What's up with drivers who leave an entire car length between them the car in front?

What can this possibly be to you?!

Preferable to drives who go through the crosswalk and then stop or who drive 5 feet behind you going 50 MPH

That's how you're supposed to drive, not right up someone's ass like it's one of your one-night stands.

I do it to have an escape route in case someone decides to start shooting.

What's up with people starting dumbass threads?

That really ticks me off.

It's been bugging me for years, OP. Sometimes it's more than a full car length, and then, once stopped, they often slowly roll forward into the gap anyway just before the light changes. If often pull into the gap just to piss them off.

That’s how people are taught to drive OP. You’re stopped so why do you give so many fucks about one lousy car length that you start a thread about it?

You’re always supposed to leave 2 car lengths between you and the car in front of you on the interstate in case you have to slam on brakes.

I should have been more precise: drivers who are stopped at a traffic light and leave an entire car length between them and the car in front.

You’re the problem Op, probably in most every situation you find yourself in.

I was taught to keep at least a car's length, preferably two, between you and the car in front of you.

When stopped, you should be able to see the rear tires of the car in front of you.

People not using their turn signals, or waiting until the last moment, now that's maddening.

I do it so that hopefully someone behind me who has been tailgaiting will miss the green light and have to sit there longer.

TrollLounge

It’s to have room to avoid being rear ended by cunts like OP who are anxious to spot right at someone’s rear bumper.

They slowly roll ahead once they know lunatics like you behind them have slowed /stopped. Exerting some control over bad drivers like OP

And btw the one car length space won’t get you to work faster.

OP you are a damn fool. Get off this site.

One word for those type of drivers OP: Cunt.

[quote] I do it to have an escape route in case someone decides to start shooting.

As an American expat in Eastern Europe, we were taught to do this for the exact same reason…our license plates both offered protection, but made us targets

I don't know if this is a legitimate concern but I've always been paranoid about my car sucking in exhaust from the car in front, so I like to leave a lot of space between my car and the one in front when stalled in traffic (or when going through the drive-in at McDonald's).

Breathing exhaust is the perfect pairing with the McDonald’s drive-thru

LOL r19, I had a feeling someone was going to call me out for misplaced health concerns.

OP and here I thought it was only me that noticed that in my area for the past couple of years! 1 to 2 car lengths behind the car in front of them! It's one thing to do so if your in a "bad area" in case you get attempted car jacked and you have enough room to take off, otherwise?...

I think it would seem the reason why this is happening? CELL PHONES!.. people on their cell phones seeing they have to stop soon and just stop whenever and wherever they want to, whether it's 10 feet or 30 feet behind the car in front of them, so they can continue to talk or text, looking up occasionally to see the light turn from red to green. Not giving one single crap about anyone besides themselves much less the cars behind them....

R18, People like you make traffic worse and should not be driving. You need to be taking medication for your issue.

If I am behind a driver who can leave such a gap between him and the car in front, when the light turns green, I immediately lay on the horn for one long blast.

They appreciate that as much as I like using my horn!

[quote] If I am behind a driver who can leave such a gap between him and the car in front, when the light turns green, I immediately lay on the horn for one long blast.

If you did that to me, I’d put the car in park and we’d sit through the next five lights until you pulled your head out of your ass.

r24 I'd whip around you and yell out my window, "Eat my dust, putz!"

R24, And then I'd pull put my gun and shoot you. I'm hardcore.

In driving school I was trained that at traffic lights to leave enough space so that if the car in front of you stalled you could pull out around them without having to back up first.

Thus was when most cars were already automatic, but now I wonder if it was left over from earlier teaching plans.

I get all bent out of shape when the car first in line at a traffic light does not move until five to twenty seconds after the green light shows, then they roll slowly through the intersection. It used to be 10-12 cars could move throw the intersection before the light turned red again, now it is between four or five cars.

My father drummed in me that I should always be considerate to other drivers on the roads I travel. I should be thinking not just for me, but for other drivers as well.

It’s a sure sign of getting old when you wistfully look back forty years to a time which have long moved on, when the great majority of people took into consideration how their decisions affected others.

Are you stupid? You're supposed to go the speed of traffic and leave two full, unrushed seconds between you and the car in front of you. This gives you enough time to react if they do something dumb, if their car breaks, if they brake for an animal, etc. If you rear end anyone without that 2 full seconds, you'll be paying the tickets, fines, and restitution in the civil suit.

It does matter when they won’t pull forward enough for the sensors for the traffic light. I’ve had to go around, turn right and do a U turn after missing several lights because of this.

[quote]And btw the one car length space won’t get you to work faster.

