It's a popular opinion but I think it's wrong. If they weren't all so close together some of that could habe been avoided. The Tesla indicated for a very long time telling other what it's gonna do.
The Tesla cut into the lane with 3 car-lengths or less behind it and rapidly decelerated. The two cars behind are going to collide because the first one, who was safely positioned before the Tesla changed lanes, didn't have time to react and the second car was probably not able to either, because the brake lights in front didn't come on until too late. Then, there was a couple cars that were probably tailgating, and finally the whole thing is a snafu.
I can't tell if the people making these comments about the drivers behind the Tesla being responsible are such defensive drivers that they never leave less than 6 seconds in front of them, or they're tailgaters themselves, or just being mendacious.
It’s also just not realistic. If everyone was that defensive (5+ seconds distance) on such a busy road it would severely lower its capacity, leading to constant traffic jams. Leaving that gap will just mean others taking it.
In my opinion the optimal following distance for traffic flow is probably slightly higher than what people are doing.
There might be a "laffer curve" where increasing the follow distance of other cars and limiting overcorrections would increase capacity, rather than decrease it, at the current level.
If we're getting regular "phantom jams", we're probably following too closely.
there definitely is such a curve. I just can't imagine its optimum is at 5+ seconds between cars, at least at the highway speeds we drive in dense/often congested areas (~60mph / 100kph where I live). Intuitively I'd put it around 3 seconds.
I agree there. There's a lot an individual can do to dampen the compression waves if they leave 3 seconds instead of 2. I was being facetious with 5 seconds, but in some situations the 3 second distance is still not enough time to react. For example, when there is a stationary obstruction and the car in front obscuring it swerves instead of braking.
Additionally, there's a lot to be said about vehicles not acting like they have human drivers. This Tesla basically acted like a psychopath.
I have one car with regular cruise control and one with adaptive cruise. I am more relaxed with the standard one because I get the signals I need visually to know if I need to pass the car in front or not. I can't tell if my other car is going to drop from 80mph to 60mph all of a sudden until it's basically happened. Better autopilot could help, but then would I end up in this situation?
3 seconds is a very long time? Also: 3 seconds of turn signal is a clear indication of "i am going to change lanes and fully come to a stop"? And then turning off all signals and coming to a full stop without hazards on is a clear indication of "i am stopping"?
Indicating to change lanes and changing lanes should have been enough for the traffic behind to slow down and create a safe distance between each other. People just drove too close to each other.
