On 8/26/2009 1:46 PM Don Hanson wrote:

>   The 3-second rule?  Following at a safe distance?  You ever drive a
> freeway in So. Cal?  Crap, those folks rip along at 85+ within a few feet of
> the car ahead..If you leave even close to one car length some one will try
> to squeeze into that hole ahead of you.  All the while, talking or texting,
> putting on makeup, drinking a Latte, or driving a huge over loaded truck
> with 6 more lanes of traffic going the same speed...Makes drafting a semi
> out on the highways seem like a child's pre-nap relaxation game..If you dare
> drive at a mere 70mph...they give you "The Stink-Eye" as they speed past...

Don's right. Having spent nearly all my life in SoCal, I can attest that
drafting behind a semi on a long uphill grade is peace, serenity, and
safer than mother's lap compared with normal SoCal freeway driving where
the 3-second rule does not apply for the car ahead of you, ever, else
you'd be jamming on the brakes continually while cars moved into the gap
ahead. The habit one learns is to apply that 3-second rule to the /third/
car ahead of you. Then you'll be driving like a native. Folks from more
rustic parts of the country will not survive with habits they learned
there; while folks from SoCal can be real a__holes when driving elsewhere.

But guys that tailgate in brodozers* are a__holes everywhere.

=============
* A large truck with an entirely unnecessary liftkit, typically an F-150
or bigger, driven by a bro.

--
Mike "Rocket J Squirrel" Elliott
84 Westfalia: Mellow Yellow ("The Electrical Banana")
74 Utility Trailer. Ladybug Trailer, Inc., San Juan Capistrano
Bend, OR
KG6RCR