What most people who have a large gap don’t realize is the affect that they have on the traffic behind them. Many times, they could use some of their gap to help prevent traffic congestion instead of compounding it. And even more so, when someone changes lanes in front of them and they slow down to get that same gap back, they often cause an even bigger chain reaction.
There are several things that could be done to prevent the ‘need’ for the excessive gap. Mainly, increasing ‘reading traffic’, timing, handling and reaction skills, which is why all of these first 100 tips have to with ‘reading traffic’.
Important Note: I must keep reiterating that ‘looking ahead and reading the situation and others (and their gap and surroundings) properly’ is paramount in order to successfully tell if a gap is unnecessarily large. (For example, the type of automobile, what’s farther ahead, the road, the weather, how they accelerate, decelerate, change lanes and react to others are all taken into consideration.)
