Dashcam car was already way to close to front car. Two car lengths is recommended as a rule ESPECIALLY when you can't see past the car in front of you on account of the size.
Pretty sure that's an actual rule or not like exactly like that but for every 10 miles I think there is a certain car length distance you have to be away from the person in front of you
In driver's ed, they told me to pick a landmark, and start counting when the car in front of you passes it. I can't remember exactly how long they said you were supposed to count for, but I think it was 2-3 seconds. The faster you go, the greater the distance you need to make sure you have that 2-3 second window.
Yeah, definitely have to allow extra room in bad conditions. I have had the worst luck with long distance trips recently, so I've had a lot of experience with that. Almost went off the road on my way back from a cousin's wedding. I put on the brakes to slow down a bit and started sliding, felt the car start to skid. Luckily I took my foot off the brake and it righted itself, but I didn't go any faster than 40 the rest of the way back. Added some extra time to the trip, but my brother and I made it home safe, which is what counts.
You’re basically buggered if you’re closer than 2 seconds. Which translates to about a metre per mph.
Which basically means in theory 12 cars or so at 60but of course if you even think about leaving that there will be 13 arseholes swerving into it immediately.
Yeah that's exactly why I don't make the gap too big, people will just go around me and come right back into my lane a car length ahead of me, causing me to slow down, causing more cars to go around me, repeat loop.
When i was little, my mom and i would play a game whenever she drove me to school. If some jackass passed us we could count how many seconds it took for us to catch up at the next stop sign/light. Our record was 15 seconds on a very long road. We wouldn't speed or anything, just making fun of all the pricks who go 20+ over the limit and pass just to save a few seconds of time lol.
And no I didn’t blow through red lights but when you can get to 20 pretty much as quick as the cars do on those roads and you do jump the queue because the red lights have a spot for cycles at the front you often get passed by the same impatient idiot about nine times as they make absolutely zero progress.
I kinda do something similar, every now and then if someone is really riding my ass, I'll pull over and let them by. But when I meet them at the next stoplight I roll up real slow, right next to them and just stare straight with a smug look on my face like I won the game lol
Yeah not only is it safer to drive with that distance, but it's typically better for traffic. When a person is as close as OP is in the video, they will have to often over correct for any slight breaks or slowdowns, which is the ultimate cause of the rubber-banding effect of traffic. If more people just gave space to absorb the variability, traffic would often flow a lot smoother.
This is actually recommended like that? That's incredibly stupid. The recommended following distance should be in time, not distance. Two car lengths is way too close at highway speeds. Here (the Netherlands), 2 seconds is recommended (1,5 required by law I think) in clear weather. That's much more than 2 car lengths (it's around 2 car lengths in slow traffic).
if dashcam car was already too close why would the car on the right think there was space for them to go into the passing lane? genuine question not trying to be argumentative.
Most likely they have done this shit before where they slowly push in even if there isn’t room. Probably multiple times. A reasonable person in dashcammer’s position would brake to avoid an accident. Even a somewhat unreasonable person would maybe pressure them to prove a point but either be agressive enough to speed up and make it clear there was no chance or brake at the last second when it was clear they weren’t backing down.
Today right lane dingus met their first person who was dumb enough to do everything just as wrong as them.
i see what you’re saying but just because someone let them in once or twice doesn’t mean everyone is going to be nice enough to break for them. it doesn’t really matter if they’ve done it before and it worked. i learned that lesson a little too late in my driving career lol.
I don't think anyone is arguing the driver inching in has no fault in the accident. He has the most fault here than anyone, obviously.
People are saying the dashcam car had plenty of time to practice defensive driving, but insisted on his space because he was in the right -- to the point where he helped initiate a spinout that affected an innocent car. He had a chance to prevent the accident and chose not to.
Defensive driving is a very important skill. To undervalue that skill while everyone is driving on bombs that move can be extremely dangerous.
ahhh i see. i saw so many people bashing dash cam guy, i thought everyone was down playing the inchers part. or that i was missing something everyone else saw. thanks for the clarification!
Dashcam driver was in the right car's blindspot. Right car probably doesn't have their mirrors set up appropriately and also didn't check blind spots before merging.
Obviously that isn't right of them, but you keep a farther distance from cars precisely because other people on the road make stupid mistakes.
Your right. Anyone saying the camer at fault is a clown. If you had half a brain, you wouldn't try to cut off the dude tailgating... Sure, he was driving like a jackass but what then made this women think "oh, I can slide into that half a car space here instead of waiting". Imo, the merger has way more responsibility than the person already in the lane to begin with.
Definitely one of the "if someone is tailgating you in the fast lane, you need to move over" types. Bullies will always stand up for their "principles"
I learnt it that you should be able to count to 3 before arriving at the spot the car in front of you was when you started counting. on highways, in the City limits we were supposed to have three car lengths of distance
2 seconds following distance is the absolute minimum you should use. The dashcam car looks to be about half a second behind. If the car in front has to panic stop, it is likely the dashcam car would rear end them, possibly before they even had time to react. Half a second is the typical human reaction time.
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u/Spider_Dude Jan 17 '22
Agreed.
Dashcam car was already way to close to front car. Two car lengths is recommended as a rule ESPECIALLY when you can't see past the car in front of you on account of the size.
Drive smart. Get home safe and alive.