lanes and open up a nice wide gap in front of you and watch people zip over to the left lane and get into each other's headspaces.
And you'll get to wherever you're going within a minute or two of whatever your maps app predicts.
And often the left lane isn't any faster because half the people think they drive faster than everyone else and zip over there and crowd it up.
> Note that I've never rear-ended anybody, but I've certainly had some exciting panic stops.
I can't remember the last time I ever had an "exciting panic stop". I'm pretty certain I can guess which of us is a generally safer driver. So that should be your answer.
I don't think they mean they didn't like leaving the space because people moved into that space, but because they did so in an unsafe manner.
I've observed much the same thing. After a certain distance, you will find people taking extra risks just to find a way into that space. Then once they have managed to weave their way into a position where they can move into that space, they will frequently do so mere feet in front of you. They will not take advantage of the giant space available and simply get in front of you at all costs as fast as possible.
It's really not about somebody getting in front of you, as it is discouraging them from risking their life, yours, and multiple other people's around you, to get into the somewhat larger space available.
If I've left more than a semi-trailer of space in front of me, I haven't seen people trying to zip into that space right off my front bumper dangerously.
If you're commonly seeing that, you're likely doing something to antagonize other drivers.
Tailgating in order to prevent that is rationalizing unsafe behavior.
That is what I was thinking. Hard to get the benefit of the doubt here sometimes. I actually do mostly leave a big space in front of me. But it is frustrating when that invites crazy behavior.
"The theory that things that improve our safety might provide a false sense of security and lead to reckless behavior is attractive—it’s contrarian and clever, and fits the “here’s something surprising we smart folks thought about” mold that appeals to, well, people who think of themselves as smart." -- Zeynep Tufekci
Having to do a panic stop can still happen from a safe distance. The car in front of you might have significantly better brakes and traction. Or someone can pull in front of you and brake before you're able to establish distance. You sure are concluding a lot from one data point.
The need to commonly panic stop is entirely due to tailgating. Eliminating tailgating though can't ever completely eliminate the need to panic stop. But I can't think of any time in the past 30 years that I've needed to panic stop. True accidents do happen, but the majority of time "panic stops" are due to inattention and insufficient stopping distance.
And I'm not going to carefully research something that should be very obvious if you have any experience driving at all. You can go out and talk to a thousand driving instructors and police who will tell you the same thing.
Anecdotes can also be right. You can't prove something wrong by screaming N=1 you can only argue its not proof. So prove my experience wrong with statistics and data (I will bet you that you cannot).
When people cut into that big open space then I ease off the gas a little and let more room open up between us. Someone else cuts in, and I just keep doing the same. Just because they're going to drive dangerously doesn't mean I have to.
Sure and I guess we get home the next day I suppose. There's being safe and then there's being paranoid. The OP quoted a pile up in Texas during one of the worst winter storms in history as example of not following distance, while the right thing to do on that day would have been to _not drive at all_. Even on normal Christmas mornings which are typically one of the iciest days of the year in Dallas I used to take a bus ride to see how many cars I can count in ditches. Just don't drive in Texas if the roads are icy.
If you have distance-maintaining cruise control, you can safely ignore this phenomenon. Also, learn to ignore that little voice in your head that equates being in front of another car with having higher social status.
"Also, learn to ignore that little voice in your head that equates being in front of another car with having higher social status."
It's not that. It's that following a bit closer is arguably less mental work then dealing with the unpredictable encroachments, merging cars pacing you exactly versus speeding up or slowing down to merge, etc.
I have distance-maintaining cruise control. But the quantums of distance go between clearly too close and uncomfortable (and I think there's one closer), or engraved invitation.
The problem with putting out the engraved invitation is it means never passing the big trucks. I don't like following directly behind big trucks because of visibility and fumes. But it you leave a big space, people will keep passing you on the right to get into that space, and then you may as well sit in the right lane behind the truck, because you're not going to pass it.
It's true that some brands have bad distance options. I use the one that's ridiculously far. So far back that I'm never in the stink zone or afraid the automatic brake isn't going to work in time. I'm frustrated when I drive a car without that option.
I find that drivers willing to cut into a small gap ahead of me are very likely to change lanes again in 30 seconds. I'm not convinced tailgating saves any time at all.
Where I live people merge onto the freeway as quickly as possible. If I try to merge the "correct" way, people think I'm cheating and will speed up to force me to go have to merge behind them even though they were previously going pretty slow in the right lane.
Is there an entity out there trying to solve the design issue around cars? Like, why is it possible to do the erratic behavior you describe when you leave room for the car ahead of you? How can we change the design of either cars or roads to inhibit dangerous behavior? I'm sure most people who read this have driven on an American highway and observe dangerous behaviors from other drivers. It's curious why, as a society, we ignore this as a given for independent transportation.
Not offering this up as an excuse but rather sort of a pattern of behavior.
When I leave lots of room between me and the car in front of me, it invites crazy behavior for people cutting into that big open space. Especially with people that don't know how to merge onto a freeway.
It's sometimes hard to tell if following technically too close is actually safer for that reason.
Note that I've never rear-ended anybody, but I've certainly had some exciting panic stops.