Driving advice: leaving a gap – only a fool breaks the two second rule?

I generally employ the two second rule but I think what exacerbates the tailgating problem is the general lack of lane discipline in the UK. At any given time on a three lane motorway you will get maybe 10% in the inside lane, 40% in the middle lane and the rest in the outside lane. This made worse by the people who just sit in the middle lane come what may, irrespective of the speed they are doing or the traffic on the road.

You very rarely get that situation on the continent where drivers seem to be much more aware of overtaking and then moving back in to let faster traffic pass.

On the continent, generally, there are only 2 lanes.(At least in France and Spain).

All you can do is leave a sensible gap and look after yourself – if others pull into that gap, so be it, but re-establish it.
My son showed me a video, which unfortunately I can’t find, of a driver following tight behind a truck in the inside lane. The truck indicated and pulled out, nothing unusual. Except he was pulling out to avoid a stationary queue in the inside lane. The card driver ploughed straight into the queue. Scary, made me think.

This made worse by the people who just sit in the middle lane come what may

Conversely I get people who clearly think I am hogging the middle lane because I don’t pull back into a gap that is considerably smaller than the required 124 meters.

Fatal on M6 southbound between jct 39 & 38 Shap and Tebay.
I don’t know the details but yes that was probably the one.

There were 2 today. One at 37-38 about lunchtime, another first thing this morning down Stafford way (13-14).

The Tebay one closed the motorway for 9 hours. I was glad I’d decided against going to the Lakes today!

Driving on the M60 earlier in atrocious weather and as usual the lane discipline and driving standards were abysmal. 🙁 You try leaving a 2-second gap and it’ll be filled with 6 cars before you know it!

I use the two second rule, makes me a more relaxed driver.

70mph = 62.6 meters

depends on country

In Belgium, particularly E40 west of Brussels, IME, 62.6 millimeters is the preferred gap between cars. Leave a gap more than 5m, and a Belgian will find a way to squeeze a car in.

Conversely I get people who clearly think I am hogging the middle lane because I don’t pull back into a gap that is considerably smaller than the required 124 meters.

I suppose the idea is that as soon as you change lanes everyone brakes to maintain the correct distance. After a while people are driving backwards to keep the safe distance.

50 zone on the M5 southbound from 4A past five is interesting, gaps start off reasonable but by the time I get off at five we’re driving in each other’s pockets.

That set of roadworks is maddening… the lanes are so narrow it’s just not safe to be right next to someone in the lane next to you, but if you back off either the person behind will start getting irate or someone will just pull in on front of you anyway!

Tailgating must surely be something that could be monitored automatically by cameras, even if all they do is flash up a message rather than take any formal action? If a camera can work out how quickly a car covers a certain distance, it can surely measure the distance from one car to the next…

I try to, but if you leave an adequate safe gap, someone will invariably fill it. What you should do is back off again, but if you do that you end up stationary or actually reversing back to your start point.

So what I do is leave a safe gap, then keep an eye on what is going on around me and closing the gap as soon as someone even thinks about moving into it.

Tailgating must surely be something that could be monitored automatically by cameras

I was thinking about that and yeah it could – but you’d get a lot of false hits.

e.g. someone overtakes you and then pulls back in far too close. If you happen to pass a camera at that moment it will look like you are tailgating.

They’d need to spot recurring patterns. If one car is involved in multiple “too close” incidents (either in front or behind) then they are very likely to be the problem. It would still probably need video evidence to prove it though.

In Belgium, particularly E40 west of Brussels,

I’ve ridden across a lot of countries in Europe and Belgium is probably the most frightening on the continent. It’s like they purposely get as close to the back of the motorbike as humanly possible on the motorways.

Obviously, in general, riding in the UK scares me more than anywhere else.

Rachel

What hacks me off is when people pull into the gap in front of me, close to me instead of close to the car in front because they don’t want to endanger themselves, and then off into the exit lane, when there’s a huge gap behind me.

Being in a car give people loads of guts to do things they woudn’t have the guts to do outside of the car.

