When I’m driving, I like to leave enough space in front of me so I don’t rear-end the car I’m following.
I hate to tailgate, and I know other drivers hate when people tailgate them.
The general rule for a safe distance is to count, picking a stationary object on the side of the road as the rear of the car in front passes before your car reaches the object. The Michigan driver’s manual − “What Every Driver Must Know” – says to count “one-thousand one, one-thousand two, one-thousand three.”
If you’re too close and the driver in front even taps his brakes you might easily end up slamming into the vehicle ahead.
In the winter, when conditions are sketchier, that’s especially true. A little bit of ice can mean havoc when you have to stop or brake suddenly.
It’s just that while I avoid tailgating – at least when it’s not involving a cookout before a game − I also hate it when other drivers take, in my mind, unreasonable and risky advantage of that little bit of space and slide in. Sometimes they do this without using their turn signal as the car that had been just in front of me hits the brakes, forcing some quick adjustment on my part.
I might avoid the chain reaction crash, but my heart is probably now pounding, and I’m wondering if there’s not some easier alternative at that moment to driving (teleportation sounds good).
It’s like being cut off in traffic but doesn’t always have the same feel to me. I call it sliding in. I’ve asked traffic safety experts what it’s called and what to do about it. Sometimes their framing is that I'm being cut off. I’m not sure that’s always what it is, though.
I can’t argue with their advice: Drive sensibly and defensively.
You don’t know what’s going on with another driver. If someone appears reckless, weaving in and out of traffic, give that person a little more attention and space in case he does something unexpected. If a driver is just trying to get into your lane of traffic, he’s signaled his intention and there’s enough space, be courteous and let him in. It's not cool to speed up just so someone can't make the lane change.
“It’s not a race. It’s not a game,” Alicia Sledge, director of the Michigan Office of Highway Safety Planning, told me when I asked about this issue.
If you’re the driver in a vehicle that’s switching lanes in traffic, use your mirrors and your eyes to fully see the vehicles around you and make sure you have enough space before getting over. And of course, use your turn signal.Either way, keep that feeling of irritation in check.
Too often, irritation can turn into road rage.
And road rage is no joke. The Pew Research Center, citing the Gun Violence Archive, reported in 2024 that as of October that year, 116 people had been killed in road rage incidents involving guns in our nation.
No one needs to end up a statistic.
But I’ve found that adaptive cruise control can add another element to this discussion.
Getting help from technology can have its drawbacks. My family’s 2015 Subaru Outback has the EyeSight system, and it performs admirably in lots of conditions.
But if there’s a line of traffic that I’m part of, there’s a good chance there will also be a steady line of impatient drivers zipping past and sliding in, pushing me farther and farther back until there’s a chance I’ll end up back at the beginning of the trip. It’ll be like some crappy version of time travel.
So it’s clear that technology alone isn’t the answer.
But wait, you say, sliding in isn’t the issue at all. The real issue is people who leave too much space, especially at traffic lights.
I spotted a thread on Reddit that addressed this. The Redditor suggested that multiple car lengths might be the wrong approach at traffic lights. Said Redditor was taught to leave enough space to be able to see the car in front’s rear tires:
“Lately I’ve been seeing people leaving two or three car lengths between themselves and the cars stopped in front of them. For the love of god, why?”
It’s a good question, but sliding in is still my pet peeve. My brother-in-law says it’s people who drive too slow in the lefthand lane and aren’t passing. Apparently, there is something to that. Maybe that’s a good topic for another column.
Eric D. Lawrence is the senior car culture reporter at the Detroit Free Press, and he also writes about recreational vehicles, boats and bikes. Send your tips and suggestions to elawrence@freepress.com. And if you’ve got a topic that seems ripe for readers to weigh in on or a pet peeve about driving, let me know. Become a subscriber. Submit a letter to the editor at freep.com/letters.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Traffic pet peeves: Sir, please, don't jump in my lane
