Two second rule?
Discussion
Robertb said:
Pit Pony said:
MBVitoria said:
I'd love to see a manufacturer have the balls to fit a device that warns the driver to back off if they get closer than 2 seconds above a certain speed, say 15mph. I reckon accident rates would massively reduce if everyone just followed this one simple rule.
Erm. The technology is available, and on production vehicles already.Where i work, we are incorporating it into the automatic emergency braking for trucks, so that the driver has to back off or indicate, within a limited time, otherwise the truck will brake.
I was driving a sprinter van the other week, and a red triangle came up twice in 200 miles. Apparently it was warning me I was too close.
wyson said:
The biggest thing is to not try and control other people’s behaviour because you can’t. What you can do is accommodate it in the safest way possible.
I’m not sure it’s quite that simple. I think you can, to an extent, manage the behaviour of other drivers in your vicinity, it’s quite a subtle art and certainly doesn’t always work on the more aggressive and belligerent drivers, but by a gentle, smooth and assertive style of driving you can maintain a flow through traffic that a timid or overly pushy style will not facilitate. Clearly on the M25 all this is nonsense though!
v9 said:
wyson said:
The biggest thing is to not try and control other people’s behaviour because you can’t. What you can do is accommodate it in the safest way possible.
I’m not sure it’s quite that simple. I think you can, to an extent, manage the behaviour of other drivers in your vicinity, it’s quite a subtle art and certainly doesn’t always work on the more aggressive and belligerent drivers, but by a gentle, smooth and assertive style of driving you can maintain a flow through traffic that a timid or overly pushy style will not facilitate. Clearly on the M25 all this is nonsense though!
Gradually increase the gap if someone is tailgating you. You are not doing it to annoy them you are being safe for both parties.
As to maintaining a gap, do not worry about being overtaken:
20 overtakes multiplied by the 3 second following distance = one minute later arriving at your destination
As to maintaining a gap, do not worry about being overtaken:
20 overtakes multiplied by the 3 second following distance = one minute later arriving at your destination
Maintain a decent gap and enjoy comparatively safe relaxing driving.
Some of the most incompetent fools behind the wheel are tailgaters.
Two spring to mind of literally thousands, Mazda 5 following the car in front at a gap of some 3 ft, i only followed the pair of them for one mile and in that time counted the tailgater having to brake some 17 times in order not to hit the other up the arse despite the speed of the lead car being constant, why?
Another case but same road, young chap with presumably girlfriend sat beside him, following artic in torrential rain but sat immediaely up its arse in the maelstrom of the spray storm, might as have been trying to drive through a car wash you could barely make out the car at at times, hope the young lady found a bloke with an ounce of sense instead.
What were they thinking, common sense by-pass.
I've covered millions of miles in artics over a very long truck driving life, try my best never to actually use the brakes other than to bring the vehicle to a final halt, instead making use of the inbuilt auxilliary retard systems all full size trucks are fitted with, doesn't always work obviously but anyone can practice this technique is any vehicle, you'd be surprised just how long a set of pads can last, well over 200k miles plus every yard you cover on overrun is fuel free, all at almost no cost to the rate ground is covered, maintaining progress is where its at.
Some of the most incompetent fools behind the wheel are tailgaters.
Two spring to mind of literally thousands, Mazda 5 following the car in front at a gap of some 3 ft, i only followed the pair of them for one mile and in that time counted the tailgater having to brake some 17 times in order not to hit the other up the arse despite the speed of the lead car being constant, why?
Another case but same road, young chap with presumably girlfriend sat beside him, following artic in torrential rain but sat immediaely up its arse in the maelstrom of the spray storm, might as have been trying to drive through a car wash you could barely make out the car at at times, hope the young lady found a bloke with an ounce of sense instead.
What were they thinking, common sense by-pass.
I've covered millions of miles in artics over a very long truck driving life, try my best never to actually use the brakes other than to bring the vehicle to a final halt, instead making use of the inbuilt auxilliary retard systems all full size trucks are fitted with, doesn't always work obviously but anyone can practice this technique is any vehicle, you'd be surprised just how long a set of pads can last, well over 200k miles plus every yard you cover on overrun is fuel free, all at almost no cost to the rate ground is covered, maintaining progress is where its at.
Ah the joy of watching idiots tailgating the car in front so closely that when a nice clear stretch of road opens up in front of them they are too close to be able to see the overtaking opportunity. The frustrating part is that I could overtake both but usually choose not to as the tailgater can, at any time, and without using their mirrors or indicators, suddenly become aware of the opportunity and violently swerve out to do their best F1 overtake.
