Quote:
Originally Posted by NachtRitter
They have the same in CA... one of the most irritating conflicts on the motorcycle license test... how am I supposed to increase the distance between me and the car tailgating without speeding if I'm already going the speed limit?? And what if the driver of the car decides to keep tailgating up to triple digit speeds?? Never made sense to me...
I generally agree with what I've read here... on a 2-lane highway, I'll try to keep my speed within a few miles of the speed limit if cars are behind me... and I'll give them every opportunity to pass if they want to. On a multi-lane freeway, I'm much less worried about my speed ... there are a couple of long up-hill stretches where I get down to 40mph or lower... I always stick to the 'truck' lane (total of 3 lanes in my direction for this section of freeway) and turn on my flashers. Even so, I still get idjits that fly up behind me, jam on the brakes, and tailgate me... flashing their brights & occasionally even honking... while the other 2 lanes are wide open!!! I have absolutely no idea what it is they expect me to do.  The only option I have is to ignore them. |
Specifically the bold section of this post, I think you've confused something in the training.
Noone
EVER should tell you that you should increase the distance between yourself and the person behind you... that would require you speeding up, which is counter-intelligent to the situation. It would require you be placing yourself in a less safe position than you already were. What they're
actually telling you:
Slow Down. Increase the distance between yourself and the vehicle
in front of you, so that if the driver in front of you needs to make a quick maneuver, and you have to make a maneuver to avoid him, you have more time to do so safely, so that the driver behind you has more reaction time as well.
The idea behind it is basically to prevent a pileup in the occurrence that someone is going to get hit. All parties involved would rather say that noone got into an accident, but if anyone, better 2 cars than 3 or more.
Slowing down will allow you to react in a less abrupt manner, which just might give the a*hole behind you a better chance of avoiding a collision, even given his/her probable inattention to what's going on.
Chances are, when someone is tailgating, they're focusing on your tail lights, rather than 200-300 feet ahead of you, where they should be.