The border is at issue: I could stop in time, but I'd have to stop as fast as my car is able which is uncomfortable. Oh, and I just completed my regular mirror check, and so I don't know how long the yellow has been up. Do I stop or continue on?
That’s a little pithy, how about: When approaching a stoplight you should be looking ahead during the window when a green to yellow transition would be important information.
Also, checking behind you has minimal value for drivers. Rather than any pattern it should be your absolutely last priority as it very rarely provides useful information and may be dangerous. That said, you should maintain basic awareness behind you.
> Also, checking behind you has minimal value for drivers.
I think I'll keep tracking who's behind me, how close, whether anyone new has appeared, whether anyone looks likely to pass me soon, and so on, because it's sure as hell been important in practice. Most notably when something goes even slightly wrong in front of me.
It’s an absurd statement anyway. It informs you of what other traffic is doing, where you can safely expect to maneuver in an emergency, and etc.
In one case, I’d say checking my rearview was worth thousands of dollars and maybe three lives. When approaching a crosswalk and reducing my speed to stop for pedestrians I saw clearly the guy behind me wasn’t going to stop (he maintained his speed and was looking down, probably texting). I honked and flashed to warn the pedestrians who stayed out of the crosswalk. Then I took my foot off the brake as the other car hit me. The damage was minimal because I just let him push me. I pulled into a nearby parking lot. The other guy took off without stopping. It was a new car so no rear plate.
If I hadn’t looked I’d have tried to stop, been pushed into the pedestrians anyway unless they noticed on their own, and my car would likely have been totaled.
That does not support ignoring traffic lights during the most critical 5 seconds to look behind you. Defensive techniques like slowing down when someone tailgates you are useful, but usually looking behind before and accident doesn’t enable you to do anything useful.
Also, talking your foot off the break increased the risk in that accident. If the driver had swerved at the last second they could have sent your car into the pedestrians you where trying to protect. In a rear end collision momentum pulls your foot from the peddle. So, you want to be hard breaking at the moment of impact to minimize the distance you move post collision.
Honking may have been useful, however unless you gave then ~2+ seconds of warning it was probably futile. Walking speed may be 4.5 feet per second, but acceleration and reaction times are not instantaneous.
> ...ignoring traffic lights during the most critical 5 seconds to look behind you.
> Oh, and I just completed my regular mirror check, and so I don't know how long the yellow has been up. Do I stop or continue on?
These statements are not describing the same activity.
> As to breaking, or saving the car:
Your link agrees with me. Read Tom's last paragraph. There was no traffic in front of me. The pedestrians were safely off the road because I honked and flashed. In the case that the pedestrians had kept going, I'd have done things differently. But it doesn't matter; because the point isn't whether braking or not braking was the correct decision.
The point is that by looking in the rear view mirror I became aware that a decision needed to be made.
> These statements are not describing the same activity.
Yes they are. The window when the length of a yellow light matters is short. If check your rear view mirror right before the intersection then even if the light turns yellow that’s irrelevant you’re still going to cross. Alternatively, if you’re very far from the intersection, then not noticing a yellow light for ~2 seconds is irrelevant, you need to stop regardless of how long it’s been yellow at that point. The transition between those states is very rapid.
> The pedestrians where safely off the road.
There was still pedestrians around you. A rear end collision that’s directly bumper to bumper pushes you forward. But, it’s possible for someone to try and evade at the last second which means they and you go in some random direction, possibly onto a sidewalk or other objects near the road.
No, they aren't. You misrepresented his point, and now you're changing the argument.
> So, unless they where well behind you, picking your foot off the break was a poor choice for their safety.
You're still making things up. Nothing you have linked here supports your claims. When a car collides with another car, things can happen with variable degrees of predictability. Yet, you are arguing with certainty that despite a successful outcome I made the wrong decision in a situation for which you don't have all the facts. I'm not sure how you hope any of this will convince me I did the wrong thing.
Perhaps ironically, even by arguing that there was a right thing to do, you implicitly acknowledge that your previous statement about rear view mirrors which I objected to was wrong.
No, I said his situation was avoidable and said how to avoid it, thus invalidating his point. Talking about how to safely drive drunk ignores the possibility to not get into that situation.
As to your situation, you where not responding to a traffic light. In my original post I specifically said maintaining awareness was import, just a low priority. Checking your rear view window while breaking is perfectly reasonable as long as your not maneuvering to avoid a collision. As described not checking the rear view minor would have likely resulted in a near identical outcome, honking may have have
helped or been pointless we don’t know.
As to making things up, my statement is in response to the correct action on a rear end collision based on the information you had at the time. Saying it was a good idea using information unavailable at the time is like lottery winners saying they made the correct choice. However, as people can’t actually see the future it’s possible to make a poor gamble that pays off.
Similarly, you where lucky that the oncoming car did not swerve at the last second which you had not way of predicting or responding to as your limited by human reaction times. The first videos I showed demonstrated my point but I don’t think you understand the physics involved. Watch the first shot here. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=JszLYsU1Duo On a side impact ball 1 moves to the left, and ball 2 moves to the right. Now, considering that rewatch the first video with that idea. If you where rear ended at an angle you could have been shoved into the direction of the sidewalk as the other car was shoved away. The second video I posed starts with a collision like with a car being shoved to the left, except it’s hitting a stationary school buss who’s breaks and higher mass avoid significant movement.
If you still don’t understand, I can only suggest learning some basic physics from online videos or whatnot.
PS: And really your argument about not breaking is balancing people’s safety vs an slightly lower repair bill. That’s really hard to justify.
