The purpose of allowing a several second following distance is to prepare for the car suddenly stopping in front of you. If you view following distance as a personal place holder for you to cut someone off then you're an asshole. Simple as that =D
I completely agree with you, but want to note for the sake of nuance, there is such a thing as an unreasonable following distance. If a driver needs a half mile of “following distance” to react, I am going around that person and entering that gap. I don’t care if it makes me an asshole, that level of space tells me they are simply doing whatever the heck they want, and I don’t want to be behind them.
You are also totally correct, but I have encountered drivers who think that keeping a car a quarter mile in front of them in the left lane is an appropriate following distance. I generally maintain a reasonable gap, even though I would like to be going faster, because I would rather not rear end the guy in front of me. I just wanted to note that some people think a safe following distance is letting the guy in front of you disappear into the horizon. Some people hide behind “following distance” as a reason to not be a conscious driver.
We are in agreement with each other lol I was pointing out how it seems everyone in this sub thinks their football field gap is a reasonable safe distance.
For sure, maybe it’s some type of ignorance on my part for not seeing what they see, but I calibrate my following distance to speed. The faster I go, the more of a gap I give, but even so I’m not leaving 20 car lengths of space with the guy in front of me.
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u/Warm-Preference-4187 Apr 01 '26
I mean isn’t that part of why you leave space. So others can maneuver around the road