In just the last couple of years, tons of people have started leaving as much as a carlength and a half between them and the car ahead when they stop at a traffic light.

What the hell is that about? No one has yet been able to tell me what started this stupid trend. The closest anyone has come is the lame notion that it leaves you an "escape path" if someone runs up and tries to carjack you. Some escape path when there's 2 or three lanes all stopped.

The reasons it irritates me are -

1. It often needlessly blocks access to turn lanes
2. Where there is a series of intersections/lights, it can easily make you miss a light
3. It slows the overall traffic flow by not using available road space
4. It's stupid

Folks - in grade school, in the line at the DMV, at the 5-screen multiplex ticket window, in the military, everywhere (except at stoplights), they've told you to "move on up", "close ranks", whatever. So why don't the rules apply at stoplights?

IOW, what the hell is goin' on with this? :silvermad

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Cause people don't know how to drive manual and drift backwards a lot

I HATE when people come right up ur ass and ur on a hill.
Other then that, i havent experienced this "trend"

 

Haha! I'm in Texas - we don't have hills.

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not sure i see the problem. so you have to wait an extra minute or so. big deal. in drivers's ed you were taught to be able to see the back wheels of the car in front of you when you are stopped. i havent noticed 2 or 3 car lengths, even still no big deal.

 

Answer: Old peeps do this.

 

Well, I'm glad you asked, because I've heard this before.

The reason is that I live in a big metroplex area with lots of cars and lots of traffic. One carlength doesn't seem like a lot, does it? But multiply that by even 2 or 3 cars, and you can be squeezed out of an intersection you could otherwise go on through.

Okay, so it's one light you have to wait through, right? Nope. That one light gets snowballed by multiple intersections, so you spend an extra 5, 10 or 15 minutes getting somewhere. That's enough to be late for a doctor app't. or a restaurant reservation or whatever, if you're running close or if traffic gets bogged down otherwise.

Then there's the left (and sometimes right) turn lanes. I can't tell you how many times I've sat there behind some bozo blocking access to the turn lane because he won't pull up, and watched the turn light (usually the longest wait of all) go green, then yellow, then red. Honk at them and they look at you like you're from Mars. That's just plain rudeness and stupidity.

The plain truth is that as roads become more crowded, it's our responsibility to move up, make room for others, and generally get the heck out of the way. There's only so much road out there, and with more and more people sharing it, we need to squeeze on up and get out of each other's way.

Stop back where you can see the car's wheels??? Why? So you can check their tire wear? Come on. Driver's Ed purposely overdoes things, hoping you'll do half as much when you actually drive. After all, they also teach you to use your turn signals and to stop on red before turning right, but I seldom see people do that nowadays. (BTW, I do both. )

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Wish that were the case, but in my area, it's usually soccer moms.

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Yeah, cuz they're all holding you back 10ft more feet from your destination .. fuckin' assholes.

If there's a big gap, I say "oh wow, that's a big gap." Not ":LEWOMFG HTOlkJ;LjoigEJG:lekjWTF?!f)#)@jfjf" .. As said, no biggie. You must be one of those people with really short fuses ..

However I can understand certain circumstances, like they're blocking you from an exit or something .. Sounds like the people who go on the right exit lane to go straight, but the light's red and I'm behind them when I could turn if they weren't in my way. I get mildly annoyed then.

 

Leave earlier, take an alternative route, etc.
if 2 car lengths makes you late, then you are already late.

 

Wow. I'm surprised you guys are so accepting of this rude behavior. Must be why there's so much of it. As I said in my reply, it ain't 2 carlengths making me late - it's 2 carlengths times 20 people doing it.

A recent University of Texas study showed that people on average are losing a couple of weeks of their lives sitting in traffic every year. And if people rudely block traffic by not moving on up and filling in spaces at traffic lights, they're just stealing part of your life. But if that doesn't bother you, what can I say?

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You need to chill out. Worry about real problems.

People do that for a few reasons. None of which are to inconvenience you.

1 - some drivers like to give that extra space instead of riding right up on someones bumper in case something happens(could be anything)
2 - It's actually part of your driving education in all states. Maybe you should look it up & study the rules of the road.
3 - Some traffic lights are not positioned right & if you pull all the way up you can not see the light.
4 - Some drivers would rather just take it easy

And for the record it's only by you. I haven't seen this behavior in FL, NYC, or NJ.

 

Aw, come on, fuzzy - I know they don't do it just to annoy me. But I still don't know why they do it.

I've only been driving for 45 years now, so I kinda know the rules. And if they ARE teaching that now in school, I'd just like to know what the logic is. As I indicated originally, I never saw this until about 2 years ago, so it's something new.

