Accident statistics

In article ,
"Peter Duniho" wrote:

"Jim Logajan" wrote in message
.. .
In heavy traffic on multi-lane freeways it often happens that when I allow
a decent space between myself and the car in front, drivers in the other
lane will change lanes into the gap I tried to allow. If you keep trying
to
back off to re-acquire the safety gap, the more nature magically puts cars
into it. Eventually you've slowed so much that you're actually driving
backward on the freeway and you end up back where you started.

That is not actually true.

yes it is.

It's a common enough claim by people who don't
want to be bothered to leave the proper distance between them and the car in
front of them,

try leaving 3 seconds around here and some idiot will move into your lane

but it's simply not true.

yes it is.


If traffic is actually backed up,
there is no way for new cars to show up quickly enough to change into your
lane and impede your progress. If the other lane were moving so fast so as
to allow that, the drivers would just stay in their own lane.

not around Boston MA.



I drive in so-called "bumper-to-bumper" traffic far more often than I'd
like, I always leave at *least* two car lengths between me and the car ahead
(even when basically stopped), and more if our speed gets high enough to
warrant it, and I have never ever had any trouble at all keeping up with the
general flow of traffic.

Then you don't have actual bumper-to-bumper.

--
Bob Noel
Looking for a sig the
lawyers will hate