this post was submitted on 11 May 2026
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Chapotraphouse
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Not defending it, but this is how it works. Legally, if this is the case, you are in the wrong. You must match the flow of traffic. A lot of driving is being able to assume what another car is doing and what it's going to do. If you are going slower than what other expect, you are making the road less safe for everyone.
This is obviously an enormous issue with driving, and limits the transportation ability of the disabled and the elderly.
you are the traffic
If you're in front of a line of cars you may well be the cause of a traffic jam that lasts for an hour tbh.
Please point directly at the car at fault in this 18 year old video
I was going to reference the same video to show how an individual CAN in fact affect the flow of traffic for everyone else. One person hitting the brakes causes a chain reaction.
Edit: while I think this video supports my point it's also not indicative of real road conditions. On a highway, being the only car going exactly the posted speed limit is dangerous. The 'flow of traffic' is a real thing. If someone on a narrow bike path with limited visibility decided to get off and walk their bike down the middle of the path, would they not be the problem when people riding their bikes come along and are unable to go around?
No, you ride (also drive) only within the visual stopping distance except for very rare circumstances. Also what if that guy just ate shit and is lying unconscious on the ground because of an oil spill?
I would help him
I don't want to torture my hypothetical bicyclist anymore!
I seriously don't understand how this meshes with your view of the flow of traffic
I have abandoned the metaphor and resorted to being silly since I forgot the original post was about tailgating specifically
You're mixing things here. They would not be in the wrong for walking their bike or otherwise traveling a section of limited visibility slowly and with caution. You never know what could be around the corner! In your scenario, they are in the wrong for traveling down the middle and not sticking to the correct side for their jurisdiction.
What if there is fine visibility and no observable reason to be walking your bike?
If it's a path that also allows pedestrian use then there's still no issue. If it's truly for cycling only the yeah it's a problem and it's incumbent on that person to get out the way, preferably to a sidewalk.
okay so what if somebody has to brake because they got cut off or something
The person who changed lanes without enough space/speed caused the traffic jam.
It's a terrible system of transportation and we all want to get off the road as fast as possible.
How's tailgaiting help with this?
Oh, you know, fair. I wasn't focusing on the tailgating aspect. Maintain a safe distance at all time frfr
Or if they were tailgating and had to brake suddenly rather than smoothly because they don't have a large following distance?
The person cutting off is most likely the problem.
They need to match speed and merge in where there is space; if you see traffic merging in to your lane, leave space for them (drop speed by ~2 kph) so you don't have to brake.
If your driving philosophy assumes everyone is always gonna merge safely, you're gonna be jerking on the brakes a lot, at the very least.
I hardly ever use my brakes on the highway, so idk how to respond to that. A lot of generalizations don't really function anyway due to local driving cultures and infrastructure.
Youtube putting giant recommendation tiles over the entire video at the halfway point
remember clickable thumbnails in videos and how the removal broke like 90% of videos of 5 years?
Reminds me of that time I tried learning android development and all the functions in the year old tutorial I followed were depreciated
I found a YouTube link in your comment. Here are links to the same video on alternative frontends that protect your privacy:
Surely this isn't true, legally, if you're traveling at or above the posted speed limit.
It's a little more complex depending on location and number of lanes, but in general yes even if it means going above the speed limit, you must not impede the flow of traffic.
Where I'm at it's only illegal to go slower than the flow of traffic in the left (passing) lane. This does apply to people doing more than the speed limit. If you are going the speed limit you have to rock the farthest lane to the right so as to not impede traffic.