But if it's not okay to discuss things on a discussion forum, I'll let you close this thread.

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In colorado a lot of people stop 1-3 carlengths before a crosswalk or white stop line. This annoys the hell outta me lol.

another problem in colorado is at intersections, a lot of people don't pull out into the intersection to make left turns, thus creating a jam up in the left turn lane if there is no arrow at the light.


In general colorado drivers are slower, less aggressive, and more clueless than what im used to in illinois.

 

i was gonna say the same thing.

 

I usually go into a lane with the least cars waiting unless my turn is up ahead. If I'm the first in line I leave some distance because I don't want to get rear ended and end up hitting a pedestrian in front of me.

 

Trust me no power trip here, discuss away.....

I do see your points. And I really don't have a sold answer. I was serious when said look it up. Maybe something has changed.

 

I'm from DFW and i don't really notice this trend, but it annoys the heck out of me when someone is right at my ass at a stoplight. I usually try to roll back as they are approaching so they know i'm a standard. I almost always leave a length between myself and the car ahead of me, since it's just common courtesy. More of a chance not to hit the person in front of you if you get rear ended as well, which happened to me a month ago in my dads truck. I was too close to the person ahead of me and i went into them when the person hit me from the back.

 

I pack closely if I'm in heavy traffic; people tend to cut me off if I leave space anyway.

That said, if traffic is loosely packed, I leave about a car length in front at a red light. That way, I can accelerate at the same time that the person in front of me does and still have room to slam on the brakes if they stop.

And ditto on the chill out remarks.

 

Settle down, Francis.

Seriously, you're gonna give yourself a stroke if you get this bent about silly shit.

 

Haven't noticed this either.

Perhaps they're just out to get you. Maybe they're like, "There's Mike_TX. Let's leave 1-2 car-length gaps between each car to piss him off."

 

normally when people are blocking the turning lane i need to get to, i drive on the grass

 

my mom does that. her reasoning is that if she gets hit from behind, she won't crash into the car in front of her. the way i see it is that it only bothers me when it causes me not to be able to get into a turnlane and end up sitting in the same spot for 5-10 extra minutes.

 

I hate it when people are on my ass when I'm stopped, it scares me that they might hit my rear bumper.

 

Rude? Rude is putting me in danger parking your car on my ass because you can't leave on time. THAT is rude...

If you can't see my rear tires at the stoplight you're too close. This is driving school 101. If you get rear ended and bump the person in front of you that's your fault for following too closely.

Bunch of stupid dumbfu****s who think that little space saving really helps...

Twisting statistics to help your argument eh? Where are the statistics that following too closely saves any time and reduces accidents/injurys?

You are reminding me of the morons who try and speed to the destination that's 5 miles away. Risking everyones safety to shave 60 seconds off of their travel time. Ya that's well worth the time savings... you morons. I always love catching up to you guys at the highway exit when all I did was chill in my lane and exit. I didn't spend a lot of time cutting people off, driving like an F1 car racer. Again, putting lifes at risk to save a few seconds. Which on average ends up being NULL anyway.

This is also like the chronic red light runners... they also help save space and time again at the risk of everyone else. Know anyone who has been t-boned that no longer has any time left that would agree with this small time savings? ... I don't think so....

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It's really kinda sad that someones health being at risk is really worth you saving a few seconds every day. That you'll probably waste watching TV or doing some other unimportant task.

 

i forgot that texas lets anyone get a liscence. all you have to do is take a test when u are 18, no driver's ed. from your post i would have thought you were 17, but since u have been driving for 45 years, you are at least 45 so you should be little more relaxed about this. this is definately not new. people have been doing this for at least 14 years, as that is what i was taught in drivers ed.

 

 

I just saw someone do this yesterday and it bothers the heck out of me. I can actually pull my car in the slot they left open.

Yes you are suppose to leave the distance so you can see the bottom of the car and tires. But the distance these folks are leaving, it's way way to huge. 1.5-2 cars open.

The other thing that happens a lot that pisses me off, is that if we have two turn lanes that turn left, and I am in the right one, the left lane people think they own both lanes so they come over into your lane. I almost got side swipped by someone yesterday, but thanks to my Brembos I was able to get out of the way fast. I hit my horn when I saw it, the lady didn't even budge. I went around her when I got a chance, and it was some old lady driving a f250.

 

I just thought of something Mike. The other reason I get upset with those people who put the 2-3 car lenghts then stop is because your predicting the stop yourself and now the car in front of you is hitting there brakes much harder so you were unprepared so now you have to hit your brakes harder.