What this country needs is some serious wholesale bans for driving offences..

Even just from reading this forum where you would hope that people have a slightly better sense of their responsibilities as a driver due to their experience as cyclists, you can see that there are a huge number of complete **** idiots that are more than happy to try to justify appalling driving..

Massive bans from the outset, three strikes and you’re out, scrap the points system altogether..

This would reduce the number of vehicles on the road and would force boy racers (and the idiot adults that haven’t grown out of it) to reconsider their position..

I don’t hate much in this world but silly arrogant boys (and girls) who never grew up, thinking they have a right to drive in the way that they consider best annoys me considerably

If I am tail gated I cap the brakes left footed until the s*** behind backs off. I like to think that they think I am trying a bit of a deliberate accident. There is no bloody excuse and failure to maintain that gap whatever the situation makes you a antisocial selfish smart arsed t***

In fairness, this is pretty silly behaviour too…

Being in a car give people loads of guts to do things they woudn’t have the guts to do outside of the car.

Yup – I wouldn’t try and go along the M4 at 70mph on foot 😉

It doesn’t help that the only consistently enforced (and demonised) traffic offence is breaking the speed limit. It’s easy to police with automated systems but it’s the tip of the iceberg. Inappropriate braking distances and tailgating is one of the most dangerous things you can do behind the wheel, especially given most people fixate on the car in front’s back end rather than looking ahead / around. Some of the standards of driving I see day to day is atrocious.

I followed a bloke in a Ka on the way to work this morning. Hitting the brakes every time he hit 30mph in a 50 zone, bimbling along at 15-20mph when we hit the 30mph built-up area. This was in rush hour traffic with a huge queue behind us. All over the carriageway, in the gutter one minute and crossing the centre line the next. He’ll probably go unchallenged until he causes a head-on one day.

Interesting post – I drive in a manor that keeps my family safe, at times this means having to close the 2 second rule to stop someone undertaking and cutting in front, only to slam on their brakes because they have misjudged the distance.

Couldn’t get away with it in the UK, can do here.

Sounds stupid, works though, having to rag tag it with ten wheelers, large buses and every **** on the road makes it a challenge at times to keep everybody safe.

I drive in a manor that keeps my family safe,

Sounds safe. There’s probably not a lot of traffic on a large driveway.

Unfortunately Cougar, a lot of driving here is about protecting yourself.

Drive in the middle lane, you are prone to trucks pulling out without checking.

Drive in the inside lane, you wreck your car on pot holes, and risk trucks pulling in on you.

Drive in the outside lane you have to fight to keep your space.

No police doing you for tailgaiting, nobody beeping horns at you, you just do your best to keep your space, drive as safe as possible, and manage the area around you.

Edited for being a twunt

Couldn’t get away with it in the UK

Unfortunately you could and people do – which is kinda the problem.

(Whereabouts in the world are you again Quirrel? I forget)

Posting while drunk…..cougar my apologies for misreading that 😳 would you like me to rant about when people try and claim that they were in the right for riding in prime position, which for me means either getting taken out by an oncoming pick up or getting smashed by a pickup in the rear?

It’s the “middle lane twins” I don’t understand

Two cars following each other closely in the middle lane on a reasonably quiet motorway. Nothing on the inside. Both cars travelling at slightly below the limit. First car makes no attempt to pull in to the empty inside lane, second car makes no attempt to overtake or drop back.

I see it quite often, sometime the second car is so close it looks like its being towed! I’ve yet to figure out why this goes on?

The first car is probably just your regular “never changes lanes never checks mirrors but I must be safe because I’m only doing 62” but the second car I just don’t get, lonely perhaps

the second car I just don’t get

I generally assume that the second driver is thinking “That guy in front is hogging the middle lane, which is a bit irritating but not really harming anyone. So instead of just overtaking him and getting on with my journey with little or no inconvenience, I’ll risk both of our lives by driving dangerously close. That way he’ll realise what a terrible driver he is.”

