Someone just brake-tested me

Doozergirl

Lum wrote: »

The point of leaving a safe stopping distance is so that if someone stops or slows down unexpectedly, you have time to stop or slow down yourself. In the meantime you're going to end up closer to the car than is normal until reaction time sets in and you can adjust your following distance accordingly.

Some people just don't seem to get that and interpret it as an act of aggression. The one I hate is if they have slow reactions and choose to "punish" the car behind by slowing down even more, so you've slowed down, backed off a little to a safe stopping distance and at this point they've slowed down again, and so it repeats until either the car behind realises what's going on or the car in front gives up..

It sounds a bit like that doesn't it. I've sort of changed my mind as I thought about at and was just about to explain the same thing that you've described. An older lady must have hit the wrong pedal coming out of a very wide roundabout as she slowed down rather suddenly for my liking at the point that she should have accelerated away, so I ended up a bit closer to her than I'd have liked. I continued to slow down so that I was away from her as she eventually accelerated again, but she clearly got a bit of a shock seeing me there. Instead of realising that's what happens when you slow suddenly and breathing a sigh of relief that I wasn't too close that I hit her, she drove at 20mph on a 40mph road, brake testing me at that as well, making it impossible for me to find a consistently comfortable distance. It was ridiculous. She didn't give me the finger though - I'd have died laughing!

People are thick sometimes. You have to account for that by driving like they are and expecting them to do something random.

jayme1

Strider590 wrote: »

(though at 5mph you could be 1inch from their bumper and still keep a 2s gap).

at 5 miles per hour you would need to be 4.5 meters (177 inches) to maintain the 2 second gap

/serious

Strider590

pwllbwdr wrote: »

That is wrong by quite a large margin. Is that how you judge speed and distance?

jayme1 wrote: »

at 5 miles per hour you would need to be 4.5 meters (177 inches) to maintain the 2 second gap

/serious

Ya'll seem to have missed the intended sarcasm. :wall:

jayme1

Strider590 wrote: »

Ya'll seem to have missed the intended sarcasm. :wall:

no I got it, it's just fun working weird stuff out.

/sarcasm fail

bigdave196

jayme1 wrote: »

at 5 miles per hour you would need to be 4.5 meters (177 inches) to maintain the 2 second gap

/serious

Can you show your workings for an extra 5 marks?

pwllbwdr

Strider590 wrote: »

Ya'll seem to have missed the intended sarcasm. :wall:

Of course not. Whatever "Ya'll" means.

Honeydog

Hintza wrote: »

My rule of thumb (outside 30 mph limits) is I can't see their headlights I will dab the brakes a couple of times if that doesn't work then these days I just get slower and slower.

In the days of my youth (or if they really annoy me) it would have been a brake test!

+1 (Oops I forgot you have to write more than that on MSE) Me too.

Crabman

I slow down when being tailgated, not because I'm involving myself in a petty game for the small-minded, but because I know if I have to brake due to a hazard, I will need to allow more space to safely do so, in order to prevent the (inevitable) BMW/Audi moron landing their bonnet in my boot. Apparently speed limits don't apply to drivers of German vehicles but that's a different topic...

A few months ago on the M5 a BMW X5 was aggressively tailgating a silver Audi in lane 3. It ended when blue and red lights illuminated the Audi's rear windscreen. T'was rather a beautiful sight :T

mikey72

Honeydog wrote: »

:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

Still laughing I see.

apesxx

there have been plenty of times where i would have slammed on my brakes because the idiot behind me is right up my !!!! if the kids hadnt been in the car. Instead if i have the kids in and there up my !!!! i just slow right down to about 15 miles an hour!!!