I have no doubt you specifically are the kind of person who follows the three second rule, but everyone who has said drafting is categoricaly dangerous? No way, unless participating in an automotive board belies safe driving, which I highly doubt.

 

By and large it seems most the people on the TSX, RL and RDX boards are big supporters of safe driving habits (there are too many young kids on the CL and especially the TL board advocating outright stupidity to comfortably make such a proclamation in their defense). Sure in congested areas it's not always viable to maintain the ideal time cushion, but at least speaking for myself, if there's room, I'm way back there.

Your because-I-said-so reasoning is just a big fat assumption. Believe what you will, it has no bearing on the discussion at hand.

 

I've got three friends whose windshields have been taken out (not to mention other damage) from flying debris from other (trucks). Following distance wasn't always a factor, but it gives one pause for thought.

Spent time down in LA, MS, AL, TX, so I know about those two-lane undivided freeways. Boy, the 610 loop in Houston ... I remember seeing flying stuff all the time.

 

Sure there's risk in everything, but I don't think reasonable drafting is an "epic fail". Our TSXs will get old and lose their value, a few more little chips won't make that big of a difference.

A TSX can stop a lot faster than a tractor tailer so the odds favor plently of advance warning, plus tractor trailers are heavy so they'll probably obliterate whatever obstacle they hit and still have forward momentum to spare, leaving the worst case scenario being that the the tractor trailer hits a concrete wall and comes to an immediate stop, which in the spectrum of likelihood is very low. So I would say following too close isn't safe but that drafting isn't an epic fail.

 

Or the way more likely scenario that some one in a vehicle that can stop quicker than the truck gets hard on the brakes in front of the truck where you can't see it. All the sudden the ass of the truck, which is all you can see, is getting real close and moving all the place. I'd rather have some notion of what's happening up ahead so I can plan my egress.

The safe enough argument is a cop out.

 

haha...

I think everyone who has posted a comment about safety is on the money... there ain't no money in the world that can buy your life or health back.

I personally keep a pretty safe distance and am pretty anal about rock chips so I never do this in my own car.

I just think it's kinda cool you can travel more efficiently by following a truck... not really practical, but pretty cool =)

 

where would you want to be if you were behind that truck? watch what happens after the 1:00 mark.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i5wuiSy6xFM

 

I have absolutely no idea what that video has to do with drafting.

It all depends on the circumstances. Are there other people in the car with you or are you driving solo? Is it raining and or windy? Is it night time? Are there lots of other cars on the road? Are you driving through an active area or a straight away in mid west? It's never as simple as "epic fail".

 

i thought you guys said you can stop on a dime? does it matter what the circumstances are per your logic? haven't you kids watch those epic crashes in nascar races? they are all drafting. the consequences are amplified due to the speed and proximity of their driving but you can reasonably extrapolate the consequences for the every day driver.

 

of all things, i just saw the re-run of the mythbuster's episode on drafting. while confirming the benefits of drafting in terms of fuel efficiency, they categorically, absolutely, positively said it was not worth endangering your life. they also had the segment on the exploding big rig tire (which i mentioned earlier) and the rubber shrapnel decapitated "buster". they mentioned that the safest distance to drive behind a big rig at 55 miles per hour is 150 feet. driving any closer would put you in the driver's blind spot and gives you zero time to react.

driving skill/ fuel effeciency aside, drafting just isn't worth it. period.

 

They have to say it's unsafe, they could be sued if a person gets themselves in an accident and claims they did it because Mythbusters told them to.

Mythbusters showed about 10% decrease of fuel usage at 100 feet; most people follow any kind of vehicle closer than that regardless of wether they are intentionaly drafting or not.

It's obviously more dangerous to follow at 100 feet rather than 150 but that doesn't mean it's extremely risky either. People hang glide, parachute, dive and climb mountains and sometimes die despite safety precautions, but they do it anyway, mainly because they're not cowards.

 

I wonder if there's a thread about running stop signs, and the effect on fuel economy. The practise has been in effect around here for years, so there should be some good empirical data on the subject...but that also means that introducing this to the public is moot and will not yield any benefit. [My other car has been hit 3 times while I've been stopped at a stop sign, so I don't see NOT stopping - although I don't - as being any safer.]

Perhaps a segway into better options would be to consider if you take city street corners (if at reasonable speeds and without needing to resort to "using all the road") in 2nd, 3rd, or 4th gear, and if you bother to slow for said corners with or without any accompanying gear changes. I'd expect everyone with smaller-diameter 225/45-17's to generally use 3rd, but do people those people use 4th if the posted speed is 30mph?

With 205/60-16 snow tires in the dry I slow and use 2nd, or may lug around in 3rd, but generally try not to abuse the tread if the roads are warm (40F). With larger and heavier 225/50-17's in the dry I use 3rd. I have no idea if I'm saving any fuel because I now only use 6th gear on the hwy.

 

This discussion is not really TSX specific and probably should be in the "Off-Topic" forum. Feel free to take it over there.

https://acurazine.com/forums/ramblings-12/