Topic: Speed limited increase 75 mph to 80 mph

[sailor723]

Braking distances are far more than 20% father from 120 than 100.

As speed increases following distances need to increase dramatically.  People follow as close at 120 as they do at 60, but the energy in a crash at 120 compared to 100 or 80 or 60 is much greater.

While that is true it is also unavoidable sometimes. I driven in heavy traffic in congested areas of the Northeast (Bos-Wash corridor) If you leave any thing close to safe space between you and the car ahead someone will change lanes and fill it.

[dkaz]

Then just pull back and create space. People in big cities are terrible at maintaining space. In Vancouver I remember seeing 13 cars leaving 0.5-1 seconds of space between them. That's crazy. I see it a lot in Edmonton too. There was an accident yesterday where a Ford Econoline rearended a motorcycle before bumping into two other cars. And people wonder why motorcyclists want to lane filter/split.

I'm in the habit now where if a vehicle behind me is only leaving say 1 second of space, I will leave 3 to 7 seconds of space in front of me as required to maintain the average 2/3/4 seconds of space required per vehicle, depending on conditions. If any of you need a refresher, that's 2 seconds at city speeds in ideal conditions, 3 seconds at highway speeds in ideal conditions, and 4 seconds in non-ideal conditions.

[sszoomzoom]

Then just pull back and create space. People in big cities are terrible at maintaining space. In Vancouver I remember seeing 13 cars leaving 0.5-1 seconds of space between them. That's crazy. I see it a lot in Edmonton too. There was an accident yesterday where a Ford Econoline rearended a motorcycle before bumping into two other cars. And people wonder why motorcyclists want to lane filter/split.

I'm in the habit now where if a vehicle behind me is only leaving say 1 second of space, I will leave 3 to 7 seconds of space in front of me as required to maintain the average 2/3/4 seconds of space required per vehicle, depending on conditions. If any of you need a refresher, that's 2 seconds at city speeds in ideal conditions, 3 seconds at highway speeds in ideal conditions, and 4 seconds in non-ideal conditions.

I agree. I don't understand why people leave so little room between them and the car in front. I could not drive that close to the car in front and always leave room between me and the car in front, I find that if I do that I have time to react and avoid any potential issues. I hate it when the car behind me is almost touching my bumper, especially on inclines.

[Ex-airbalancer]

7 seconds 
Try doing that on the 401 in the GTA
3 seconds would be hard

[sailor723]

Then just pull back and create space. People in big cities are terrible at maintaining space. In Vancouver I remember seeing 13 cars leaving 0.5-1 seconds of space between them. That's crazy. I see it a lot in Edmonton too. There was an accident yesterday where a Ford Econoline rearended a motorcycle before bumping into two other cars. And people wonder why motorcyclists want to lane filter/split.

I'm in the habit now where if a vehicle behind me is only leaving say 1 second of space, I will leave 3 to 7 seconds of space in front of me as required to maintain the average 2/3/4 seconds of space required per vehicle, depending on conditions. If any of you need a refresher, that's 2 seconds at city speeds in ideal conditions, 3 seconds at highway speeds in ideal conditions, and 4 seconds in non-ideal conditions.

Doesn't matter if you do. Someone will always fill the space as soon as it's created.

I don't know where you drive but I can tell you that trying to leave that much space simply won't work on something like 93 or 95 around Boston, 95 along Long Island Sound as to get closer to New York or the Cross Bronx Expressway going into NYC.

[OliverD]

7 seconds 
Try doing that on the 401 in the GTA
3 seconds would be hard

Yeah really. If you tried to maintain a 7 second gap people would continuously fill it and you would literally never get to where you're going. 

[johngenx]

I have no issues leaving 3-4 seconds between myself and the car in front, but Edmonton isn’t Toronto, so cant say about there.

I have driven in Vancouver (awful) and can usually maintain a safe distance even if people fill in.  It does take patience.

I would say that despite our numerous red necks and crappy drivers, Edmonton drivers are among the more courteous. I get the occasional jag-off not letting me on the freeway, etc, but overall it’s nothing like the melee that is Vancouver.

Bad drivers?  We got lots!  But it seems like the majority of them are just incompetent, not aggressive.