It would if assholes in the left turn lane would move up so fewer drivers are hanging out of the end of the turn lane, blocking people trying to drive in the other lanes.

[Quote] I get all bent out of shape when the car first in line at a traffic light does not move until five to twenty seconds after the green light shows, then they roll slowly through the intersection. It used to be 10-12 cars could move throw the intersection before the light turned red again, now it is between four or five cars.

You're more lenient than I am: if I'm the second car and the first one doesn't go within two seconds of that light turning green, I'm on my horn.

I think if you are rear-ended and pushed into the vehicle in front of you, the person at the rear is always at fault. So I suspect some drivers leave space to avoid being pushed into the car ahead. Also, the poster above makes sense, about leave space to pull around a disabled vehicle. That, too, makes sense.

I stop just ahead of the white line at red lights because if you stop past the line, another vehicle taking the turn too tightly can clip your left front end, and the position of the tire marks might implicate you (although the moving vehicle is likely to be considered at fault, too).

I try to anticipate the worst scenario and drive cautiously. I think many drivers are uninsured, or under-insured, and you can end up with a big expense, and/or get hurt.

R9 so that's a problem? How?

I have a more serious concern. Californians have no fucking lane discipline. Half of them wander from edge to edge of their lane. And God forbid they have to turn. They regularly swing across the lane line in the opposite way they are turning as though they were driving a boat by the rudder. Cars turn from the front, idiots, you don't need to swing wide!

I love being that person who’s first in line at a red light, and as it turns green, take my sweet old time turning so that people in back of me can’t make the light and have to sit there and stew through another round of the red light.

I don't understand why the FIRST car at the light sits way back. There is no car in front of it, and I've been noticing this. A lot! It irritates the fuck out of me.

Also when you are the first car at the light leave a few feet between the front of your car and the beginning of the crosswalk. That’s in case you get rear-ended you don’t run over a pedestrian crossing in front of your car. You must drive as if all other drivers are out there to kill you! (This piece of advice came from a Vietnam vet. I think he thought that everyone is out to kill him!)

I go two blocks out of my way just to get to an intersection with a camera so I can catch a light onto the super busy artery I'd never be able to get on otherwise. And what do some social terrorists do? They turned the lights on the pole so the camera doesn't look at the cars but out into the intersection. So I have to pull up through the crosswalk for the camera to notice me anymore! Shameless Traffic fiends!

There are some errors about the law in some posts above. I was in a terrible car collision over Christmas in Palm Springs. Three of us were waiting at a stoplight when we were rear ended by a drunk guy in a van traveling at 75 mph. I was the middle car of the three. The man driving the car behind me was killed. I was thrown into the car in front of me, and that collision spun me sideways and into the side of a car that was driving on the opposite side of the road. I always leave space between cars, but probably not a full car length - maybe about 10 feet between cars. I was not charged or held in any way responsible for the collisions - and in fact, my car was the only car that was involved in 3 collisions - one from behind and two in front. When I got out of the car, crawling out of the passenger side because the airbag had deployed, I was stunned that I was alive when I saw the destruction all around me. However, it is true that in ice storm situations, the rear vehicle can be charged with following too closely, because the condition of the road is supposed to tell you that collisions will be likely and you should be leaving plenty of space between you and all vehicles around you.

[quote]You’re always supposed to leave 2 car lengths between you and the car in front of you on the interstate in case you have to slam on brakes.

Wrong. The rule is 1 car length per 10 miles per hour. So yes, I know it sounds like a lot but 5 car lengths if you are going 50 mpr. You have to allow for skidding into the car even if you take immediate action.

I have never seen that R35 and I have lived in LA for 20 years. Where the fuck are you driving?

Well I dont usually leave a full car space in front of me when I am at a total stop but the other day I did, probably avoided crossfire. My normal bank in a safe neighborhood ATMs were locked down for some reason. So I went to a more sketchy neighborhood to do a transaction. On my way out I turned down a narrow city street and the guy in front of me came to a brief stop in the middle of the road. He got out, looked like a gang banger, in some kind of argument in front of someones house leaving his car there. So as I attempted to go around him, another car came head on in my direction and also stopped to block traffic. Something was going down and I didnt want to be in the crossfire. Fortunately, because I had the space in front of me and a very maneuverable car, I did a 3 point turn and just made it into a side street. Had I fallowed close who knows what would have happened. I definitely would have been trapped with cars behind me. Either witnessing something bad or being a part of it.

Defensive driving is not just about avoiding bad drivers.

Yes, Merka, LA has lots of gangs FYI

[quote]What can this possibly be to you?!

When people don't drive up to the white line, they don't trigger the lights, and you can end up sitting there forever until they finally figure it out.