Also sometimes these people that stop early, start to coast or rolling after they stop to get closer. My god, this irritates me because I drive a manual, and I need to slip the clutch just to move up slowly with them. lol.

 

You guys are a riot.

First, thanks for the advice, but I'm REALLY not stroking out over this. It was just a light-hearted rant about something that does irritate a lot of us out there.

Second, I don't get "on someone's ass" at stoplights. I pull up to a respectable and safe distance ... I just don't leave 15 and 20 feet of distance like I see every day here. (No, I'm not exaggerating. I'm talking over a car length or more between cars.)

Third, I know some people drive sticks, so I don't get close enough that they could roll into me. That's never happened a single time since I started driving in 1962.

There's no need to berate me or try to run down the entire state of Texas just because you might not agree with me. That's pretty childish, don't you think? I'll put my driving skills up against any of you pussies out there.

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not to many lights around here. the light closest to the house is 3 miles the the one the other way about 5 miles. and the one 3 miles away no one hardly at that light it's lightly travelled. its the intersections of 2 state routes and people were blowing the stop sign so they put in a light.

 

I tell ya what Mike, I see it all over the place and it bugs me too. Mostly crossing intersections in the city, but also get snuffed out of turn lanes. It's most annoying when I'm the next car behind a gapper who's blocking me from a turn lane, when it clearly would require little to no effort (or risk) to the car in front of me to courteously pull up to let me by. Really nothing more than a pet peeve though.

I always joke with the gf when I see a gapper next to me and I want to parallel park into the spot in front of them...just never had the audacity to do so!

 

When i stop at a red light, I prefer to see the back wheel of the car before me. This way, if some impatient jackass decided to plow into my car, I won't have to have front end damage as well. On a steep hill, I might try to leave a longer gap just in case the driver in front of me is an idiot who doesn't know drive and let his car roll back into me. Not even mentioning that the driver behind me would try to do the same and leave me a small wiggle room.

I don't mind being considerate of others, but I have to watchout for the safety of myself and my passenger(s).

 

To defend Mike, for those of you that haven't driven a lot in larger cities (and Dallas in particular), there are a ton of lights packed into one area & often times you can end up stopping at the next one before you ever get up to a decent speed - Houston is the same way. If someone does rear-end you at the next red light (which happens much less often than on the highway or in less sparsely-lighted areas), it'll be going all of 5 or 10 mph - not 50.

I've noticed people doing this since I moved to Houston about 1.5 yrs ago & it gets on my nerves, too. I've missed many a turn light just sitting and staring at the pretty green arrow while some retard puts on her makeup instead of moving up 4-5 feet & letting me by, still leaving plenty of room between their car & the next.

I don't know why a lot of you have jumped off the handle on this one - perhaps it just isn't as prevalent in your city/town as it is around here. I seriously doubt that Mike would've posted about this if it didn't happen enough to really get on his nerves & surely he didn't just now notice it when it's been going on for his 45 years of driving.

 

People do this in bad neighborhoods. Leaving enough space to where they can pull away without hitting the car in front of them. Maybe people just do it all the time thinking "If a carjacker was to run up to my car".

 

Wow, it's very rare when someone posts pretty much exactly what was running through my mind in a topic, but Siggy pretty much nailed it with this!!



I grew up in NY and drove in NYC and yes, I've seen this. But honestly, it never bothered me. If it gets under people's skins that much, take public transportation...




I think it's b/c of his approach. It's one thing if something bothers you. It's another thing to be so ignorant about it that he calls the excuses/answers people have been giving him lame b/c he doesn't agree with them. Especially when some of them are simply Driving 101. When learning to drive you're taught to leave at least a car length between the car ahead of you as an escape route should you need it, and to avoid rear-ending them should you be rear-ended. Pretty basic stuff.



Kind of an ironic coming from someone with sand in their vagina

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lol...good to know that we're not welcome to ramble in Ramblings...



I don't think you guys are getting the point. There are two different situations here: 1) People stop far enough back to see the tires of the car in front of them like they learned in "Driving 101". The space is about a car length +/- a couple feet, depending on what car we're talking about. That's fine - no one gets angry. 2) People stop much farther back than that - perhaps 2 car lengths or more and plenty of room to fit another car in between while still following the rules of "Driving 101", which causes...issues.

 

You're more then welcome to Ramble in Ramblings. But we're in Car Talk




And I agree 100% with you... two car lengths or more is excessive and ridiculous, but, per the first sentence of this entire thread...
So he's complaining about what is pretty much taught in driving schools. He didn't say two car lengths, he didn't say it was more then two car lengths. One and a half car lengths isn't really much further back then what you're taught... so his wording and his reaction to the replies he has received makes his "rant" seem less valid...