It appears that I missed the memo.
Discussion
I don't do a lot of motorway driving and the little bit that I do tends to be at non busy times.
However, I've just returned from a trip to devon from swindon. The weather was not great - lots of wet roads and some very heavy downpours. Lots of traffic both ways (especially changeover saturday when I drove down) so the roads were busy.
Over the return trip I'm sure I was the only person who had something even vaguely resembling a 2 second gap to the vehicle in front the whole way. Trucks nose to tail, motorhomes up their jacksy, overloaded s
tboxes towing massive caravans less than 2 foot from the caravan in front (tugged along by yet another desperately loaded stbox) asthmatically wheezing their way past said wagons hell bent on not letting the speed limited transit open up a 3 foot gap up the slight incline, lane 3 a homogenous mass of metal no more than half a second apart (at best). It was all that close that there wasn't even space for the range rover sport to partake in spirited lane swapping.
It was possible - I managed to keep a "not dying" space in front of the car for pretty much the whole trip, but clearly this is now surplus to requirements and has been abolished.
As said, I'm lucky enough not to venture out with everyone else that often but it genuinely shocked me. Each way was 120 miles of massive accident waiting to happen.
Just don't understand it, and it wasn't the odd idiot. It was truely horrible. Why on earth would everyone put themselves and everyone else in such a dodgy position. It's not as if the M5 and M4 have an unblemished reputation.
Don't think I'll bother again
However, I've just returned from a trip to devon from swindon. The weather was not great - lots of wet roads and some very heavy downpours. Lots of traffic both ways (especially changeover saturday when I drove down) so the roads were busy.
Over the return trip I'm sure I was the only person who had something even vaguely resembling a 2 second gap to the vehicle in front the whole way. Trucks nose to tail, motorhomes up their jacksy, overloaded s
tboxes towing massive caravans less than 2 foot from the caravan in front (tugged along by yet another desperately loaded stbox) asthmatically wheezing their way past said wagons hell bent on not letting the speed limited transit open up a 3 foot gap up the slight incline, lane 3 a homogenous mass of metal no more than half a second apart (at best). It was all that close that there wasn't even space for the range rover sport to partake in spirited lane swapping.It was possible - I managed to keep a "not dying" space in front of the car for pretty much the whole trip, but clearly this is now surplus to requirements and has been abolished.
As said, I'm lucky enough not to venture out with everyone else that often but it genuinely shocked me. Each way was 120 miles of massive accident waiting to happen.
Just don't understand it, and it wasn't the odd idiot. It was truely horrible. Why on earth would everyone put themselves and everyone else in such a dodgy position. It's not as if the M5 and M4 have an unblemished reputation.
Don't think I'll bother again
Where's the stupid things non-petrolheads say thread? I imagine most would go "well i have abs so i can stop on a sixpence"... 
More realistically it's down to the same reason on the other threads coming up recently, pick any of the following;
Pick any you feel like
More realistically it's down to the same reason on the other threads coming up recently, pick any of the following;
- Greater isolation in modern cars
- General lack of interest in driving
- Driving test being poor in the first place
- Lack of experience
- Continuing stupidity of the masses
- Impatience and self-importance of everyone...
Pick any you feel like
One definition of unstable equilibrium is a cone standing on its point - theoretically possible but the very slightest disturbance will unsettle it. I used to have to travel a lot on Britain's motorways and often, in poor weather especially, unstable equilibrium came to mind. If one vehicle had done something the least unexpected, the whole shooting match would have come tumbling down.
Some say four seconds gap in the wet, of course, but the gap represents the thinking time rather than the stopping distance so perhaps two is technically sufficient? It is frustrating to try to keep a safe distance only to find oneself being shunted backwards down the line of moving traffic by those who want to dive into your safety gap time after time.
Some say four seconds gap in the wet, of course, but the gap represents the thinking time rather than the stopping distance so perhaps two is technically sufficient? It is frustrating to try to keep a safe distance only to find oneself being shunted backwards down the line of moving traffic by those who want to dive into your safety gap time after time.
The only thing I noticed different to usual over this weekend was the amount of people who clearly don't use the motorways very often, even by normal weekend standards.
