contact position

[SK425]

vonhosen said:

As Reg says, it's something you have to make your own mind up about, but in 'normal' everyday driving the level of progress required to even remotely try to justify it just isn't a factor.

What's normal, everyday driving? This consideration:

vonhosen said:

2) By using it you will get some overtakes that you simply won't get by not using it.

is often quite relevant to me in my normal, everyday driving. Maybe we're thinking of different levels of closeness though. Some extremes have been mentioned in this thread, and while I'm sure I'm significantly inside a 2 second following distance sometimes, I'm not sure how often I'm as close as one car length.

[CrutyRammers]

Z.B said:

Whilst the contact position on single carriageway helps get you bin the optimum position to make the critical decision, on the motorway it really boils down to bullying people out of the way which is far more dubious, though effective at times.

It certainly seemed to be a necessary / valid technique for the emergency crews rushing to an accident on the M6 last week. After the first two police cars, you'd think people would notice the fire engine, but time and again he had to get right up close before the person apparently noticed, as had the two coppers. Flashing lights and sirens 2 seconds back are apparently invisible to a large number of people.

[Blakewater]

vonhosen said:

Just a couple of points I'd add to what's already been said.



3) There's risk in all driving, it's how much you see in an individual activity (or way of doing it) & what you are willing to accept to achieve an objective that you wouldn't be able to achieve without taking those risks.

Edited by vonhosen on Thursday 8th May 07:01

It's not just a case of what risks you're willing to take. You're putting your target driver and all those in the vicinity at risk as well and they haven't agreed to be part of your bargain.

[vonhosen]

Blakewater said:

vonhosen said:

Just a couple of points I'd add to what's already been said.



3) There's risk in all driving, it's how much you see in an individual activity (or way of doing it) & what you are willing to accept to achieve an objective that you wouldn't be able to achieve without taking those risks.

Edited by vonhosen on Thursday 8th May 07:01

It's not just a case of what risks you're willing to take. You're putting your target driver and all those in the vicinity at risk as well and they haven't agreed to be part of your bargain.

That's not unusual with risk management, you'll do things when you drive (or other activities involving risk) that you are happy with & believe you've managed fine, but others will wish you had done it differently because it presented more risk than they were happy with. You can't possibly know the tolerance levels of everybody you encounter & we all view things through different lenses because we are different people with different values/beliefs & life experiences.
There will of course be a lot of common ground with many, but there will always be some differences.