They want a chance to make a getaway when the shooting inevitably starts.

R4 is my brain twin. Funny or sad we both think that way.

I will also add that I do this when I first approach traffic stoped on the interstate. Until enough cars fill in behind me, I want to be able to get out of the way of a distracted driver who may not have time to stop.

Lastly, those of you acting to intentionally piss off other drivers are taking your life in tie hands driving in these United States.

* into

Hey r44 -- traffic sensors embedded in the pavement are far and few between in my city.

So back off, Bub.

This is why I can't wait until we all have self driving cars. All of this bullshit will go away.

[quote]I should have been more precise:

It's not that you weren't precise enough -- the question you asked was completely different from the one you apparently meant to ask.

When a car is slow to respond to a traffic signal, I often see drivers looking down at their smartphones, texting or reading a text, tweet or post. I think that’s an automatic fine of $300 in some states. I always worry that if I were in an accident of any kind, the first thing they would investigate is a log of my smartphone activity. I’d be so ashamed standing before some judge having to explain that.

R53.. In my area (outside of a major u.s. city) I have personally NEVER ONCE seen a person pulled over, ticketed, read in the newspaper police blotter, anyone ever done so because of talking on the cell phone, texting and so on which IS illegal in this area and state...

Then again, whenever it's pouring down raining and you are supposed to have you headlights because once again it's the law, I could drive around a 10 miles radius and LITERALLY count 20, 30, 40, 50 cars that don't have their lights on! Are there THAT many people who don't know the law or don't care?....

R54, it’s because these people don’t think the laws apply to them.

My elderly parents walk their dog along the village green in New England. When I join them, I always see a few drivers speed by holding a giant coffee in one hand and their phone in another. It’s pretty scary. Everyone seems so distracted. It’s a wonder we don’t see even more accidents.

It must be typical human narcissism and self absorption in that if you asked a 100, 1000, 10,000, 100,000 people every single one of them would say "no one knows how to drive!" . Obviously not everyone can be right, so some of those who are saying this are the ones that don't know how to drive! So are they that clueless in this regard or pathologically stubborn to not be able to admit it?

"oh you mean YOU can drive, and text and speed and talk on your phone it's those OTHER people that can't!"?...

A car length in front when driving? On the highway I try to leave a car length for every 10 mph, as recommended. In street traffic, an easy car length unless we're crawling.

Never had a moving violation.

Just rude unneighborly behavior. I always make a point of leaving a big space for someone else. Does it cost you anything to be gracious?

[quote] On the highway I try to leave a car length for every 10 mph, as recommended.

Yep, I do the same, it's in the manual. I dont know why people act like they never head of that. At leas in the US that is. That method has saved me a few times. Sudden accident 2 cars ahead of me I couldn't see, breaking just in time to skid into the car in front and not hit it. I have never hit anyone. So far, every fender bender I have been involved with in LA has been the other guys fault. I usually collect from their insurance. Never had to pay out.

When I'm driving on a freeway, I try to keep a few car lengths between me and the car in front of me. I decelerate and allow space to widen when someone changes into my lane in front of me. The game I'm playing is DON'T HIT THE BRAKES ALL THE GOD DAMNED TIME. The roads are full of assholes changing lanes erratically without signaling, jamming up behind the next car and then hitting the brakes. Then everyone behind them hits their brakes and there's stupid slow downs for NOTHING. I love seeing lane changing assholes getting boxed in.

[quote]I dont know why people act like they never head of that.

No one has acted as if they have never heard of that rule. That rule, however, does not apply to OP's post. He clarified at r9 that he was asking about leaving an entire car length while at a traffic light. It does seem that, in the last several years, people have started leaving a lot of room between each car while sitting at traffic lights or stop signs, when that's not necessary, and in fact slows things down and can cause problems.

The only thing I dont get is not pulling up to the line if you are at the front of a stop.

[quote] You’re the problem Op, probably in most every situation you find yourself in.

LOL. I'm stealing that, R10

R62.. exactly, no one is talking about driving 70 mph on a freeway, it's about on the road in a town or city where people are doing this,at stop signs and stop lights, stopping 1 to 2 car lengths behind the car in front of them and yes, it slows everyone down and causes backups.. As I said, it's selfish ignorance and people in their own little world of their cars, fiddling with their phones, talking, texting, and so on, oblivious to anyone behind them......

What shithole cities are you all from where people are stopping at red lights with car lengths between them? And the clarification the OP made was after he started getting (rightly) criticized for his stupidity. The original post had absolutely nothing to do with red lights or traffic signs so not sure how such an obvious difference eluded him. Or was he just backtracking not to sound like a total idiot?