I find that if I am being tailgated putting my hand up to the mirror and keeping it there for a few seconds often results in the tailgater dropping back, I don't know whether they think I have a rear dashcam and I'm 'capturing' their driving or if it just makes them think, but it does seem to work.
I find that if I am being tailgated putting my hand up to the mirror and keeping it there for a few seconds often results in the tailgater dropping back, I don't know whether they think I have a rear dashcam and I'm 'capturing' their driving or if it just makes them think, but it does seem to work.
I occasionally contemplate the reasons why a driver would tailgate. It can't be a lack of intelligence seeing as even people in higher value cars (and presumably at least some of them have a high enough degree of intelligence to work in jobs that pay enough to afford the car).
What is the motivation for tailgating? Do those that partake think it will encourage the driver ahead to drive at a speed more to their own liking( even though they'll still tailgate, just faster) ? Is it a means of expressing some sort of perceived superiority?
As this is the advanced section, we all have a degree of knowledge regarding overtaking techniques, none of which involves compromising forward vision during the planning stage. Naturally, if there's no opportunity to overtake, we hang back and make do with the pace of the vehicle(s) ahead.
I've heard it mentioned that tailgaters don't know they are doing anything wrong. That's rubbish! I've trained and assessed thousands of drivers over the last eighteen years and not once have I sat next to a tailgater (a bit closer than ideal, but no tailgaters) so I've either been incredibly luck, or those that do it know fine well it's wrong.
So back to my question; what motivates tailgaters? Any theories? There's a lot of them out there, anyone care to come clean?
Enut said:
Ah the joy of watching idiots tailgating the car in front so closely that when a nice clear stretch of road opens up in front of them they are too close to be able to see the overtaking opportunity. The frustrating part is that I could overtake both but usually choose not to as the tailgater can, at any time, and without using their mirrors or indicators, suddenly become aware of the opportunity and violently swerve out to do their best F1 overtake.
I find that if I am being tailgated putting my hand up to the mirror and keeping it there for a few seconds often results in the tailgater dropping back, I don't know whether they think I have a rear dashcam and I'm 'capturing' their driving or if it just makes them think, but it does seem to work.
I once was behind such a situation, not massive tailgating, but the driver was too close behind the tractor ahead to see past.I find that if I am being tailgated putting my hand up to the mirror and keeping it there for a few seconds often results in the tailgater dropping back, I don't know whether they think I have a rear dashcam and I'm 'capturing' their driving or if it just makes them think, but it does seem to work.
I had a nice clear view, and, watching them very carefully, I overtook. On a bicycle.
Obviously they then followed me and overtook me, but there was plenty of space, and I had plenty of time to abandon if they started to overtake themselves.
7mike said:
I occasionally contemplate the reasons why a driver would tailgate. It can't be a lack of intelligence seeing as even people in higher value cars (and presumably at least some of them have a high enough degree of intelligence to work in jobs that pay enough to afford the car).
What is the motivation for tailgating? Do those that partake think it will encourage the driver ahead to drive at a speed more to their own liking( even though they'll still tailgate, just faster) ? Is it a means of expressing some sort of perceived superiority?
As this is the advanced section, we all have a degree of knowledge regarding overtaking techniques, none of which involves compromising forward vision during the planning stage. Naturally, if there's no opportunity to overtake, we hang back and make do with the pace of the vehicle(s) ahead.
I've heard it mentioned that tailgaters don't know they are doing anything wrong. That's rubbish! I've trained and assessed thousands of drivers over the last eighteen years and not once have I sat next to a tailgater (a bit closer than ideal, but no tailgaters) so I've either been incredibly luck, or those that do it know fine well it's wrong.
So back to my question; what motivates tailgaters? Any theories? There's a lot of them out there, anyone care to come clean?
My 82 year old mother is terrible for this. She hopes it will encourage them to speed up and just gets sweary if they dab the brakes.What is the motivation for tailgating? Do those that partake think it will encourage the driver ahead to drive at a speed more to their own liking( even though they'll still tailgate, just faster) ? Is it a means of expressing some sort of perceived superiority?
As this is the advanced section, we all have a degree of knowledge regarding overtaking techniques, none of which involves compromising forward vision during the planning stage. Naturally, if there's no opportunity to overtake, we hang back and make do with the pace of the vehicle(s) ahead.
I've heard it mentioned that tailgaters don't know they are doing anything wrong. That's rubbish! I've trained and assessed thousands of drivers over the last eighteen years and not once have I sat next to a tailgater (a bit closer than ideal, but no tailgaters) so I've either been incredibly luck, or those that do it know fine well it's wrong.
