Don't leave a gap
Discussion
Lots of people are always saying you can't leave a 2 second gap on the motorway or someone will pull in.
Does anyone here find this?
I must have very slow reaction times because I find it easier to drive with more than a 2 second gap, and it has made me wonder:
1) How come people hardly ever pull into my gap? What's wrong with it? I do wash you know
2) Why doesn't it affect me when people do pull into my gap? Somehow when this happens my car slows down for a second and the gap opens up again. What am I doing wrong?
Seriously though - if anyone does find it happens to them... where do you drive that everyone always wants to pull in front of you?
Does anyone here find this?
I must have very slow reaction times because I find it easier to drive with more than a 2 second gap, and it has made me wonder:
1) How come people hardly ever pull into my gap? What's wrong with it? I do wash you know
2) Why doesn't it affect me when people do pull into my gap? Somehow when this happens my car slows down for a second and the gap opens up again. What am I doing wrong?
Seriously though - if anyone does find it happens to them... where do you drive that everyone always wants to pull in front of you?
Whilst I agree one should always maintain a good two second gap I do not agree that it isn't a problem maintaining it sometimes.
For example - when travelling in lane 3 overtaking a long queue of traffic in lanes 1 and 2 it is quite common to have someone pull out in between my car and the one in front. People get frustrated waiting...
For example - when travelling in lane 3 overtaking a long queue of traffic in lanes 1 and 2 it is quite common to have someone pull out in between my car and the one in front. People get frustrated waiting...
rasputin said:
Lots of people are always saying you can't leave a 2 second gap on the motorway or someone will pull in.
Does anyone here find this?
I must have very slow reaction times because I find it easier to drive with more than a 2 second gap, and it has made me wonder:
1) How come people hardly ever pull into my gap? What's wrong with it? I do wash you know
2) Why doesn't it affect me when people do pull into my gap? Somehow when this happens my car slows down for a second and the gap opens up again. What am I doing wrong?
Seriously though - if anyone does find it happens to them... where do you drive that everyone always wants to pull in front of you?
If you are in lane 1 your gap will be fine because the won't pull into it.Does anyone here find this?
I must have very slow reaction times because I find it easier to drive with more than a 2 second gap, and it has made me wonder:
1) How come people hardly ever pull into my gap? What's wrong with it? I do wash you know
2) Why doesn't it affect me when people do pull into my gap? Somehow when this happens my car slows down for a second and the gap opens up again. What am I doing wrong?
Seriously though - if anyone does find it happens to them... where do you drive that everyone always wants to pull in front of you?
If you are in lane 3 it will be under constant threat.
""2) Why doesn't it affect me when people do pull into my gap? Somehow when this happens my car slows down for a second and the gap opens up again.""
Rasputin,
Just a guess, you are using acceleration control to create and maintain your 'bubble of space'...you are being constantly aware of what is happening around you...IPSGA...?
That WAS worth £75-00 - wasn't it?
BOF.
Rasputin,
Just a guess, you are using acceleration control to create and maintain your 'bubble of space'...you are being constantly aware of what is happening around you...IPSGA...?
That WAS worth £75-00 - wasn't it?
BOF.
DougBaker said:
Inny said:
At the risk of being controversial, doesn't this simply send you backwards?
If the car pulling out halves your gap you will add a second to your journey time by dropping back. Not really worth getting that worried about as far as I can see. This is all IMHO; I'm not an AD, have couple of points, etc., and don't want to sound arrogant or whatever [sorry, expression failed me]...I only pop in occasionally from the TVR/Chimeara forum! Have mercy, Strangely Brown et al!!
In heavy traffic on a 3 lane motorway I tend to seek refuge and solace in driving in the empty lane 1 when all and sundry are nose to tail in lane 3.
See little point in trying to be the fastest on the motorway in these conditions, though do chuckle when the brake lights illuminate in lane 3 and I plod on past in lane 1 with lane 2 acting as a buffer zone!
See little point in trying to be the fastest on the motorway in these conditions, though do chuckle when the brake lights illuminate in lane 3 and I plod on past in lane 1 with lane 2 acting as a buffer zone!
Last night I drove home along the M5 at a nice economical speed (because I was low on fuel and couldn't be bothered to stop) in fairly light traffic and nobody pulled into my space.
