Tailgating through traffic lights 5153

Oh yes it can, if it hits something solid or something coming the other way that has crossed the central reservation.

If it is only thinking time, why is it doubled in the wet?

Indeed, 20mph per second.

Then you are dead! But if you are in a line of traffic all 2 sec apart at 80mph, so are a lot of other people. Leaving a sensible gap actually benefits all those behind you too, in this situation.

You also need to think about objects falling off vehicles. I colleague some years ago was the victin of a heavy metal object falling of a lorry, which bounced into his path, under his car and punctured his petrol tank. The back of his cat burst into flame. so he stopped as quickly as possible (im lane 3 of the M1) got out and ran for his life. In this case the lorry was in a different lane and my friend was about to overtake it. But following too closr behing a vehicle in you own lane also makes it more difficult to avoid any debris.

Indeed, that is what I would like to do, overtake. This only happens in the increasingly common situation on congested motorways where the car I would like to overtake is ahead of me in the same lane. Some drivers respond to this by tailgating, but I keep my distance until that vehicle either moves over or accelerates. The fact is, I was in exactly the same situation as my tailgater, only refusing to drive so dangerously close.

Why is it expected that a driver being tailgeted becuse the vehicle behind wants to get past shou;d move over and be forced to slow down when he is just as anxious to pbutt the vehicle he is following, but refuses to tailgate becuase it is dangerous? Quite often in these situations my tailgater is left behing once the road clears ahead and I can accelerate. If i let the tailgater past, i could end up stuck behing him.

That being said, I would always let a tailgater past if i could do so without compromising my own safety, since this is the safest thing to do. If lane 2 was moving as fast as I wanted to go, I would be in it.

I agree it doesn't work. but the alternative is to drive in a more dangerous way.

If he were building a gap, he would very soon be tailgating the next in the lane. But yes, I would have let him past if I could have done so safely.

Actually, there wasn't. Room for a bike between the lanes maybe, but not a car.

When everybody is making less progress than they would like, why should those who use the dangerous practice of tailgating be allowed through. Only emergency vehicles should claim that privilege. We are all being held up, so why do some people think they have the right to try to bully others out of their way.

So what he was saying was you either get out of my way, or accelerate and tailgate the guy ahead. Stupid behaviour if you ask me.

I was overtaking as it happens. But not actually alongside the car I was overtaking at the time. He was perhaps one car length ahead of me.

Well, I suppose one could weave backwards and forwards between the lanes every few seconds. Think what would happen if everybody did it though.

But to be fair, I agree that the rule should be keep left when not overtaking. But how do you define overtaking? How far ahead of or behing the vehicle you are overtaking should you be before it no longer counts af overtaking. How much speed difference should there be, there is often very little difference in speed between lanes 2 and 3 on a congested motorway, and constasntly changing lane is pointless.

Well, increased certainly. I notice lane 1 is often nearkly empty when 2 and 3 are congested. It is very tempting to move into this lane and undertake the lot, and some people do, but this is also a dangerous practice (but probably less dangeros than tailgating).

Absolutely! It is probably someone insisting on observing it that leads to most lane 3 congestion, with all its consequent tailgating, lane hogging, undertaking etc.

Well, mostly I do get out of their way, if I can do so safely and without too much inconvenience. And strangely, it doesn't usually happen to ne eunless the road is very congested. This may be because in less congested situations, nobody is being held up and getting frustrated.

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