Why do people do this? Do you do this?

Soldato
Joined
13 Nov 2006
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23,712
It infuriates me greatly when I'm in a queue of cars and the person in front of me is creeping forward everrr sooo sllowwwllyy leaving a huge gap... Just pull up to the sodding car in front of you and stop!

The situation in the OP is less annoying, as I'll just start moving when the traffic dictates.

I don't drive super slow but I will leave a gap and drive slowly if I think the conditions are right, it helps to smooth out the flow of traffic. It's pointless hammering it as fast as you can only to slam the brakes on and cause a domino effect. If everyone left a gap and drove with logic I reckon 60% (internet value) of traffic would no longer exist.

I've done this at the same time as other cars and it genuinely prevented a pointless queue. A unicorn moment.
 
Soldato
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I don't drive super slow but I will leave a gap and drive slowly if I think the conditions are right, it helps to smooth out the flow of traffic. It's pointless hammering it as fast as you can only to slam the brakes on and cause a domino effect. If everyone left a gap and drove with logic I reckon 60% (internet value) of traffic would no longer exist.

I've done this at the same time as other cars and it genuinely prevented a pointless queue. A unicorn moment.

I fully agree if other cars are moving. But the situation I'm describing involves all the other cars apart from the one in front of me being stationary.
 
Soldato
Joined
21 Nov 2004
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2,825
I leave a gap as if you get rear ended it might just save the front end.

If I'm waiting in a queue at traffic lights I don't care so much about what the car in front is doing, but rather several cars ahead.
 

mrk

mrk

Man of Honour
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*Slight rant alert*

There's a queue of stationary traffic, usually at traffic lights. The car on front of you has for some reason left a pretty big gap between themselves and the car on front of them. Nothing ridiculous, maybe 1.5 car lengths, sometimes less. At some point before the traffic begins to move, they decide to slowly creep forward and fill the gap they had left, leaving you to be the car with the unnecessary gap on front of you. You now have to either sit there with a gap on front of you like a pillock, or move forward yourself. This process repeats all the way down the line of traffic.

Why?! I know it's not the end of the world, but I just don't understand it. Are they just impatient to get moving again? But why leave the gap in the first place? You just end up having dozens of people sticking their car into gear, crawling forward a few meters just to stop again and stick the handbrake on, for absolutely no reason.

Ok /rant. Feels good.

Why is having a gap in front of you considered being a pillock?!

It's better to have a decent gap, because if someone rear ends you, you have enough gap to react and not hit the car 30cm in front of you! I know this from experience, so trust me on this one :p
 
Soldato
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Stoke/Norfolk
It's better to have a decent gap, because if someone rear ends you, you have enough gap to react and not hit the car 30cm in front of you!

Yeap! The amount of accidents I see in Kent caused by people *not* leaving a big enough gap in traffic and being shunted is stupid, at least 1-2 a week!
 
Caporegime
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25 Nov 2004
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On the road....
I leave a gap sufficient for me to get my car or truck around what's in front in case it breaks down / whatever, alas I leave a big gap for the truck and you can guarantee some numb nuts will stick his car in my gap, just as they do in motorways and dual carriageways when I try to leave a safe distance in front of me.

The roads are full of morons.
 
Soldato
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12,706
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Leicestershire
If single row of traffic I can leave quite a bit of gap sometimes and that is just because I leave it in first, let the clutch out and by the time it's edged up to the car the car has moved off. The traffic lights change, there's a big gap again, it closes etc and repeat.

It's because I'm not going anywhere and I don't like sitting on the brakes or the clutch a lot. Oh and I've never had my handbrake adjusted in 98,000 miles or 15 years. And I never had to replace my rear brakes but I did my fronts at 95000 miles and clutch at 80000 (not because it was slipping but just one of them things) lol.

If there is a filter lane I tighten it up a little but I normally leave early so I'm not that bothered if a car or two filter in front of me.

HGV trainers still teach the 'tyres and tarmac' gap. :)
 
Soldato
Joined
12 Jul 2007
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7,867
Location
Stoke/Norfolk
How much do you drive, it's rare for me to see 1 a month :eek:

About 300 miles a week around Maidstone. The drivers of Kent have the widest variety between Good and Appalling I've ever seen and I spent 20 years moving around the country so I've seen a lot of drivers. Plus there's all the foreign drivers from Dover to deal with too.

There was 3 shunts on the A229 link road between the M20 (junction 6) and the M2 last week, 2 of which were so bad they required the emergency services to sort, and it's always because of someone hitting a queue of traffic and everyone else banging into the next car, usually involving 4-7 cars before the energy is low enough that the last car doesn't move much, or someone is sensible and leaves a gap.

About 2 weeks ago there was another bad crash (not shunt related) which backed up the traffic and I put my parking sensors/camera on as the guy behind me looks a bit "close" and he'd only left about a 30cm gap between us :eek:.

*edit* - here's the local Kent newspaper website for A229 stories (Blue Bell Hill), there was another one they misnamed the A299 too. Also remember that these are only the ones which require the emergency services, there's more which don't - http://www.kentonline.co.uk/search/?q=a229 - http://www.kentonline.co.uk/maidstone/news/a299-traffic-queues-due-to-116295/
 
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