2 second rule on motorways

On Feb 13, 5:41*am, Skipweasel wrote:
In article ef05ab79-903e-4783-87eb-
,
says...

I've just watched a piece in iPlayer where a motorist bounced off the
central barrier, risking the lives of all around him, *just after
joining a motorway. His excuse? He hit lying water at 75mph and lost
it. "But at motorway speeds in the fast lane that you've just joined
you don't have a chance to react," he said.

Then bloody slow down, especially in rain, and when joining a motorway
don't jump straight into the overtaking lanes, you pillock!

Depending on the circumstances, he might just have a point.

If the traffic on the motorway is travelling at that speed, then that's
the speed at which you have to travel /to get on/.

Once on, you can slow down gently to what you consider an appropriate
speed, but if the accident happens at that crucial moment when you don't
get to choose your speed because you have to move at the same speed as
the hole you're trying to fit into then you are kind of stuffed. It's
not as if it's any safer to travel to the end of the sliproad and then
stop because you've not managed to merge - seen that done too often and
it's nasty.

--
Skipweasel - never knowingly understood.

Never, never, never stop in a slip road unless all traffic is at a
standstill. Agreed on that one. You match the speed, often 56mph in
the nearside lane because of the truck speed limiters. You don't try
to join going faster.

But in the above accident, that driver admitted joining at a speed
faster than the passing traffic, and pulling straight into the third
lane to overtake it all, not being able to see why nobody was already
in that lane or driving slower than the speed limit, and even making
that statement to camera as if it was an excuse.

I still stand by 'pillock'.

Incidentally, I spent a life-time low-loader driving. Often at
motorway speeds of about 40mph or the tyres would blow. Joining a
motorway from a sliproad at 40mph, when you weigh about 65 tons and
are 70ft long is interesting. I have on occasions had to illegally
troll down the hard-shoulder before another trucker would flash me in.
They don't want to get stuck behind, you see.

Tone

In article 62ccdf9a-e8db-472e-911b-230cf25cb685
@w4g2000vbc.googlegroups.com, says...
Except when your gap is taken by another impatient and dangerous
motorist.


I don't find that happens very often - and I used to commute on the M25!

--
Skipweasel - never knowingly understood.

In article ,
says...
If he wanted to go slower than the existing traffic why did he move
into the overtaking lane?


Ah - I wasn't answering his particular situation, just his particular
point about having just joined a lane.

--
Skipweasel - never knowingly understood.

Nightjar wrote:

On 13/02/2012 06:20, Doug wrote:
On Feb 13, 2:26 am,
wrote:
On 13/02/2012 00:40, Mr. Bean wrote:

I feel that that at 70mph, the 2 sec rule between cars is an inadequate
time to avoid a pile up.I would say more like 4 secs.

Two seconds is a pessimistic estimate of the perception and reaction
time of the average driver and is intended to ensure that you don't
drive into the back of the vehicle in front before you realise it is
doing something other than continuing along the road at the same speed.
It is not intended as a stopping distance, which would actually be close
to a three second gap, using the Highway Code's average stopping
distance table (stopping distance from 70mph = 315 feet : 70mph = 102
feet per second).

If you prefer a larger gap, there is nothing to stop you leaving one.

Except when your gap is taken by another impatient and dangerous
motorist.

That will happen with a two second gap as well. You simply drop back and
leave the same gap behind that one. It doesn't make any significant
difference to the journey time.

Colin Bignell

indeed, taking a more calm driving style doesn't seem to make any
difference to journey times.


Roger

Mr. Bean spoke:
I feel that that at 70mph, the 2 sec rule between cars is an inadequate
time to avoid a pile up.I would say more like 4 secs.

It'll never catch on - it would cost to much to replace the 'keep apart 2
chevrons" with "keep apart 4 chevrons" signs.

--
Rab C. Nesbit
The secret of life is honesty and fair dealing.
If you can fake that, you've got it made

Tony Haynes spoke:
"But at motorway speeds in the fast lane that you've just joined
^^^^^^^^^^^^^
you don't have a chance to react,"

There's your problem, right there!