Normally, however, I'm in lane 3 travelling faster than that. If I leave a two-second gap someone will pull into it. If I drop back to regain that two-second someone will pull into it. It may only be a second lost each time you drop back, but if the car that's just pulled infront is travelling slower than I wish to, I lose more time. It adds up.
If conditions are good I'm comfortable with sacrificing some of the two-second gap to prevent this problem.
Normally, however, I'm in lane 3 travelling faster than that. If I leave a two-second gap someone will pull into it. If I drop back to regain that two-second someone will pull into it. It may only be a second lost each time you drop back, but if the car that's just pulled infront is travelling slower than I wish to, I lose more time. It adds up.
If conditions are good I'm comfortable with sacrificing some of the two-second gap to prevent this problem.
Inny said:
But doesn't this raise the spectre of undertaking? Guessing that's another thread...
not really, if it's heavy traffic that's causing lane(s) to your right to slow down, there is no problem 'passing on the left'.As for leaving the 2 second gap, I find no problem with that in fast flowing traffic. If someone needs to pull into your lane, it will normally be to pass a slower moving car. Ease off, wait for them to move back into lane and build up to your speed. I tend to leave a bigger gap in slow moving traffic to allow people to faff about changing lanes without me having to dap the brakes to leave a gap. Also increases my vision of what the traffic ahead is doing.
A mate of mine was cruising along in lane 3 in slow moving (40mph) leaving what he thought was a reasonable gap (on reflection it wasn't). Traffic in lane 2 started braking and a volvo swerved out in front of him just as lane 3 traffic started braking! Left with sod all room to stop from 40mph he banged into the volvo, causing considerable damage to both cars. The driver of the volvo turned out to be an off duty traffic cop who (smuggly) said he'd have no chance of winning on the insurance, and his insurance company said the same.
Take from that what you will
Smithy
Miffy84 said:
Inny said:
But doesn't this raise the spectre of undertaking? Guessing that's another thread...
not really, if it's heavy traffic that's causing lane(s) to your right to slow down, there is no problem 'passing on the left'.As for leaving the 2 second gap, I find no problem with that in fast flowing traffic. If someone needs to pull into your lane, it will normally be to pass a slower moving car. Ease off, wait for them to move back into lane and build up to your speed. I tend to leave a bigger gap in slow moving traffic to allow people to faff about changing lanes without me having to dap the brakes to leave a gap. Also increases my vision of what the traffic ahead is doing.
A mate of mine was cruising along in lane 3 in slow moving (40mph) leaving what he thought was a reasonable gap (on reflection it wasn't). Traffic in lane 2 started braking and a volvo swerved out in front of him just as lane 3 traffic started braking! Left with sod all room to stop from 40mph he banged into the volvo, causing considerable damage to both cars. The driver of the volvo turned out to be an off duty traffic cop who (smuggly) said he'd have no chance of winning on the insurance, and his insurance company said the same.
Take from that what you will
Smithy
Best wishes all,
Dave.
It all stems from people thinking L1 = slow, L2 = idiots and L3 = fast. Everyone tries to get into the "fast" lane because, you know, they're not SLOW (what a horrible thought that is), and thus you get too much traffic in the outside and not enough everywhere else. I drive quite a few motorway miles and have noticed that the best times to drive are longer national holidays (Christmas etc), because there are no Artics on the road. People simply will not pull into a gap left between two Artics, but I think that is an issue for a seperate thread.
I don't understand why people don't just pick a speed and stick to it, obeying the rules of leaving a gap and lane discipline and only discarding said rules when trying to prove the point to some ditherer in front that they really are getting in your way.
Also, to the chap who said you aren't aiding traffic flow by leaving a 2 second gap:
One of my daily routes home includes a dual carriageway junction which permanently snarls up to standstill, because nobody leaves a gap for the merging traffic to move into. This means that in order for anyone to merge, the in-lane traffic has to halt, to let a gap open for merging traffic to move into, which means Johnny Impatientpants in L1 pulls into L2. I regularly open up a 20-25 second gap in these circumstances, usually drop the van into 2nd and just dribble along at idle. Invariably 3 or 4 cars will merge on to the carriageway into said gap, and I will undertake loads of people stopped in L2 waiting for their opportunity to sprint up to the bumper in front. It's got to the point where I can predict how far ahead of the L2 queue I will end up simply because I don't have to come to a halt. Just something to ponder :-)
I don't understand why people don't just pick a speed and stick to it, obeying the rules of leaving a gap and lane discipline and only discarding said rules when trying to prove the point to some ditherer in front that they really are getting in your way.
