vonhosen wrote:Tailgating is not a simple subject (IMHO)
I don't have a problem with somebody being close to the car infront at appropriate times. For instance, SC road, looking to overtake car infront, car is close in contact through a bend anticipating an overtake on the exit of the bend. Being close here is fine *if* the vehicle infront has no options to take coming up & there is sufficient potential performance differential (what speed the car infront is doing compared to the speed you could be doing - in other words they're holding you up). That isn't tailgating.
Tailgating is being close at inappropriate times.
ie When there isn't the prospect of a safe overtaking opportunity & the car infront does have options.
In a lot of ways being proportionally closer to a vehicle for higher speeds, is safer than being as close to a car at low speeds. At higher speeds, like on motorways, (provided you have good vision ahead of the other vehicle & can anticipate it's braking) the car has no junctions to take late. In the lower speed limits, there are likely to be far more options available for the vehicle infront & they won't have to lose a lot of speed in order to take them late.
The faster someone is going quite often the safer it is to be proportionally closer to them (if they want to turn off they are going to have to lose a lot of speed first). At low speeds vehicles can turn very sharply with little notice, so proportionally you need to give them more room to make yourself less reactionary as they are not as predictable.
hanse cronje wrote:if the faster car had not appeared what would you have done with the car on the inside matching your speed??
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