> please consider that not everything is evidence that everyone else is reckless driver Never said or implied that. I said that one specific behavior is danger

> please consider that not everything is evidence that everyone else is reckless driver Never said or implied that. I said that one specific behavior is dangerous. Maybe you're right that "my system" will fail some day, but in the meantime I'll continue doing my best to improve the odds instead of using "well, stuff happens anyway, can't do anything about it" as an excuse. After driving for ~40 years, having been in a few accidents (only one in the last ~30 and never even remotely considered to be at fault) and seen more, I don't think I'm the one who needs that epiphany here. BTW, let me go into a bit more detail about that one accident, since it's kind of relevant. I was turning, had signaled, person behind me saw and had tapped the brakes, person behind them was on their phone and plowed right into them, pushing them into me. No injuries, amazingly. Key point: there was nothing the woman in the middle could have done. She would have been struck regardless. If she had "absorbed the slack" as you suggest, her car would have just been slammed into mine even harder - quite likely with more dire consequences. Other times, as I already mentioned in another comment, drivers "absorbing the slack" actually caused accidents themselves at an intersection near me. More than once. You're relying on your reactions being better than those of the person behind you (if not better than humanly possible), with no justification whatsoever. "Absorbing the slack" is a stupid and dangerous habit that most people who have driven for a while learn to avoid. I'm trying to tell you here so you don't have that epiphany about defensive driving and margins of error too late.