Leaving gap when in queuing traffic on motorway

[mawallace]

I was sitting in lane 2 in a queue of stationery traffic when I car came down from behind, and nearly went in the back of me.

It may me wonder - if in a queue of stationery traffic how much of a gap should you leave. I mean, if you are too close you are going to be in the back of the car in front - but if you leave a gap you may go into it faster as your car would be moving and absording the impact. Should you point your car towards the central reservation to avoid hitting the car.

[Pica-Pica]

When slowing to meet up with stopping traffic (especially on exit slips), I will always keep an eye on what is coming up behind. As I am slowing I will leave a gap to the car in front, gradually reducing the gap when I am convinced the vehicle behind has seen and is slowing adequately. I will not just come up to a stopped queue and stop, I will slow down, maybe flicker the brake lights a few times to alert the vehicle behind. After all that, I will try and leave a ‘tyres and tarmac’ gap - not always practical though.

[mawallace]

When you say tyre and tarmac do you mean so you can see all four wheels or just the rear ones

[2gins]

Leave a decent gap, not a pencil thin margin.

[Lily the Pink]

mawallace said:

When you say tyre and tarmac do you mean so you can see all four wheels or just the rear ones

What on earth are you on ?

[meatballs]

mawallace said:

I was sitting in lane 2 in a queue of stationery traffic when I car came down from behind, and nearly went in the back of me.

It may me wonder - if in a queue of stationery traffic how much of a gap should you leave. I mean, if you are too close you are going to be in the back of the car in front - but if you leave a gap you may go into it faster as your car would be moving and absording the impact. Should you point your car towards the central reservation to avoid hitting the car.

If I understand correctly you are worried that if you stop further away you will carry more momentum into the rear of the car Infront?

You're not going to accelerate into the back of another car if you stop further away and someone rams into the back of you. After the initial impact there is basically no more acceleration (assuming the other driver isn't still on the pedal) and you will have deceleration from handbrake/footbrake. So the further away the less impact you will have on the car Infront (if any). Just don't stop erratically far away that the person behind does crash into the back of you.

Pointing towards the centre is probably a bad idea if the impact is bad enough to be worried about. you are better off going into the back of a stationary object, then potentially being ejected into oncoming traffic at whatever speed it is doing. A good barrier may be better than the rear of another car but you can't really anticipate horrendous crashes where a lorry driver is on his phone ploughing into a queue on the motorway etc

[Haltamer]

I'll usually take the opportunity to brake further back and build a little queue of my own, Puts the high speed rearending risk a few cars back hopefully.

[Talaus]

I was always taught that you should be the last person to stop. Control the person behind you so that they stop when you want them to stop.

It isnt always possible, but if you are joining the back of the queue and there is no one behind you then leave a good 4-5 car lengths between you.
Dont sit there with either your foot on the brakes or not on the brakes when you see a car coming up behind you but initially pulse the lights so that attracts their attention then start rolling so as to close the gap on the vehicle ahead but ensure that you are controlling the distance between you and the car behind.

Tyres and Tarmac is very relevant as it gives you room for manoeuvre. It is massively drilled into you on the blue light courses as there is no point in being jammed up on the vehicle in front of you if you get a 999 call and are effectively stuck! So as long as you have enough space between you and the car in front to see both their rear tyres and the tarmac as well (if you can see their front tyres then you could probably getting a double decker bus between you both) then that gives you space to move if it all goes wrong.

[Peter3442]

Many years ago, I was on a German motorway and slowly coming to a halt at the back of a queue for some road works. I saw a Mercedes S approaching at a very high rate of knots. I pumped on my brakes hoping he'd see the flashing lights, but to no effect, so I drove onto the hard shoulder - probably an illegal act. The Mercedes driver finally woke up and, after some very hard braking, stopped a few feet from the car that I'd been behind a few seconds earlier.

[MarkwG]

mawallace said:

When you say tyre and tarmac do you mean so you can see all four wheels or just the rear ones

With a normal vehicle, sitting normally, you stop so you can see the rear tyres & a portion of road surface behind them. Principle being, that leaves sufficient gap that you can either move into the space if you see the guy behinds not stopping well enough, or if he does hit you, you'll minimise the risk of being pushed into the vehicle in front.

[Muddle238]

Peter3442 said:

Many years ago, I was on a German motorway and slowly coming to a halt at the back of a queue for some road works. I saw a Mercedes S approaching at a very high rate of knots. I pumped on my brakes hoping he'd see the flashing lights, but to no effect, so I drove onto the hard shoulder - probably an illegal act. The Mercedes driver finally woke up and, after some very hard braking, stopped a few feet from the car that I'd been behind a few seconds earlier.

I had similar on the M11 a few years ago. Overtook a car near Duxford that was weaving around a bit, noticed the driver was clearly looking down into his lap texting or similar. A bit further south, traffic came to a standstill. Left a huge gap, hazards on etc., knowing this numpty on his phone was likely to be the next car to pull up behind me. Sure enough he was, except he didn't appear to be slowing down at all. As I pull onto the hard shoulder, he comes past with the front end trying to bury itself into the road, hazard lights flickering like crazy due to his ABS activating, eventually pulling up behind the car I was originally behind. I must admit he got coffee beans after that.