--
Rab C. Nesbit
The secret of life is honesty and fair dealing.
If you can fake that, you've got it made

In message , Ahem A Rivet's
Shot writes
On Sun, 12 Feb 2012 17:11:21 -0800 (PST)
Tony Haynes wrote:

I've just watched a piece in iPlayer where a motorist bounced off the
central barrier, risking the lives of all around him, just after
joining a motorway. His excuse? He hit lying water at 75mph and lost
it. "But at motorway speeds in the fast lane that you've just joined
you don't have a chance to react," he said.

Hmm, I recall coming on to the A45 dual carriageway and as I
rounded the bend seeing a sea of brake lights ahead, so I hit my brakes
(gently since I was doing about 80 on my slidecar chamine) and promptly
started slewing across the road, so I let go of the brakes and had little
trouble regaining control and slowing down more gently using the throttle.
I had plenty of time to react and get under control before running out
of lane width.

It turned out a lorry load of offal had been shedding just quickly
enough to spread all over the road for several miles.


Been there and done it, in a car mind you.

Offal is the most slippery substance known to man, beats diesel any day.
My biggest problem arose a couple of days afterwards, the underside of
the car was covered in it and began to SMELL, I was fortunate that there
is a very nice ford not too far away from home with a good straight run
up to it. Had lots of fun speeding through to wash the underside of the
car.


--
Bill

On Feb 13, 11:01*am, R C Nesbit wrote:
Tony Haynes spoke: "But at motorway speeds in the fast lane that you've just joined

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *^^^^^^^^^^^^^

you don't have a chance to react,"

There's your problem, right there!

--
Rab C. Nesbit
The secret of life is honesty and fair dealing.
If you can fake that, you've got it made

Yup!

There was a time (Oh no.... he's off into the dim and distant past
again!) when I drove for a company in Bell Bar that didn't worry about
tachos, speed limits, or driving hours. They just wanted the job done
as quickly as possible. We called tacho cards Frisbees. They paid
great money if you got away with it.

Nearly all the other drivers were blasting up and down the M1 and M6
with their 20 ton loads, headlights on at about 75-80mph.

This was in the days of Seddon Atkinsons and ERFs that did those sorta
speeds before they invented limiters.

Being at heart a low loader man on general haulage for a change, I
rarely exceeded 50mph, rarely blew out tyres, often used A roads
instead of motorways (actually looking for canal bridges where I could
stop and take photos, but that's another yarn) and almost invariably i
got to my destinations in the same time as everybody else.

But I also got a bonus because I used considerably less fuel than
everybody else too.

Happy days.

https://picasaweb.google.com/1139011...61662359762162

Tone

On Sun, 12 Feb 2012 19:40:08 -0500, "Mr. Bean" wrote:

I feel that that at 70mph, the 2 sec rule between cars is an inadequate
time to avoid a pile up.I would say more like 4 secs.

In that case, your reactions are not adequate to driving in the modern
world, and you should give up your licence.

2 seconds is plenty for any reasonable driver who is paying attention.

And whether you are doing 35 or 75 makes no difference to that, since
the gap is to take account of reaction time before you are slowing at
the same rate as the vehicle in front.
--
Alex Heney, Global Villager
A hangover: the wrath of grapes.
To reply by email, my address is alexDOTheneyATgmailDOTcom

On Mon, 13 Feb 2012 05:41:05 -0000, Skipweasel
wrote:

In article ef05ab79-903e-4783-87eb-
,
says...
I've just watched a piece in iPlayer where a motorist bounced off the
central barrier, risking the lives of all around him, just after
joining a motorway. His excuse? He hit lying water at 75mph and lost
it. "But at motorway speeds in the fast lane that you've just joined
you don't have a chance to react," he said.

Then bloody slow down, especially in rain, and when joining a motorway
don't jump straight into the overtaking lanes, you pillock!


Depending on the circumstances, he might just have a point.

If the traffic on the motorway is travelling at that speed, then that's
the speed at which you have to travel /to get on/.

I'm not aware of any motorways in the Uk where you join from a
non-motorway directly into the outside lane (wrongly described as the
"fast lane" by the pillock above).


--
Alex Heney, Global Villager
A big enough hammer fixes anything
To reply by email, my address is alexDOTheneyATgmailDOTcom