People hogging lanes more than usual, and just generally being incompetent was the order of the day. A caravan hogging the middle lane of the M6 last night was unhappy about people overtaking on the left, but it was his own stupid fault.
Distances between cars were probably not much different than normal, the big difference with mid-week traffic is that people are used to it and look much further ahead so generally it's not a massive issue. After all, if everyone slams on the brakes broadly at the same time, and if you're looking 5-10 cars ahead, there's no reason why you shouldn't be braking at the same time or before the car in front, then the distance between each car can be reduced without much compromise.
The danger comes when you get inexperienced and/or poorly skilled people on the roads who are simply looking at the back of the car in front, but still only keeping a short distance back. They don't have time to react because they're not reading the traffic ahead properly.
That's not to make an excuse for the short distances between cars, but it is fairly normal, we don't have massive pile ups every day, so it's not as big a deal as you might think. It's scary for the uninitiated, of course, and my suggestion in that case is to stay well out of it. Stick to the left lane, and trundle along with the trucks.
I, of course, being on PH, try to leave as much distance as possible, but it's still not uncommon to find that gap reduced to a second or so, easing off the throttle to extend the gap is the simple answer.
The 2 second gap is meant to be the distance required to stop if the car in front stops dead, which generally doesn't happen except in very rare circumstances.
People hogging lanes more than usual, and just generally being incompetent was the order of the day. A caravan hogging the middle lane of the M6 last night was unhappy about people overtaking on the left, but it was his own stupid fault.
Distances between cars were probably not much different than normal, the big difference with mid-week traffic is that people are used to it and look much further ahead so generally it's not a massive issue. After all, if everyone slams on the brakes broadly at the same time, and if you're looking 5-10 cars ahead, there's no reason why you shouldn't be braking at the same time or before the car in front, then the distance between each car can be reduced without much compromise.
The danger comes when you get inexperienced and/or poorly skilled people on the roads who are simply looking at the back of the car in front, but still only keeping a short distance back. They don't have time to react because they're not reading the traffic ahead properly.
That's not to make an excuse for the short distances between cars, but it is fairly normal, we don't have massive pile ups every day, so it's not as big a deal as you might think. It's scary for the uninitiated, of course, and my suggestion in that case is to stay well out of it. Stick to the left lane, and trundle along with the trucks.
I, of course, being on PH
, try to leave as much distance as possible, but it's still not uncommon to find that gap reduced to a second or so, easing off the throttle to extend the gap is the simple answer. The 2 second gap is meant to be the distance required to stop if the car in front stops dead, which generally doesn't happen except in very rare circumstances.
Simples leave early/late
Went Swindon - Falmouth last week, left 6am Sunday morning, 3 hours of empty roads, DC/MW all the way, no holdups no cars on the road...
Left 10pm to head back on Friday night, dead, hardly a car on the road, cruised at 80 all the way . Lovely journey
OP I feel your pain hence I only do the journey first thing/through the night when it is DEAD
Went Swindon - Falmouth last week, left 6am Sunday morning, 3 hours of empty roads, DC/MW all the way, no holdups no cars on the road...
Left 10pm to head back on Friday night, dead, hardly a car on the road, cruised at 80 all the way . Lovely journey
OP I feel your pain hence I only do the journey first thing/through the night when it is DEAD
J8 SVG said:
should have been able to take some lovely A & B Roads from Worcester to Swindon to reduce the M5 bit! Lovely scenery through the cotswolds
Lovely though they are, I'd have been a bit off course!I've done plenty of driving. I have been a motorbike instructor and white van man (courier) for a living in the past. I used to commute Swindon to Worcester (well, Malvern) daily as well as many others. I'm quite confident that I've clocked up hundreds of thousands of miles on our (and foreign) roads in my time.
I know how to do it - look past the bonnet, maintain a gap, stay left unless overtaking etc. I'm not a mpg merchant and don't dawdle but equally don't rush. I am well aware that it will take the time it will take but given a clear road will roll along merrily at about 85mph.
