From: geoffm@purplehaze.Corp.Sun.COM (Geoff Miller)
Newsgroups: rec.autos.driving
Subject: Re: Tailgaters abound!
Date: 14 Sep 92 21:41:47 GMT
Followup-To: rec.autos.driving
Organization: Sun Microsystems, Menlo Park, Ca.
NNTP-Posting-Host: purplehaze.corp.sun.com



In article <BuDMIq.GM@news.cso.uiuc.edu> tmkk@uiuc.edu (Khan) writes:

>>I admit that I'm coming in partway through the movie here, so I may have
>>misread you, but you brought to mind one of my pet driving peeves:  Why 
>>would anybody _want_ to leave more than a few feet of space between you
>>and the car in front of you?

>When moving, this is known as a "safe following distance."

When moving, I've got no problem with it.  But the concept of a "safe
following distance" doesn't map directly to when you're stopped at
a red light.  What's a good practice under one set of conditions isn't
always advisable, or even necessary, under others.

------

>>I don't know why, but there's an epidemic in my area (the San Francisco
>>Peninsula and South Bay) of people leaving enormous amounts of space 
>>between their car and the car ahead of them, or between their car and the 
>>crosswalk, while stopped at red lights -- almost a full carlength in many
>>cases.  Not only is that a waste of space, which is annoying in principle
>>and inefficient during times of heavy traffic,

>I suspect it's so that if the car should be rear ended, it won't be
>pushed into the car in front/the intersection.

That's probably a partial explanation.  (I say "partial" because I'm
convinced that in many cases, this isn't a conscious strategy, but
something that's done simply because people aren't paying attention
to what they're doing.)

It's a trade-off.  I happen to feel that the odds of being rear-ended
are low enough, and the possibility of screwing up traffic flow by wasting 
space are high enough, that leaving excessive space in traffic light queues
is a poor practice.  

------

>I'm not annoyed by this at all. In fact, I do it myself, and have done
>so ever since I was rear ended at a stoplight by some dumb sh*t who was
>looking at his watch. I was struck from behind, and it forced me into
>the vehicle in front. Fortunately, the rearmost driver was insured, and
>that covered the damage to both vehicles, but had he not been, I suspect
>the driver ahead would have gone after *me* since it was my vehicle
>which struck hers.

Oh, that stuff undoubtedly happens, no argument there.  And airplanes have
been known to crash, but I still like to fly.  It's a question of what
precautions one considers prudent or even necessary.  Driving in itself
is considered a dangerous activity by some, but others acknowledge the
(slight) element of danger and drive anyway, because the benefits greatly
overwhelm the possibility of accident or injury.

------

>>I'm sure there's somebody out there, finger hovering over the "F" key, who's
>>just itching to tell me that it won't kill me to be delayed for the time it
>>takes the traffic signal to cycle around again.  Of course it won't

>I wasn't going to say that, but you're absolutely right!

Gee, my words take on a diametrically opposite meaning when they're quoted 
out of context, don't they?  I'm sure that if I offered up enough examples,
you'd eventually agree on a case in which delay would be annoying, even if 
it wasn't serious enough to screw up your schedule.  I acknowledge that my
priorities may not coincide with somebody else's, and I put that into
practice by doing all that I can to stay out of other people's way.  All
I ask from others is similar consideration.



Geoff


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Geoff Miller                    + + + + + + + +        Sun Microsystems
geoffm@purplehaze.Corp.Sun.COM  + + + + + + + +     Menlo Park, California
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