By EWAN KENNEDY
7 July 2008

My recent piece on the dangers of tailgating has resulted in a lot of replies from many interesting readers. Which really doesn’t come as a surprise as many surveys from a lot of different sources over the years show this dangerous driving practice sits high on the list of things that drivers dislike. Indeed, it’s often in the number one spot, and the word ‘dislike’ can frequently be replaced by the much stronger one of ‘hate’.

Conversations with other drivers frequently reveal exactly the same disgust with the dreaded tailgaters, thus backing up the surveys.

One fascinating reply was from a guy who suggest his Rule of Ten applies here. It’s better to be 10 seconds late in this world that 10 years early in the next one.

He then expanded on the way he views other drivers whilst on the road, especially if they are too close to his car’s back bumper. He looks at their driving position. In particular if he sees the following driver has two hands on the steering wheel at approximately the ten-to-two position he gives them marks for correct driving and is less concerned about them.

But if the other driver’s hands are, “wrist resting on wheel at 12 o’clock; left hand at the 2 o’clock position; both hands at 12 o’clock … even one arm like a wet ham dangling out of the window, or holding the gutter”. He does his best to pull over, or at least slow down to persuade them to overtake and get off his tail as soon as possible.

At the other extreme in the replies I received on tailgating was the guy arguing in favour of driving just half a second behind the car in front. Using some slightly convoluted thinking he reasoned that if everyone drives at that half-second time-space, instead of following a safe two seconds back we would all get to our destination sooner by one and a half seconds for every car in the line in front of us.

What he didn’t take into account was the time we would spend stationary whilst waiting for tow trucks to come and clear up the carnage created the moment one driver in this desperate line of vehicles had a lapse in concentration.

This man also came up with the most common excuse I hear from those frantic folk who love to tailgate. That if you do leave a two second gap in front of your car then an impatient driver will charge into it.

“Not so”, I say. I try to leave a two-second space at all times and it’s quite unusual for another vehicle to slot into the space.

But, if I leave a gap of three seconds or longer there's a pretty good chance that someone will see it as a means of getting to their destination an extremely-important two seconds sooner and push in front of my car.

There's a sweet spot for following other cars – less than two seconds and there's the danger you won’t be able to stop in an emergency; more than three seconds and ‘your’ safety gap may soon cease to exist, meaning you have to back off to re-create it, which can be frustrating. Try to aim for that sweet spot and see what you think of the results.

Interestingly, all the replies for and against tailgating were from men. Which came as a surprise as I know women hate being followed too closely just as much as the blokes.

Then again, some of the worst tailgaters are women, particularly younger ones. The scary thing about females who tailgate is that many do it without even thinking, not as the result of impatience. For whatever reason they just don’t seem to understand the dangers of not having a cushion of safety.

Ladies, if you have anything to say on the subject of correct driving distances in traffic I would love to hear from you.

ewan@marque.com.au