I generally assume that the second driver is thinking “That guy in front is hogging the middle lane, which is a bit irritating but not really harming anyone. So instead of just overtaking him and getting on with my journey with little or no inconvenience, I’ll risk both of our lives by driving dangerously close. That way he’ll realise what a terrible driver he is.”

Oooh, oooh, another good one is “That guy I’ve just had to overtake should have pulled back in to the inside by now, I’ll make sure he knows what an awful person he’s being by swerving dramatically across all three lanes about a foot off his bumper, that’ll demonstrate how superior my driving is to his.”

Idiots. Gibbering idiots, as far as the eye can see…

I’ll make sure he knows what an awful person he’s being by swerving dramatically across all three lanes about a foot off his bumper

“…then realise I am now fast approaching the back of lorry he was quite legitimately overtaking, so immediately swing back out again across all three lanes, narrowly avoiding several collisions.”

Yeah that one annoys me, especially as I am often the “offender” in the middle lane and I’m not “lane hogging”, I just haven’t pulled in yet because I have a basic concept of stopping distances.

I swear some people think sitting a few feet behind a lorry is doing their MPG some good. I can’t think of another reason for doing it.

I swear some people think sitting a few feet behind a lorry is doing their MPG some good. I can’t think of another reason for doing it.

😳 I did clock 83mpg (slightly less when I calculated the result) on a trip from Redruth to Taunton though. 😳

Bring on driverless cars peole are just not responsible enough to drive it will be better when the human is out of the driving seat.

It’s the “middle lane twins” I don’t understand

In a similar manner, its the middle lane owners who belt it up the middle lane at 90, sit 2″ behind the middle lane owner doing 70, until eventually after many many hours the MLO doing 70 pulls over left, and original MLO immediately belts it back up to 90.

All while both lane 1 and 3 are clear for miles and miles and miles

There’s a lot to said for cruise control on the motorway, if people drove at a consistent speed traffic would flow more freely.
It’s noticeable on a long run passing the same car over and over again, they shoot past you and off into the distance only to slow down and you have to overtake them again.

Leave a gap more than 5m, and a Belgian will find a way to squeeze a car in.

But my Belgian made car is more than 5m long 😉

Don’t get me started on slip road etiquette.

I must have missed the memo declaring that use of indicators and matching the speed of other vehicles, was optional when joining a motorway…

Apparently it was a Traffic Officer killed in that M6 Tebay crash
Three vehicle collision.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cumbria-35628600

🙁

There’s a lot to said for cruise control on the motorway, if people drove at a consistent speed traffic would flow more freely.
It’s noticeable on a long run passing the same car over and over again, they shoot past you and off into the distance only to slow down and you have to overtake them again.

If only cruise control was a standard fitting on all cars. I’ve never owned or driven one with it fitted.

Yeah I have cruise control on my Focus and it is quite interesting to see how much people vary their speed for no obvious reason.

Yeah I have cruise control on my Focus and it is quite interesting to see how much people vary their speed for no obvious reason.

It’s funny. Almost as if people know they should be going faster than the lane to their left but slower than the lane to their right. So you catch up, move to lane 3 to pass them because they’ve dropped to 65mph (in the middle lane, naturally), then after you’ve moved back to lane 1 they speed up to 80, get a few hundred yards ahead and slow back down to 65.

Cruise controls are considered a major factor in the fastest rising category of accident in some European countries: dozing off and a lack of concentration leading to increased reaction times. Studies in France and Switzerland have stated cruise controls are dangerous:

This one states the opposite of what posters are claiming above. It states cruise control users don’t leave as much space when pulling in after overtaking and don’t feed into traffic s safely. They also fail to modulate their speed to suit traffic conditions.

I wasn’t claiming cruise control was safer Edukator.

Only that when you are held at a constant speed (by cruise control) you can more easily observe how often other people significantly vary their speed for no readily apparent reason.

Rusty Spanner
“I’m keeping two chevrons apart.”

It always makes me laugh at how some drivers can leave the 2 chevrons gap whilst they are painted on the ground, but as soon as they leave that section, they close the safe gap. 🙄