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It's called "following too closely" and yes, it's illegal in Texas. It's illegal everywhere, because it's dangerous.

 

Texas is like not other place on Earth. When I rode in the front seat of a squad car for a number of years I never remember following too close as a criminal offense for cars. Failure to control speed is what you get if you rear end someone. Then there is the subjective ticket of wreckless driving.

The Texas Transportation Code state:

§ 545.062. FOLLOWING DISTANCE. (a) An operator shall,
if following another vehicle, maintain an assured clear distance
between the two vehicles so that, considering the speed of the
vehicles, traffic, and the conditions of the highway, the operator
can safely stop without colliding with the preceding vehicle or
veering into another vehicle, object, or person on or near the
highway.

(Not touch no foul. I've got ABS and lightening reflexes)

(b) An operator of a truck or of a motor vehicle drawing
another vehicle who is on a roadway outside a business or
residential district and who is following another truck or motor
vehicle drawing another vehicle shall, if conditions permit, leave
sufficient space between the vehicles so that a vehicle passing the
operator can safely enter and occupy the space. This subsection
does not prohibit a truck or a motor vehicle drawing another vehicle
from passing another vehicle.

(Two tractor trailers/triucks w/trailerrs must leave room for a passing vehicle to fit in between, No such requirement for a Prius following a big rig!)

(c) An operator on a roadway outside a business or
residential district driving in a caravan of other vehicles or a
motorcade shall allow sufficient space between the operator and the
vehicle preceding the operator so that another vehicle can safely
enter and occupy the space. This subsection does not apply to a
funeral procession.

(A caravan or motorcade is not defined a 2 vehicles like a big rig and a Prius.)
Enough said about drafting in a Prius being a crime in all 50 States. It sure is not in Texas. I have worked for municipalities and the Feds. Don't try to qoute the law to me...


As for something being illegal just because it is stupid. There are a lot of stupid things that are not illegal. Just ask an Officer. He's got a million stories about the time that this guy...


Now let's please get back to enjoying our hybrids and the focus of this forum without words like STUPID, CRIMINAL, BLAH BLAH BLAH.

I want to hear what you can do with your car!

 

The obvious choice for a drafting target is the ubiquitous big rig. But I've found that other types of trucks offer better shielding. Today I tailed a moving truck, which has a much lower keel and thus blocks much more wind down at the level that my Civic sits at. If you look at the standard big rig, at least 2/3 the height of your car lines up with empty air in the undercarraige of the trailer in front of you. Trucks with a lower clearance provide a much better close-in draft, because they provide a dead-air zone that more closely matches the profile of a car like the Prius or Civic.

By the way, anybody remember the movie "Fast and the Furious"? It may not have been a cinematic masterpiece, but I saw it for free while I was in college working as a projectionist at the local theater. There was a scene in which some tricked out ("riced" out?) Civics pass back and forth underneath the trailer of a big rig at highway speeds. Whether or not this can actually happen (I'm fairly confident that it can't without extensive modification of both vehicles involved), it helps to illustrate that all that empty space under a trailer isn't the best for setting up a nice low draft zone behind it.

 

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If you can't see that drafting is dangerous, you're a fool.

 

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FLAME ON! I don't think this thread is about the correctness of drafting. It's about drafting techniques. And "If you don't agree with me, you're a fool" is not a logical grand slam, it's a subjective cop-out.

 

I don't understand what you're trying to say.

 

Personally I don't draft unless it's very brief, and used only specifically to shield a hard blowing headwind, and even then I'm still 2-3 hundred feet behind.

It's not for legal-illegal reasons (Lord knows I roll plenty of stop signs etc), it's all about maintaining the appearance of Sparky as long as possible.
Sand, rocks and small pebbles are bad enough but when you get to broken car parts it's another.

Case in point is our Grand Caravan while driving at night, in the rain, 200' behind a truck a car part dented the hood and pit the windscreen. (Only 12K miles on the vehicle) We drove the vehicle like that for 50K miles before the hood was replaced for a depressed, suicidal buck last month.

Early on I'd experiment with jumping close behind a truck going 70-75 but was burning too much fuel for the speed vs. plodding along in the Right lane around the posted speed limit.

However I LOVE to follow a blessed slow moving truck by a few hundred feet.
Only yesterday there was a landscape truck towing a trailer going 48-60MPH in the 65 limit. Ho-yea- I did very well indeed.
But that's not drafting- It's putting the blame of slow moving vehicles back on the slow truck