Do You Feel Lucky?

(and feel free to comment! My older posts are certainly no less relevant to the burning concerns of the day.)

Saturday, August 16, 2008

Road Safety Corner #9: The Physics of Hitting the Gap

There isn't much I can tell you on this one. There are no "tips" in this Road Safety Corner - except a very old one from the Latin: Cognosce te carrus motorius. Know Your Car. Because this is between you and your car. Those other cars on the highway, flying at you from deep within the rear view? They do not truly matter. There are only two things that matter: you, the on-ramp, and your car. Yes, that's right: I said "two things." Because you and your car are one.

There Is No Merge.

Now when I hit the gap...it's a thing of beauty, as long as I'm paying attention. I admit that if I'm busy singing a song or futzing with the stuff on the dashboard, and I'm not paying attention to who's coming up in the mirrors and how I'm going to negotiate that merger seamlessly, I sometimes get skunked and have to chicken out. But as long as I'm watching what I'm doing, no highway-speed traffic can keep me out on a narrow-gap merge! I look back, judge where the gap is going to be, and then I PUNCH IT! Accelerating perfectly to synch the gap at an appropriate highway speed.

I never cut anyone off. I am never in anyone's way. As far as the car behind me: I'm already moving faster than they are before they can even get near me. As far as the car in front of me: generally within seconds of establishing myself in the right-hand lane, I am already zooming left to pass them by.

That's all down to my bad sweet ride. Plenty of acceleration through 1st 2nd and 3rd, but if I don't manage the transition to 4th properly I hit a real torque plateau.

Which is precisely the point. Know your car, folks. And watch out for mine.

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