Quote:
Originally Posted by bbigby64
 Gaps are your friend. However, whenever I create a safe gap between myself and the car in front of me, a car always wants to come over into my lane and fill it -- at least in the NYC/Long Island area. To fix that, I close the gap, but make sure that I can see through the cars in front of me down the road so that I can see any potential danger  and react to it in time. |
Quote:
Originally Posted by m4a1mustang
That's how it is here. If you leave a gap someone will fill it. And of course the person behind you NEVER leaves a gap so even if you can avoid hitting the person in front on your own, you're just going to be shoved into them by the guy behind you.  |
Its a delicate balance to try and keep people out of your gap, yes. In traffic on my normal commute I will often try to position myself in the left lane behind a smallish vehicle for best maneuvering options (shoulder/grass on the left) and visibility. If traffic is light, then I don't care that much about people getting over in front of me as long as they keep speed. Big pet peeve of mine is idiots cutting people off in the left lane then cruising at 2 mph over the speed limit. In Texas there is signage all over that says "Left Lane for Passing Only", and it's apparently enforceable via ticket. However, I have yet to ever hear of anyone who has gotten one.
In heavier traffic I will often close the gap quickly when I anticipate that someone else is maneuvering or speeding up to sneak in front. Doing this and then immediately backing off to create a gap again seems to be a pretty effective method of letting people know I'm paying attention to traffic, I'm not holding up traffic, and they don't need to be in front of me. I generally want to go faster than them anyway once traffic clears. There are some people that will cut you off anyway, and after that happens, I like to let other tailgaters in front of me because they're more likely than I am to rear end the idiot.