Here we’re taught to go with the flow of traffic. It’s safer to go the same speed as everyone else than to be the one car everyone has to go around.
Where is ‘here’?
Anywhere with sensible traffic schools. Accidents are almost always caused by drivers going 10mph faster or slower than the rest of traffic. Being the odd man out in this criteria is dumber than ignoring some numbers on a sign that everyone else is ignoring.
EDIT: Since it’s become apparent it needs stated for those of you who missed that week of Driver’s Ed, and didn’t read the manual; One: I merely quoted the manual; Two: it is INDEED the job of EVERY driver, regardless of their position relative to specific other drivers, to take any actions neccessary to avoid or mitigate an accident in the making. Idiots like you are the reason No Fault states exist.
It takes some real mental gymnastics to put the blame for a crash on the driver going “too slow” rather than the inattentive speeding driver who crashed into them.
No mental gymnastics needed. The laws of physics don’t give a fuck about who obeys the traffic laws and who doesn’t. As long as people keep the same distance between cars we should be safe.
What are you arguing? It’s not the obligation of the driver ahead to make sure the car behind them keep their distance.
Trick is to not give a fuck about how fast other people are going, and cruise at 65mph (105km/h) at a safe distance behind a combination tractor trailer.
You can drive without much stress, because impatient drivers don’t like to be in that spot behind a truck so you are less likely to be cut off. You’ll have plenty of time to react to anything in front, and also be safe in knowing that if there is a pileup ahead, a clear path will be smashed through for you.
Also, following a truck will increase your mpg.
And not because of the lower air pressure zone behind the truck; you have to get dangerously close for that.
Truckers spend a fuck ton on fuel, so they have a huge vested interest in driving efficiency. My highway mpg rating is 27mpg, but I got 38mpg on an hour drive by chilling a safe distance behind a semi. It only added like 5 minutes tops to my trip.
Exactly. Similar to how others responded to a similar comment to yours, there isn’t much slipstream savings without getting into the danger zone of around 30m (100ft), which you can’t get with 3 second gaps at speed.
But you do get more fuel savings from driving at that slower speed, and from coasting and accelerating lightly/cruising. It perplexes me why people alternate gunning it with braking so much on the highway.
It perplexes me why people alternate gunning it with braking so much on the highway.
Because big fast car go brrrrrrr!
Problem I have is I’m always going faster than the slow lane, so I get over to pass and of course I’m not going fast enough for those lunatics (don’t worry, I don’t block them, I get back over as soon as it’s safe). Half the time I end up giving up and going slower than I want too just because it’s easier.
The worst. Two lane roads always seem to end up as 5 under or 10 over. I just want to put my cruise control on!