Also, to the chap who said you aren't aiding traffic flow by leaving a 2 second gap:
One of my daily routes home includes a dual carriageway junction which permanently snarls up to standstill, because nobody leaves a gap for the merging traffic to move into. This means that in order for anyone to merge, the in-lane traffic has to halt, to let a gap open for merging traffic to move into, which means Johnny Impatientpants in L1 pulls into L2. I regularly open up a 20-25 second gap in these circumstances, usually drop the van into 2nd and just dribble along at idle. Invariably 3 or 4 cars will merge on to the carriageway into said gap, and I will undertake loads of people stopped in L2 waiting for their opportunity to sprint up to the bumper in front. It's got to the point where I can predict how far ahead of the L2 queue I will end up simply because I don't have to come to a halt. Just something to ponder :-)
Also, to the chap who said you aren't aiding traffic flow by leaving a 2 second gap:
One of my daily routes home includes a dual carriageway junction which permanently snarls up to standstill, because nobody leaves a gap for the merging traffic to move into. This means that in order for anyone to merge, the in-lane traffic has to halt, to let a gap open for merging traffic to move into, which means Johnny Impatientpants in L1 pulls into L2. I regularly open up a 20-25 second gap in these circumstances, usually drop the van into 2nd and just dribble along at idle. Invariably 3 or 4 cars will merge on to the carriageway into said gap, and I will undertake loads of people stopped in L2 waiting for their opportunity to sprint up to the bumper in front. It's got to the point where I can predict how far ahead of the L2 queue I will end up simply because I don't have to come to a halt. Just something to ponder :-)
[/quote]
Assume that's me. Point taken. Thank you for your detailed reponse. I think I've been guilty of imagining a universal situation, of, say, driving at 50mph on a densely populated 3 lane motorway - which obviously is too general a situation to use effectively.
I too head for space; often, I find myself alone with the artics in Lane 1, with more, but smaller, vehicles cruising [steadfastly] in Lane 2, while the majority of cars are nose-to-tail in Lane 3. Changing lane as/when necessary, it's almost as if Lane 3 isn't there. Too all intents and purposes, sometimes it may as well not be. (Of course I keep a keen eye out for sudden movements form Lane 3 into Lane 3 - which happend surprisingly often when you're consistently alongside the same car, but they're in Lane 3 and you're in Lane 1.)
One of my daily routes home includes a dual carriageway junction which permanently snarls up to standstill, because nobody leaves a gap for the merging traffic to move into. This means that in order for anyone to merge, the in-lane traffic has to halt, to let a gap open for merging traffic to move into, which means Johnny Impatientpants in L1 pulls into L2. I regularly open up a 20-25 second gap in these circumstances, usually drop the van into 2nd and just dribble along at idle. Invariably 3 or 4 cars will merge on to the carriageway into said gap, and I will undertake loads of people stopped in L2 waiting for their opportunity to sprint up to the bumper in front. It's got to the point where I can predict how far ahead of the L2 queue I will end up simply because I don't have to come to a halt. Just something to ponder :-)
[/quote]
Assume that's me. Point taken. Thank you for your detailed reponse. I think I've been guilty of imagining a universal situation, of, say, driving at 50mph on a densely populated 3 lane motorway - which obviously is too general a situation to use effectively.
I too head for space; often, I find myself alone with the artics in Lane 1, with more, but smaller, vehicles cruising [steadfastly] in Lane 2, while the majority of cars are nose-to-tail in Lane 3. Changing lane as/when necessary, it's almost as if Lane 3 isn't there. Too all intents and purposes, sometimes it may as well not be. (Of course I keep a keen eye out for sudden movements form Lane 3 into Lane 3 - which happend surprisingly often when you're consistently alongside the same car, but they're in Lane 3 and you're in Lane 1.)