I have been out of it for 4 years now (My current commute is a 5 minute walk, which is lovely, there is a lot to be said for it) but I just don't remember it being that bad. (For f
ks sake - its gopping wet, you're towing with your nearest and dearest on board, what the fk are you all doing???). Maybe I'm just out of practice and getting old. The upside down cone analogy sums up exactly how it felt. Not a safe or sustainable situation.
Tommo: I'm going for option e. Every f
ker is more stupid than I. TwistingMyMelon said:
Simples leave early/late
Went Swindon - Falmouth last week, left 6am Sunday morning, 3 hours of empty roads, DC/MW all the way, no holdups no cars on the road...
Left 10pm to head back on Friday night, dead, hardly a car on the road, cruised at 80 all the way . Lovely journey
OP I feel your pain hence I only do the journey first thing/through the night when it is DEAD
My usual tactic. Circumstances conspired against me this time though!Went Swindon - Falmouth last week, left 6am Sunday morning, 3 hours of empty roads, DC/MW all the way, no holdups no cars on the road...
Left 10pm to head back on Friday night, dead, hardly a car on the road, cruised at 80 all the way . Lovely journey
OP I feel your pain hence I only do the journey first thing/through the night when it is DEAD
I feel better for having a good tram about it though.
Group hug and all that bks.scdan4 said:
Trucks nose to tail, motorhomes up their jacksy, overloaded stboxes towing massive caravans less than 2 foot from the caravan in front (tugged along by yet another desperately loaded stbox) asthmatically wheezing their way past said wagons hell bent on not letting the speed limited transit open up a 3 foot gap up the slight incline, lane 3 a homogenous mass of metal no more than half a second apart (at best). It was all that close that there wasn't even space for the range rover sport to partake in spirited lane swapping.
Arguably this is the safest way to drive on the motorway - big gaps are more dangerous, especially behind you.tboxes towing massive caravans less than 2 foot from the caravan in front (tugged along by yet another desperately loaded stbox) asthmatically wheezing their way past said wagons hell bent on not letting the speed limited transit open up a 3 foot gap up the slight incline, lane 3 a homogenous mass of metal no more than half a second apart (at best). It was all that close that there wasn't even space for the range rover sport to partake in spirited lane swapping.I was driving down the A1/M1 Friday night in awful conditions the vehicles behind seemed to be giving a good distance behind me and I was leaving a safe distance in front of me. But the moment they wanted me to pull over so they can get past they were right up my bumper. They didn't seem to think that there was a reason I was pulling over later than usual as I wasn't going to suddenly make the car behind me be an unsafe distance from me.
Am I the only one who does this?
Am I the only one who does this?
Sheepshanks said:
scdan4 said:
Trucks nose to tail, motorhomes up their jacksy, overloaded stboxes towing massive caravans less than 2 foot from the caravan in front (tugged along by yet another desperately loaded stbox) asthmatically wheezing their way past said wagons hell bent on not letting the speed limited transit open up a 3 foot gap up the slight incline, lane 3 a homogenous mass of metal no more than half a second apart (at best). It was all that close that there wasn't even space for the range rover sport to partake in spirited lane swapping.
Arguably this is the safest way to drive on the motorway - big gaps are more dangerous, especially behind you.tboxes towing massive caravans less than 2 foot from the caravan in front (tugged along by yet another desperately loaded stbox) asthmatically wheezing their way past said wagons hell bent on not letting the speed limited transit open up a 3 foot gap up the slight incline, lane 3 a homogenous mass of metal no more than half a second apart (at best). It was all that close that there wasn't even space for the range rover sport to partake in spirited lane swapping.Last week I took a trip to Newquay via the M4/M5 from London in a Renault Trafic. I have to say I was bloody impressed with the driving once out of London. People were keeping left, leaving good gaps etc. It was quite comical to watch the standard drop on the return leg, the closer you got to London.
IanCress said:
Sheepshanks said:
Arguably this is the safest way to drive on the motorway - big gaps are more dangerous, especially behind you.
Go on, you'll have to explain that one. Nobody has ever been injured by careering head long in to a big gap full of fresh air.Now imagine one stopped, and there's unattached one, say 30 yards behind, still doing 70MPH.
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