"Tim Streater" wrote in message
.. .
In article , NY
wrote:

My wife says I drive a bit more cautiously - in her opinion, *over*
cautiously as regards the space I leave from the car in front in heavy
traffic that is doing 70 at one minute and 40 the next, but I prefer to
have enough gap that I can slow down fairly gradually rather than trying
to mimic every slow-down and acceleration of the car in front.

I don't call that overly-cautious, I call it sensible driving. I see
too many ****s going along at 80 in the outside lane with just the one
car length between them and the one in front.

No, I don't call it "over-cautious" either :-) But she says "I can't just
distances as well as I used to" and "if you leave a long gap, someone will
pull out into it". I try to leave about 2 seconds gap - longer if the
traffic has been yo-yoing in speed (70 one minute, 40 the next, ad
infinitum) because I can't predict when the car in front of me is next going
to brake hard - often for no apparent reason because the car in front of him
is still going fast. She drives a bit more like I do when I'm on my own, but
not when I'm with her as a passenger who expects me to be able to steer
around every pothole and to slow to a crawl at every speed hump, and not to
brake hard.