Waiting at traffic lights, if you leave > 8 foot gap between you & car in front

[lljkk]

why do you do this?
is there an actual reason to do it?
Driver in front with this habit affected me the other day on a single carriageway road, because some of the traffic lights (we went thru) were short-duration on green, another car could have got thru junction in the time available, or at least it felt that way.

There was Good visibility, no one being aggressive, all level ground so no worries about cars slipping backwards, nor frantic lane changing to accommodate. The driver in front just did this habitually, they stopped with a big gap between them & car in front. My car is 12' long & could possibly fit within some of the gaps they left.

Why is it irritating? What actual difference does it make? Perhaps they've had someone roll back into them at a junction in the past so leave extra space now.

I always leave a gap and hate it when people come up close behind me.

Well if I notice the driver behind driving right up my arse I leave an additional gap to the car in front, it’s not to annoy the rear driver but to ensure I have additional space/time to manoeuvre if the person behind me does something erratic or shunts into the back of me.

If this is happening a lot to you then I’d consider whether you’re one of those drivers tbh. I can’t for the life of me understand why people drive so close, surely it’s common sense and better safe than sorry to leave a decent gap.

this irritates me so much. People do this on a duel lane toll booth system I use. They will leave a huge gap in front of them meaning nobody else can move on to the other booths. It causes so much more hold up because some people can use passes to get through the booths quicker so holing them up up holds everything up more.

Good point, if someone is up my arse I slow down because drivers like that aren’t always the best drivers!

People have to pull in front of someone when they are changing lane on a motorway. If would prefer they pull in behind you instead, then they'll still be pulling in in front of someone else. If you are leaving a decent gap to the car in front - as everyone should of course - then that will be in front of you instead of someone who is driving too close to the car in front. If everyone left a decent gap in motorways it would be much better all round with safe lane changes amongst other things, but unfortunately that will never happen.

I'm really interested to hear the 'tyres and tarmac' rule. It wasn't taught me when I learned to drive 30 years ago, and I can really see the value of it.
I've just had to start driving an automatic. I bloody hate it, and one of the things that I find difficult is the reduced precision in holding the car still or pulling off smoothly on a up hill incline. I used to enjoy the precision that good clutch control gave me even on a steep hill.
A few times I have trickled backwards slightly while mastering this new form of driving, so now I routinely leave a slightly larger gap in front of me, on the assumption that other automatic cars are also prone to this 'trickle back'.
I wonder whether the increased number of automatics is part of the reason for teaching the 'tyres and tarmac rule'?

A bit of a gap is useful. Being behind someone who left a big gap wouldn’t cause me any grief. It’s the boy racers right up my arse that irritate.

I leave a decent gap, not sure if 8 but definitely 4-6. I thought this was good practice - if I get rear ended and bump into the car in front, that would be considered my fault wouldn’t it, for being too close? I can’t bear cars driving too close to others when moving so think it’s an extension of that too. But I get ‘too close’ is subjective - my husband thinks I get too close when I think I leave decent gaps.

@ReadWithScepticism I learned to drive about 7 yrs ago in a manual & was taught that. I’ve always found manual cars move back more than automatics.

Reasons for tyres on tarmac

https://www.iamroadsmart.com/groups/lincolnshire/news/2022/04/10/six-reasons-to-leave-'tyres-and-tarmac'

I am convinced some utter dicks leave gaps to increase the odds of cars behind not getting through the next green light.

It's not the most dickish of behaviour and the general consensus in our family is if that is what makes them feel "big" their lives must be very boring and small. And they are a terribke driver.

Tyres and tarmac.
That’s about 3 foot in DS’s tiny car, 4 foot in mine and more like 7 foot in DHs long bonneted coupe shape car.
You need to leave enough room to pull around the car in front of you have to.

A problem with T&T is the gap will be longer the lower the driver behind is sitting.

I think I was also told once that, if you’re rear ended at traffic lights and get shunted into the car in front of you, then the damage you cause to the front car comes from your insurance as it’s your fault you didn’t leave enough space.

Big gaps only really irk me when they are dangerous. Sometimes in queues off a roundabout or slip road they can lead to stationary traffic on a dual carriageway or motorway unnecessarily.

Certain places I will pull up tight to the car, so the traffic doesn’t back up on to round abouts etc.
other places it makes sense to leave a gap for rear ending purposes.

