Why do you drive so close?

Seeing as a large proportion of the population do this on a regular basis there must be a fair few Singletrackers who fall in to this demographic, so on that basis why do some of you think driving a few feet from the car in fronts bumper is fine and dandy?

aero gainz

Since getting a car with adaptive cruise control, I just let the car decide the distance…

I don’t.

You just aren’t driving far enough in front

Not thinking

Not understanding

Unconscious incompetence

I just don’t get it especially when modern cars have a habit of auto braking in strange situations.

My windscreen jets don’t work, I’m waiting for you to squirt yours so I can catch a bit.

I’m convinced that shed loads of folk have crappy eyesight, hence the tailgating. Probably due to the aging population. 

Definitely an increase but not as much as I thought 🤔

https://www.statista.com/statistics/314898/share-driving-licence-holders-by-age-england/

The sooner we get driverless cars the better IMO.  Maybe people will finally realise that driving like a dick doesn’t get you anywhere during peak times any quicker. 

A question I have often pondered. Must be constantly driving with foot ready to brake, not exactly relaxing. I tend to leave very large gaps to the point that I rarely need to brake unless coming to a stop.

I see it so much and it drives me barmy too. The vast majority I see is not in the “making progress” category, it’s just regular drivers of a range of ages just driving along. Needlessly close.

If I have someone too close behind me my policy is to pull off and just let them go. Can’t be doing with it.

So over taking (or merging) cars can’t pull into the gap

I do get too close accidentally sometimes. I try not to but, y’know, human. It’s stupid and really dangerous.

The sooner we get driverless cars the better IMO.

It’s 2023 and we still haven’t mastered driverless printers.

Good luck doing that on the Edinburgh bypass at peak times. 

When it rains it’s even worse, people drive even closer but at half the speed. Every wet day, there is a smash.

Glad it’s not just me that seems to get tailgated constantly. I think most of the time it’s just people being thick TBH, not paying attention and having no real concept of what the safe distance is or why it’s important. There are a few exceptions where people are doing it deliberately to intimidate but this is the minority IMO.

The amount of times the driver behind me has absolutely zero contingency is frightening. Like if I hit the brakes hard in an emergency their airbags will have punched them in the head before they even hit the brake pedal. Morons

My adaptive cruise control is very good, even centres the car in the lane. So relaxing, every car should have it as standard. 

The worst thing is when you pull in and they fail to go past or even worse pull in behind you and continue to tailgate you.

Aye drives me potty that too @stumpyjon

Takes a special kind of stupid to tailgate when there is a clear lane to get the **** past!

I think most of the time it’s just people being thick TBH, not paying attention and having no real concept of what the safe distance is or why it’s important

👍

I drive a transit. Its the rules

Part of the problem is, if you leave a big enough gap, some other idiot will consider it a space to move into.

I tend to leave very large gaps to the point that

Lorries pull out into the gap….

What makes it even more moronic is if on a standard non dual carriageway and you are keen to get past the slickest way to get past is to drop back not forwards, giving yourself a pocket to time an acceleration into so by the time the gap in traffic coming the other way is available you are already travelling substantially faster than the car you want to overtake.

But as evidenced by every time we get a chance to vote on shit we collectively reveal ourselves to be pustulating morons, it’s really not too surprising.

Back last year in southwest France…. driving on a main road what was virtually empty of any traffic in any direction, about 3 cars wide, mainly straight but with the odd gentle curve, a bit undulating  but plenty of easy, safe overtaking possible and easy. 

We’re travelling at around 90 kph, car appears is behind us in the distance and is very quickly up behind us (probably travelling at  100kph+. On catching up with us it sits about 3 metres from our rear bumper, I move a bit nearer the curb…. no reaction, after a bit I slow down a bit, no reactio,n I speed up to 90 again, no reaction… I start to gradually slow down and repeat…. 

So now I’m really pissed off…. gradually slow down until I’m down to around 20kph….  Hurrah, they eventually overtake. During all of this there has been no traffic in either direction.

“It’s 2023 and we still haven’t mastered driverless printers”

That deserves more credit than it has got so far! :-D

I used to think it was asreholery, but now I think people just don’t pay attention enough and they do it because they do it, and that’s how they drive.

IMO it is a combination of lack of ability to judge distance, lack of driving awareness, distraction from driving or a few who want you to drive faster.

Not enough public information films – I’m half serious, I still say that to myself

There was that video doing the rounds of social media of someone tossing a handful of coins into the air through an open sunroof. Now I wouldn’t want to advocate violence but…….something similar with a water balloon of paint stripper could be fun.

Part of the problem is, if you leave a big enough gap, some other idiot will consider it a space to move into.

TBH I don’t mind,that’s why I leave a gap.
It’s only annoying if they then don’t use it to go past the next vehicle.
Nothing more annoying than a small group of tailgaters stopping people ‘making progress’ ;-)

I drive a transit. Its the rules

one of my colleagues does it, scares the crap out of me if I’m a passenger.
I’ve spoken to him about it and he just laughs and says I’ve not rear ended anybody yet, or words to that effect. Amazingly he hasn’t does big miles and has done for the last 30 years.

I have to look out of the side window, or better yet not get in the van in the first place.

I am often surprised by how some drivers seem to concentrate only on the car immediately ahead rather than having awareness of those two or three ahead of that which allows for better anticipation  of changes in speed etc. This was taught to me by my driving instructor in 1982 as a basic skill right from the start. Perhaps it isn’t in the current curriculum of driving schools?

I always have to ask my wife why we’ve brought our own car when we could just share the one in front.  She’s a nightmare and tailgates everything and somehow has never crashed into anything.

Perhaps it isn’t in the current curriculum of driving schools?

not much is by the looks of it, we live near a 6th form college and the standard of driving and parking of the 17/18 year olds  is quite frankly terrifying.  They can’t have forgot how to drive already, so I assume never learned.

The worst thing is when you pull in and they fail to go past or even worse pull in behind you and continue to tailgate you.

Even worserer still, you pull in, they crawl past you then pull in infront of you (too early) then slow down, ****** *******!

People are generally dickheads.

It’s not big or clever, but there’s a stretch of road just outside the village I live in, it’s a 60 that on approach to the roundabout goes to a 40 but there’s a good mile or more where people will be doing 40. Usually when they get to the 40 they speed up. I tend to end up too close a lot then. Alternatively, if I’m overtaking and someone just pulls out in front of me I often think we’ll if you’d checked you’d have seen me coming, why should I have to brake, again, it’s not clever but it really bugs me.

Rest of the time, I’m happy to keep a good distance back.

My adaptive cruise control is very good, even centres the car in the lane

Mine does this. It’d be the perfect line choice, if it were a left-hand drive in continental Europe.

Had a van the other day so close I thought I was towing him. I have adaptive cruise control too but I suppose said van driver might feel the gap is too much and he’ll lose too many nanoseconds.

OP – you don’t happen to be the moron driving a Focus ST* to work at HS2 in Wendover this morning do you?

* fitted with extra retina burning F1 style rectangular rear light that flashed whenever it decelerated

I drive a transit. Its the rules…

Me too, and the other bonus is that the closer you tailgate me, the less I can see of you in my wing mirrors. 👍

* fitted with extra retina burning F1 style rectangular rear light that flashed whenever it decelerated

Eh? So you were tailgating it then??