4 ms·
There are cases where leaving a greater-than-normal lane spacing makes sense, in the interest of safety. Safety is something utterly ignored in the fascinating
by unoti 13y ago
There are cases where leaving a greater-than-normal lane spacing makes sense, in the interest of safety. Safety is something utterly ignored in the fascinating analysis in this article. For example, if I'm in a left lane buzzing along at wide-open freeway speeds and the right lane next to me is congested and backed up and not moving, I leave more than normal spacing in front of me. Why? Because it's very likely that someone stuck in the right lane is going to dart out in front of me or the driver in front of me, and very likely that I'm going to need to make a very sudden stop. It's just unsafe to cruise along at 75 mph next to hundreds of cars that are looking for an opportunity to jump in front of me.
The prisoner's dilemma also applies to this. Behavior that is "optimal" for a single individual in terms of getting to destination is not what's optimal for the collective in terms of safety. And optimal behavior for getting to destination is not the optimal behavior for safety or lower stress driving, either.
- exue 13y agoI'd argue that safety directly translates into speed as well, as a single accident can shut down 1-all lanes of the freeway and result in several hours of delay for the parties involved. So even being selfish you'd have reason to err on safety's side
- bostonpete 13y agoYou probably shouldn't be cruising at 75 mph next to a lane of stopped traffic regardless. Leaving more space between you and the next car wouldn't seem to make that practice significantly safer. I agree that the optimal behavior isn't universal though. One example I'd cite is that I always leave more space when the vehicle in front me is so big that I can't see what's in front of it since that limits my reaction time to what that one vehicle is doing rather than what's going on further ahead.
- DanBC 13y agoShouldn't you leave less space, to dissuade people from jumping in the gap?
- dvanduzer 13y agoNo! Read the original article this author is trying to critique.
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- Kluny 13y agoNo - because you don't know what's going on in front of you, and you may need to stop suddenly.
- peterwwillis 13y agoIf you want to prevent people from jumping the gap, speed up. If you want to be safe from random edge cases (like someone in front of you slamming on the brakes), slow down.
- DanBC 13y agoI'd leave at least a minimum safe distance between my vehicle and the one in front. But Parent suggested that it's a good idea to leave more space in case someone jumps in. I'm not sure I understand that - if they jump in it's always dangerous because you don't know what the person behind you is going to do and you don't know when the jumper is going to jump in. Thus, you want to try to prevent them jumping. This is achieved not by giving them more room (which encourages jumping) but by leaving less gap (reducing jumping) but still leaving the safe minimum.
- gknoy 13y agoI prefer to be pessimistic about other drivers' ability to judge whether they have enough room to cut in front of me. I'd rather not try to go fast enough to "discourage", as there will inevitably be some person who either doesn't notice me, or misjudges my speed (via a side view mirror) and mistakenly thinks he can cut in front of me safely. A lower speed increases the chances of this, but reduces the risk of a catastrophic result. ;)