So back to my question; what motivates tailgaters? Any theories? There's a lot of them out there, anyone care to come clean?
I was accused of it by a passenger as I closed up ready for an overtake that then wasn’t on, so I dropped back & explained myself. They looked at me as if I was about to nerf the other car off into the hedge. One of the various things I learned on a speed awareness course was that the vehicle behind appears in the rear view mirror to be closer than it actually is, for a wider angle view. I should have known this before, but hadn’t appreciated the impression it might give.
simon_harris said:
I do believe that ROSPA suggests a 3 second gap in the dry, 4 or 5 in the wet.
I am fully aware of the common 2 second rule, but when on motorway sections with chevrons painted on the road and they tell you to keep 2 chevrons apart it always seems like just a little bit too long of a distance..Now regarding leaving 5 seconds gap in the wet and assuming a speed of 60 mph you will travel 438 feet, which taking an average car lenth of 14.5 feet this will be 30 car lengths.
Im sure you will agree this is simply not feasible.
7mike said:
I've heard it mentioned that tailgaters don't know they are doing anything wrong. That's rubbish! I've trained and assessed thousands of drivers over the last eighteen years and not once have I sat next to a tailgater (a bit closer than ideal, but no tailgaters) so I've either been incredibly luck, or those that do it know fine well it's wrong.
But they know you're there and "think" about the task a bit more surely?I've been driven by plenty of obviously non thinking friends and colleagues that were tailgaters and I assure you in their cases it's through lack of thought and driving on autopilot to a degree they wouldn't on any kind of driving course... they don't even know they're doing it. I also have a family member with astigmatism who aggressively tailgates even fully marked police cars without the slightest awareness.
I swapped the Mustangs for a Kuga with adaptive cruise control and I completely changed my driving habits. I would never tailgate in the Mustang but due to driving a performance car the traffic behind did not tailgate me. In the Kuga I drive at least the speed limit and maintain a decent gap using adaptive cruise control and I stay in my lane whilst I am passing slower traffic then returning to the inside lane when not overtaking. The shenanigans behind me are terrifying.
Somewhatfoolish said:
7mike said:
I've heard it mentioned that tailgaters don't know they are doing anything wrong. That's rubbish! I've trained and assessed thousands of drivers over the last eighteen years and not once have I sat next to a tailgater (a bit closer than ideal, but no tailgaters) so I've either been incredibly luck, or those that do it know fine well it's wrong.
But they know you're there and "think" about the task a bit more surely?I've been driven by plenty of obviously non thinking friends and colleagues that were tailgaters and I assure you in their cases it's through lack of thought and driving on autopilot to a degree they wouldn't on any kind of driving course... they don't even know they're doing it. I also have a family member with astigmatism who aggressively tailgates even fully marked police cars without the slightest awareness.
I had a Golf R with adaptive cruise control and on busy motorways I found it a horrible experience. Even on the shortest distance setting it just invited people to move into the gap left at which point the Golf automatically braked to regain the distance gap and I would be looking in the mirror and quite frankly felt embarrassed to be causing the cars behind to brake what seemed unnecessarily.
Also on normal roads if the car ahead was turning left the Golf would maintain the distance as the car slowed which felt unnatural as normally you would close the gap knowing the car ahead would have turned by the time you get there, again checking the mirror for drivers not expecting you to slow down so abruptly.
After trying it for a while I gave up on adaptive cruise control as it didn’t match the real life flow of traffic, at least in a Mk 7 Golf.
Also on normal roads if the car ahead was turning left the Golf would maintain the distance as the car slowed which felt unnatural as normally you would close the gap knowing the car ahead would have turned by the time you get there, again checking the mirror for drivers not expecting you to slow down so abruptly.
After trying it for a while I gave up on adaptive cruise control as it didn’t match the real life flow of traffic, at least in a Mk 7 Golf.
Two seconds and then some more.
I’d rather be at the front of my queue of vehicles than in the middle of another.
If someone wants to overtake into that gap am happy to see them do so-indicate/move slightly left. Let the gap grow.
Am an old git and whilst up towards or at speed limit am not in a rush. Hoping I’m not annoying too many with a race track mindset.
I’d rather be at the front of my queue of vehicles than in the middle of another.
If someone wants to overtake into that gap am happy to see them do so-indicate/move slightly left. Let the gap grow.
Am an old git and whilst up towards or at speed limit am not in a rush. Hoping I’m not annoying too many with a race track mindset.
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