Edited by Inny on Monday 3rd March 15:31
Also, to the chap who said you aren't aiding traffic flow by leaving a 2 second gap:
One of my daily routes home includes a dual carriageway junction which permanently snarls up to standstill, because nobody leaves a gap for the merging traffic to move into. This means that in order for anyone to merge, the in-lane traffic has to halt, to let a gap open for merging traffic to move into, which means Johnny Impatientpants in L1 pulls into L2. I regularly open up a 20-25 second gap in these circumstances, usually drop the van into 2nd and just dribble along at idle. Invariably 3 or 4 cars will merge on to the carriageway into said gap, and I will undertake loads of people stopped in L2 waiting for their opportunity to sprint up to the bumper in front. It's got to the point where I can predict how far ahead of the L2 queue I will end up simply because I don't have to come to a halt. Just something to ponder :-)
[/quote]
Assume that's me. Point taken. Thank you for your detailed reponse. I think I've been guilty of imagining a universal situation, of, say, driving at 50mph on a densely populated 3 lane motorway - which obviously is too general a situation to use effectively.
I too head for space; often, I find myself alone with the artics in Lane 1, with more, but smaller, vehicles cruising [steadfastly] in Lane 2, while the majority of cars are nose-to-tail in Lane 3. Changing lane as/when necessary, it's almost as if Lane 3 isn't there. Too all intents and purposes, sometimes it may as well not be. (Of course I keep a keen eye out for sudden movements form Lane 3 into Lane 2 - which happend surprisingly often when you're consistently alongside the same car, but they're in Lane 3 and you're in Lane 1.)
One of my daily routes home includes a dual carriageway junction which permanently snarls up to standstill, because nobody leaves a gap for the merging traffic to move into. This means that in order for anyone to merge, the in-lane traffic has to halt, to let a gap open for merging traffic to move into, which means Johnny Impatientpants in L1 pulls into L2. I regularly open up a 20-25 second gap in these circumstances, usually drop the van into 2nd and just dribble along at idle. Invariably 3 or 4 cars will merge on to the carriageway into said gap, and I will undertake loads of people stopped in L2 waiting for their opportunity to sprint up to the bumper in front. It's got to the point where I can predict how far ahead of the L2 queue I will end up simply because I don't have to come to a halt. Just something to ponder :-)
[/quote]
Assume that's me. Point taken. Thank you for your detailed reponse. I think I've been guilty of imagining a universal situation, of, say, driving at 50mph on a densely populated 3 lane motorway - which obviously is too general a situation to use effectively.
I too head for space; often, I find myself alone with the artics in Lane 1, with more, but smaller, vehicles cruising [steadfastly] in Lane 2, while the majority of cars are nose-to-tail in Lane 3. Changing lane as/when necessary, it's almost as if Lane 3 isn't there. Too all intents and purposes, sometimes it may as well not be. (Of course I keep a keen eye out for sudden movements form Lane 3 into Lane 2 - which happend surprisingly often when you're consistently alongside the same car, but they're in Lane 3 and you're in Lane 1.)
Edited by Inny on Monday 3rd March 15:32
Quite often i have a car pull into my gap as they have undertaken me.
lots of cars i see don't pull over to lane 1 or 2 after having overtaken. i then overtake them and move right over to lane 1 and they are still in lane 2 hogging it making everyone overtake it so causing a que of traffic.
lots of cars i see don't pull over to lane 1 or 2 after having overtaken. i then overtake them and move right over to lane 1 and they are still in lane 2 hogging it making everyone overtake it so causing a que of traffic.
You just need to chill out - either there's loads of space out there for you to get into and knob it down the road at warp factor nine or there isn't, and it's a never-ending queue of three lanes bimbling along at more or less the same speed give of take 10 mph.
If there's the space to make the jump to lightspeed, then by all means see if you can get there and prepare for hyperspace.
Otherwise, why not find yourself a nice little gap in lane one and bimble until the aforementioned gap emerges. Choose the cars around you carefully - look at how they are driven and see who you want to cuddle up to in the squeeze.
All driving is a trade-off of risk and benefit -- I don't think it's worth the additional risk of DLAC to go 1mph faster.
Now - going a *lot* faster - well that might be worth it...
If there's the space to make the jump to lightspeed, then by all means see if you can get there and prepare for hyperspace.
Otherwise, why not find yourself a nice little gap in lane one and bimble until the aforementioned gap emerges. Choose the cars around you carefully - look at how they are driven and see who you want to cuddle up to in the squeeze.
All driving is a trade-off of risk and benefit -- I don't think it's worth the additional risk of DLAC to go 1mph faster.
Now - going a *lot* faster - well that might be worth it...
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