Calgarians are a bit worse. They certainly feel more angry. The tone of the city is quite different from Edmonton though.  People are more status conscious and much more concerned about money. I have a lot of family there and we don’t have much in common that way.

[Fobroader]

Edmonton is just full of incompetent steering wheel holders, Calgarians seem to be a lot more in a hurry and aggressive. The amount of young punks in CLAs/3 series that were driving like they were on fire was over 9000 in Calgary.

[johngenx]

^^^ Nails it

[dkaz]

A car getting into your space will slow you down by a few seconds. As a motorcyclist, my safety is more important than worry about some guy who might take that space, but then I'm not out there when I need to give that much space. And you guys know I only give that much when someone is tailgating me, right?

[rrocket]

A car getting into your space will slow you down by a few seconds. As a motorcyclist, my safety is more important than worry about some guy who might take that space, but then I'm not out there when I need to give that much space. And you guys know I only give that much when someone is tailgating me, right?

Depending on where you drive, you'd NEVER have the space you need. Someone will pull in...then you'll slow down to give yourself more space...and the next guy will pull in. Rinse, repeat.

Honestly, I was always more worried about being rear ended on my bike than running into the back of someone...I was always confident I could stop in a hurry. The person behind me? Not so much...

Even today while I'm stopped at a light, I flick my brake lever on and off until I'm sure the clown behind me sees me stopped.

[Fobroader]

A car getting into your space will slow you down by a few seconds. As a motorcyclist, my safety is more important than worry about some guy who might take that space, but then I'm not out there when I need to give that much space. And you guys know I only give that much when someone is tailgating me, right?

[dkaz]

Depending on where you drive, you'd NEVER have the space you need. Someone will pull in...then you'll slow down to give yourself more space...and the next guy will pull in. Rinse, repeat.

Honestly, I was always more worried about being rear ended on my bike than running into the back of someone...I was always confident I could stop in a hurry. The person behind me? Not so much...

Even today while I'm stopped at a light, I flick my brake lever on and off until I'm sure the clown behind me sees me stopped.

The idea is that if the vehicle behind is tailgating, you have room in front of you to come to a more gradual stop rather than a quicker stop which increases the risk of being rearended.

I do the same thing you do with the flashing the brake lights when stopped. In higher speed roadways (70+ km/h limits), I'll actually stop in a manner that looks like I'm lane filtering, even though I'm not, but just so I don't have the possibility of being rear ended.

Ugh, happened to me last week.

[rrocket]

Depending on where you drive, you'd NEVER have the space you need. Someone will pull in...then you'll slow down to give yourself more space...and the next guy will pull in. Rinse, repeat.

Honestly, I was always more worried about being rear ended on my bike than running into the back of someone...I was always confident I could stop in a hurry. The person behind me? Not so much...

Even today while I'm stopped at a light, I flick my brake lever on and off until I'm sure the clown behind me sees me stopped.

The idea is that if the vehicle behind is tailgating, you have room in front of you to come to a more gradual stop rather than a quicker stop which increases the risk of being rearended.

I do the same thing you do with the flashing the brake lights when stopped. In higher speed roadways (70+ km/h limits), I'll actually stop in a manner that looks like I'm lane filtering, even though I'm not, but just so I don't have the possibility of being rear ended.

Ugh, happened to me last week.

I'd be less concerned if they were tailgating...that at least means they're paying attention.

It's the numb nuts dicking around on their phone, yelling at kids, daydreaming, not paying attention that worries me more.

Yes, I leave space when I'm stopped in case I need to squirt out of the way...

[No H2O]

Well when your average driver's licence comes out of a box of Cracker Jacks, what can one expect.

Its a good thing 99.99% of them aren't your airline pilot.

[johngenx]

In Alberta we have a lot of people that didn’t even take a test to get their license. Seriously. Not even the stupidly easy test we do have.

In their haste to privatize everything, the stupid PCs did driver licensing. A bunch of businesses popped up that simply sold you a license.

I can’t imagine how many people in the province got their license that way. The NDP put a stop to it, hopefully it’s not on the UCPs radar to turn that clock back.