Tyres and tarmac here. I did advanced driving 20yrs ago.
How this works out depends on your car. Someone like me, average height, in a stupid little low family car ends up leaving a larger gap than a driver in a high up range rover.

I did a defensive driving course and they said the same

It was taught over 30 years ago but, it's not law. So if your instructor told you it then you knew it. IAM have taught it for at least as long as well. Most modern automatics have hill start now. Check to see if yours does. You dont have to use it just on a hill. Also, crawl on an automatic should at the very least mean you don't move backwards. If you tell me which car it is I can find out if it's something only the dealer can program.

Fear of being shunted into another car / insurance thing was a reason I thought about. But if that was such a concern, WHY in the world aren't British drivers taught about pointing their wheels forward when about to make a right turn, so you can't be shunted into oncoming traffic while waiting? This was basic safety info we were taught in California on early 1980s. ALSO, to turn wheels against the kerb when parked on a hill. Neither habit is taught (I think??) to British drivers. Terrible safety oversights imho. Also should be required to pull over to let others pass if you are driving << speed limit & get > 4 cars behind you (another California law). I get caught behind scared (?) drivers who don't want to go > 40 in the 50mph roads. They have opportunities to pull aside, they just like their speed & no awareness they are being a nuisance. They managed 50mph briefly in the 60mph stretch (sigh).

At lights, My Brit driving instructor (1995?) said to pull up close enough that you just barely can't see rear tyres of car in front. That means gap between me & car in front is typically 3-5 feet. That seems the overwhelming sort of distance others obtain, too. I don't drive cars with big bonnets or very flat fronted vans either, though. I never heard of "tyres & tarmac" before. I imagine someone has a huge bonnet if obtaining T&T typically means an 8-15 foot gap between them & the car in front, though. But Poster above said her DH's huge SUV only creates about 7' gap by maintaining T&T? So all these posts about T&T might be totally irrelevant to my query, which was about drivers who habitually maintain gaps > 8' ? Plus the car in front who got my curiousity was more like a hatchback... did not have big bonnet. They kept their big gap when road turned dual & I pulled up next to them at some lights, that's how I could judge whether my own car could fit in their gap. So I don't think they kept the big gap because they didn't like me being them. They just like big gaps at the lights.

Angst... no I didn't have that. I had simple impatience. I was affected because the driver in front kept that > 8' distance before they would move off so they missed getting thru lights which meant I was slower to get thru lights, too. More time on the road = more traffic + more pollution...

So much is said about excess speed being a killer, but IMO driving TOO CLOSE!, especially at speed on motorways, must surely be a close second. I once missed by the merest whisker a pile-up caused entirely by driving too fast and far too close in wet conditions.

On some major French roads they have chevron markings, and signs saying to keep 2 chevrons apart. We could do the same here, only I dare say the sort of people who are going to drive like twats would drive like twats anyway,

WHY in the world aren't British drivers taught about pointing their wheels forward when about to make a right turn, so you can't be shunted into oncoming traffic while waiting?

Er, if you’re at a T junction or a cross roads you’d still be shunted into oncoming traffic if you had your wheels straight.

ALSO, to turn wheels against the kerb when parked on a hill. Never heard of this, surely it’s better to bump the car behind if the handbrake fails then potentially a pedestrian on the pavement?!

In the UK it’s a speed limit and on country roads which are often 60, it’s not always safe to drive at the limit. I’m often shocked at people who drive right up my arse when I’m doing 40 in a 60 on a windy single track lane in dark/wet conditions, perfectly reasonable and safe, especially given this is on a local road I regularly drive which has had several recent fatal collisions. Yes sometimes it’s frustrating to be stuck behind slower drivers but on balance I’d rather everyone erred on the side of caution given how common RTAs are. The obvious exception is motorways/dual carriageways where people should be driving at an appropriately fast speed to be safe, but sufficient gaps should still be left.

Pointing wheels forward is taught, but it's not the law. Pointing towards kerb is not taught because we use handbrakes, but also if hit your empty car can hit pedestrians. I think you had a bad instructor who taught you to just pass the test in the UK, not how to drive.

Why have we assumed the driver in OP’s post did this ‘habitually’? Unless we’ve followed them through several sets of lights?!
I was also taught to leave enough room to manoeuvre away in an emergency.