[fantasticsid]

I’ve thought about this and and I think the best thing to do here is to relentlessly keep a long, safe distance from vehicles ahead. There are just things you can’t possibly see that the driver before you can.(a puppy/squirrel/whatever that he wants to avoid killing, you can’t possibly know). You can’t anticipate what a human will do here.

You also give yourself a buffer when vehicle ahead have an emergency stop - imagine there’s a truck behind you.

I guess what I’m saying is these ‘brake checks’ are welcome, even if they only serve to educate people.

[dolzenko]

Problem is everybody else have to behave similarly, otherwise other cards just take the place of that safe distance.

[carlmr]

It might be annoying, but even if a few cars get in between you usually don't lose much by getting a safe distance again.

[NLips]

I second this.

There are three scenarios if I'm not overtaking:

1) I'm going faster than the vehicle in front. In this case, it doesn't matter if another vehicle pulls in between us because I'm about to overtake anyway.

2) I'm going slower than the vehicle in front. In this case, it doesn't matter if another vehicle pulls in between us because I'm falling back and the gap is ever-increasing.

3) I'm going approximately the same speed as the vehicle in front. In this case, there tend to be two ways a vehicle pulls inbetween us:

a- it's merging from an on-slip-road (on-ramp?), in which case this doesn't happen often, and I'll just fall back or overtake b- it's just overtaken me, then slotted into a gap that's too small for it anyway. If the car has overtaken me, it's mostly because it wants to go faster (in which case it will probably vacate the space again soon) or it wants to pull off (in which case it will definitely vacate the space again).

If I am overtaking, then yes, someone may pull into the gap, but I'm still overtaking the vehicle I want to get past.

If you stop worrying about going 2mph faster than another lane of traffic, then leaving a safe gap is mostly pretty easy and stress-free. It will only take you 15 minutes longer to drive 200 miles at 65 than at 70.

[Silhouette]

Here in the UK, where we drive on the left and overtaking is only allowed to the right of slower vehicles under normal conditions, there are some other variations:

c- a vehicle in the lane to your left that you were going to overtake has itself caught up with a slower vehicle and wants to pull out to overtake it, moving into the gap in front of you

d- a vehicle with an impatient driver is undertaking traffic (passing to the left of slower vehicles) and then moves into the gap in front of you.

The first of these is a normal situation, but still results in a vehicle moving into the space in front of you, sometimes without accelerating up to your speed first. Fortunately, it's usually easy to anticipate this situation, and many drivers will helpfully drop back a little to allow more space for the other vehicle to move out.

The second of these is a result of aggressive and probably illegal driving, and is more of a problem because the driver cutting in may well be going too fast, move out into a space that isn't really wide enough, and then brake suddenly.

Still, in my experience these don't cause much delay if you're allowing a sensible gap in front. I find people who try to keep closer to the car in front to deter others from pulling into "their" space seem to get far more upset about these situations than I do.

[NLips]

(also in the UK) Completely agree with your closing remark. By and large, by deciding to not care about stopping cars getting in front of me, it doesn't bother me when they do. Any delay is completely negligible.

[AnIdiotOnTheNet]

When this happens to me on my commute, I find it incredibly hilarious. Sometimes I wave at the driver through their rear-view when we are inevitably stopped at the same stoplight not 2 minutes later.

[loco5niner]

I find myself on both sides of this equation, sometimes "what a waste, why did this guy bother passing?", and sometimes "Phew, finally in front of THAT person"(even if we are stopped at the same light, but I'm now in front).

Reminds me of the George Carlin line: "anybody driving slower than you is an idiot, and anyone going faster than you is a maniac"

[cm2187]

Agree. In Europe, if you follow the recommended safety distance, you always have the time to brake if anything happens to the car in front of you. The problem is that people do not follow them.

[ProblemFactory]

Following the recommended safety distance (2-3 seconds of travel distance if I recall correctly) is quite difficult in moderate to heavy traffic.

If you leave a large enough gap with the car in front, then people will merge into that gap. If you then slow down to create a new gap - people will overtake and merge in again. You end up travelling slower than the rest of traffic, with people overtaking and merging, which creates dangers in itself.

[whyever]

> I think the best thing to do here is to relentlessly keep a long, safe distance from vehicles ahead.

In Germany, this is legally required. However, the safety distance is often abused by other vehicles when passing.

[mabbo]

This is just generally good advice and always has been. Don't drive too closely to stop safely.