Capt:
The auto industry salutes you. Let’s publish your guidelines everywhere, and I’m sure they’d be able to support an entire new factory from the new cars needed.
Not to mention that tow truck drivers and insurance adjusters would like to kiss your feet.
Yes, of course this course of action is completely acceptable.
Voyager I am doing the best that I can for all involved.
“A good driver never allows himself to be too distracted, when not texting or otherwise involved in another activity, look straight ahead and ignore all activity to the sides and rear. Mirrors are for sissies, signals for pikers and speedlimits for chickens” State of Texas New Drivers Guidebook
Capt
This WILL be my go-to line when engaged in conversation on this topic.
70 mi/h is 102.7 feet per second. Four car lengths is about 76 feet (Ford Excursion lengths). 76 feet is covered in seven and a half tenths of a second at that speed.
Anyone who follows that closely at highway speeds is way too close, but I still see wads of cars within a carlength of each other flying down the interstate at 80+ mph.
Idiots.
An exception to that one here in Dallas: When it’s snowy or icy, you shall drive no more than 1 mph across icy bridges. When the ice on the roads has melted, you shall drive half the speed limit for the next three days.
If you can’t hit your brakes within 0.7 seconds, you shouldn’t be driving.
Here on the east coast it’s pretty much any lane you want, for anything you want to do.
Just getting on the brakes within 0.7 seconds isn’t going to help much at highway speeds if the problem’s only 0.7 seconds ahead of you. Cars don’t stop exactly when the brakes are first applied.
I usually use the two second rule, but three or four is better when possible.
If it’s a car in front of you, then like you said, it’s not going to stop exactly when the brakes are first applied. If your brakes are at least as good, you just have to hit them before the place where they did. Naturally this doesn’t apply to someone in an 18-wheeler behind a Miata, etc.
If a brick wall suddenly appears in front of you, then you make a valid point.
On I5 here in Washington I frequently travel between north of Everett to Sea/Tac and parts further south. On much of that ride the furthest left lane is the HOV lane. In this lane I am doing the speed limit (or within 5 miles over) and I always get idiots climbing up my rear bumper, and it pisses me right off! I hate it so much; I took a defensive driving course many years ago when I worked for GTE and was driving company vehicles, and the lessons I learned then have served me very well over the years and so I do not give into the fleeting impulse to slam on the brakes, but I do think dark and evil thoughts about the driver even after s/he have finally sped past me in the legitimate left/passing lane.
This includes Canadians (I am looking at you folks who live in British Columbia) who are traveling through my state. The regular Canadians are bad enough, but may the good lord save me from the Canadians flying the damned 18 wheelers down the road. Oh, and those truck drivers might as well just pull the side mirrors off the trucks and just not even have part of the driving test (in B.C.) include looking over their left shoulders before merging. I can’t tell you how many times I have had to take emergency maneuvers to keep from getting flattened. :eek::(:mad::rolleyes:
As mentioned upthread the inherent problem with leaving too much room ahead of yourself on a busy highway is it invites cocky drivers to cut in front of you. As my work beast is a Suburban loaded close to the 10k lbs non CDL limit, it doesn’t exactly stop on a dime. Nor do I have the time to waste to ride gently from place to place - I have very strict deadlines. Indeed if anyone here has had the experience of driving in DC you are aware of how important paying attention is while driving - it is not a car friendly place.
So the answer is to boldly drive with great attention, and keep the dashcam(s) running. I have been struck several times this year and not one was my fault. The adjusters appreciate my evidence.
In the DC metro area when you are on the interstate it’s a good idea is to keep an eye on the tags of the drivers around you. MD drivers generally want to go somewhere and are mostly sane. DC drivers have very few high speed roads to drive in the District, so it’s wise to presume they are less used to the interstate and one should exercise caution near them.
Finally, if a car comes screaming out of nowhere, cuts across lanes of traffic without signalling, passes on the right or even the shoulder, or just generally acts like an ass, you can be guaranteed it’s either a) a BMW or b) from VA.
I do not contend that all VA drivers are nuts, but rather I contend many drivers who are nuts are from VA. I have presumed the reason for this is that in Northern VA there has been an explosion of growth over the last 40 years. During this time the state and counties did not build enough roads to support the greater population. Thus the residents of the northern portion of that fine state tend to practice aggressive driving to a higher art form out of sheer need to move expeditiously from point A to point B.
As a corollary of the above observations I personally believe the drivers of VA tagged BMWs should be thinned from the herd by regulated hunting, in order to promote the greater good.
Not that I have a strong opinion either way.
The research I have seen gives the figure of 0.75 seconds to recognise the problem, and decide what to do, and then another 0.75 seconds to do it.
So I have to wonder what sort of unrealistic expectations you have.
Maybe I’m just a superhuman. It certainly doesn’t take me 1.5 seconds to hit the brake once I see the person in front of me slam on their brake.
Then again, when I’m driving, I’m actually paying attention, not dialing up people on my cell phone and texting.
This report from Monash agrees with you.
Although only for following vehicles situations. Reading the data - it seems the average reaction time is 0.9 seconds.
However, it also notes that reacting to “brake lights” is a more special situation - and more complex decisions / reactions will take longer
I thought about that after I posted. If I’m driving down a rural highway with no cars around me, I can imagine it taking around a second to respond since I’m not as alert. When I’m driving amongst traffic as we were taking about, I’d guess it would take closer to half a second because I’m a little more wary of the situation. If I’m actually anticipating a situation in the next few seconds, it could be less.
Excellent user name / post combo.