[breadbooze]

Originally Posted by fosley

Ok, but you have to stay *way* back to really see anything of use around a semi, so "normal" driving won't help that aspect much, if any.

Which is EXACTLY what you should be doing to begin with. 4-6 seconds under 30mph, 6-8 over 30. Very conservative, but years of driving UPS semi's have it drilled to my head.

[flamesuit][grammarnazi]In this case you're saying "To be sure, an MR2. . .", which is shortened to "Sure, an MR2. . .", rather than "surely". And since I'm here, it's "An em-are-two", not "A em-are-two".[/grammarnazi]

Cool. Though I was taught you use "an" when preceeding a vowel. That was in 2nd grade, it's been a while.

Not if you have a built-in ejection seat. Sheesh!

This is a problem if there's another semi right behind you, but it's not really a problem normally. Whatever's in the road up there will get creamed by the semi (and therefore give you plenty of room to stop), and if he dodges it, you only need 3-4 semi-lengths to come to a complete stop, or you can just follow him over, or probably just brake hard and drive onto the shoulder, or go around on the center line.

We'd need to do some research, but the question becomes: does the increase in accident probability from following "too closely" outweigh the decrease in accident probability from not exiting/entering the freeway as often? I really wouldn't think so, but like I said, we'd have to do some research to be sure.

Edit: The other fallacy I see very often is that it's more dangerous to tailgate a semi than a car, which I say is untrue. If you are X distance from both, you're more likely to rear-end the car if he tries to stop (he stops faster), you probably won't have as much warning between the time he swerves and you realize there's something in the way, and the time you hit or miss it (the semi gives you a guaranteed 50-60 feet + follow distance, while the car gives you 15-20 feet tops, plus the car is more likely to wait until the last second to swerve, plus the semi is more likely to see it coming to begin with and just slow down), and if the semi hits something, he's more likely to push through and give you a path, while the car is more likely to come to a very rapid stop in your face.

Accidents don't "normally" happen either. Better to avoid the abnormal than to assume things are always normal.

Trying to justify unsafe driving practices by quoting physics formulaes and drawing up ambiguous figures to support them is lame at best, for lack of a better term.

Have you plowed into a deer that a semi ran over?