Column about creeping

Ray, Have enjoyed your column for years starting when you and your brother wrote . You hit the nail on the head today about creeping. My pet peeve is when people at a stop light stay a full car length behind the car in front of them - keeping 2 cars from making it thru the light. Thanks for your good words.
Ed

This is the post he’s referring to:

You’d hate the way I stop at lights on my motorcycle then, because I insist on keeping a safe margin of space around me, and keeping at least one car length between my vehicle and the vehicle in front of me is one way to do that. If I see something about to happen, I want to have escape routes available to me.

Actually, I do the same thing in my car too, because back in the day, my mother was rear-ended and pushed into another car. Her insurance covered the damage to the car in front of her, not the insurance policy of the car that hit her. Also, I like to be able to see the wheels of the car in front of me, so there is time to honk my horn if it starts rolling towards me.

My advice is to not worry about how other people operate their vehicles safely, and to concentrate on operating your car safely. What you call a pet peeve I call being safe, and avoiding staged accident scams.

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Only one pet peeve ? You must not drive in rush hour traffic much . Like Whitey says concentrate on your own driving because letting other peoples habits bother you will just raise your blood pressure.

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My daughter was taught in drivers training to keep the distance far enough to make sure she could escape from that spot if the need arises. Makes sense to me, although I don’t heed to it.

thanks for the return mail. and Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. Keep up the good work.

ed

In a message dated 12/22/2019 11:01:25 AM Central Standard Time, cartalk@discoursemail.com writes:

I read the column and do not necessarily agree with it either. Especially since I drive a stick Here in LA, people expect that I shift gears just to move another 6 inches. Not happening.

My pet peeve is the distracted people behind the red light, like the red Nissan Kicks in front of me that did not move for a while after the light turned green because she could not be bothered to look up from her phone. After a few blows of my horn, she barely went thru the yellow light, leaving me and three other cars there for another long red light.

2 Likes