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Two car lengths on the highway is not enough car lengths to make a meaningful difference in the event of a crash or giving you time to react to an emergency situation up ahead.
That being said, I respect that you leave any car lengths at all and it's probably better than nothing. Especially since other drivers see any more than that as a challenge to enter that gap. Which is dangerous as shit and they are wrong but won't learn even after they wreck doing it.
I think the safety guidelines are 3 seconds of reaction time which comes out to about 1 car length per 10 MPH of speed.
But yeah, good luck with that because other drivers just see that as space they can merge.
It is a space they can merge. You leave gap in between car to make merging easy, then you release the pedal to slow down to achieve that desired gap again. It's a coop, not competition.
I wish more people thought like you and me. Let's all just be safe on the road together.
Sometimes this is fine and works as expected. Sometimes it ends up with me going way under the speed limit as half of the other lane gets in front of me, as I continue to decelerate to keep proper stopping distance. (Bonus points if the people behind me also pass me because of this.)
It's occasions like those I'm glad I leave some wiggle room in my travel time.
I was driving outside of Phoenix one time in stop and go construction traffic. 5 Lanes were going down to like 2 or 3 and i was leaving space in front of me in a non-ending lane for people to merge in. I dunno what was up but people were not having itthat day. No takers no matter how many lengths i gave. Honking, cussing, etc. i kept on, doin my thing until a fuckin winnebago swerved from my lame behind me just to fill the gap i made.
I dunno if it was just hot that day or if phoenix hates merging or what, but i never forgot that wild shit
I disagree. If you can't merge into a lane without taking up someone's safety zone, then you don't have enough space to merge. If the car in front of you wrecks, you have eaten up the reaction time of the driver behind you, greatly compounding the damage; especially for you, who gets front and rear ended.
The rule I was taught is: if the driver behind you has to even touch their brakes, you don't have enough time/space to merge.
Sometimes all traffic is speeding along, as in 5-10mph over the speed limit, and it looks like pack racing. I keep thinking, all it takes is one distracted driver and it's a 30 car pile up.
Yep, exactly.
When I notice that ahead, I always slow down a bit to put some good distance between it and myself.
When I was a kid the recommendation was 2 seconds ('two Mississippi') but that was when the speed limit was 55 mph on the interstate and cars weren't as heavy as they are now. Glad to hear they bumped it up.
We also have much better brajes (discs and ABS) and tires (radials) now. So there's much less stopping distance once you actually hit the brakes. But reaction times are the still the same.
Let them merge. I'd rather give space for those who drive aggressively than be hit. It won't really affect the time it takes to get from A to B, it reduces stress and accident probability, and I don't lose points for some race we're not in. I know some people get mad at passive drivers, but if I'm going around the speed limit in the right lane minding my business, why are you so mad I'm not participating in increasing insurance profits?
If you're in a country that typically drives on the left, and you're driving in the far right lane on a three or more lane road, you're still doing it wrong. That lane is for merging and exiting. The far left is for passing and the center lanes are for cruising. There might also be turn only lanes, which unless you're turning can be safely ignored, because the only valid reason to be in a turn lane is if you're turning.
This was my first thought. When I learned how to drive, the rule was one car length per 10 mph. So at highway speeds of 70, that would be 7 car lengths of space to ensure enough distance to safely stop or avoid a collision. I see approximately 0% of people following this rule nowadays, and while I try to maintain it myself, it often results in a stream of vehicles merging in front of me and messing up my distance. Fun times.
Handy tip:
In the USA, the lines on a highway are 10 ft long, the spaces between them are 30 ft.
So, a line and a space are about two car lengths. It’s a handy way to judge how close you are to the car ahead. At highway speeds, you want 3-4 lines between you.
This is the way
Me: (Leaves the appropriate number of car-lengths for the present speed between me and the vehicle in front of me)
Some jerk who should have their license revoked: [No turn signal] I merge here now!
Confirmed: humans are cats
While they should of course be signaling, that space is for merging. Let off the pedal for one second and you've likely got your gap back anyway, not a meaningful disruption.
You need to leave at least 3 seconds of reaction time between you and the next car, 2 car lengths at that speed is too close for you to reliably react in time.
Also, people can't reliably judge a "car's length". It's a ridiculous measurement system, let alone travelling at 100 kmh.
Timed gap makes so much more sense and it remains mostly consistent regardless of speed. As in, you should have 3 seconds of gap regardless of if you're traveling 20 kmh or 100 kmh.
Are they talking average car length, your own cars length? One of my cars is a little over twice as long as one of the others. Timed gap truly is the better rule.
I once had to be in extreme traffic during a commute behind an asshole who tapped the breaks every ten seconds or so. In retrospect, I should have changed lanes or exited and re-entered the highway. I was behind that asshole for like 45m and I was screaming with rage.
I sold my car and gave up driving after I quit that job. Didn't drive for 10y. Won't ever accept a job with a commute again.
This is not a problem if you drive at the speed limit. Then what happens is that everyone else, who will be speeding, will continually pass you and thus create more car lengths in front of you. Unless you're in a no passing zone on a two lane road, in which case they can follow the speed limit for once.
Even then, at the absolute first available opportunity:
It's the 2+ car lengths when at a traffic light that baffles me.
The entire time you spend sitting at a light after it turns green is solely to wait for those gaps to reappear.
The correct stopping distance, as I was told, is "far enough back to see where their back tires touch the ground". Pretty good rule of thumb. Gives more space for larger vehicles who may not see a jaywalker in front of them.
Nothing to gain by being right up the ass of the car in front of you. Unless maybe you realize you're blocking the entrance to a business/secondary street and you try to be "nice".
Try that on the NJ Turnpike and see how fast two cars jump in that space.
I dunno I find the drivers who dart around me in the slow lane really like having that space to dart back into.
My driving instructor said leaving 4 seconds of distance was safe for highway speeds. Ok busy highways the best I can get is a few car lengths.
Remember the follow rule. If the vehicle in front of you is a car, stay 3 seconds behind. A tractor trailer, 4-5 seconds. An emergency vehicle, 6 seconds.
And if the car next to you is a tandem semi, be sure to cut them off while going downhill right before the traffic jam.
Fucking idiot's, all of them.
I love setting my auto cruise control and watching everyone flood in front of me to just go the same speed they were going behind me.
Halbe Tacho (in mm)
In this same vein, I loved social distancing while standing in a line. Why do we have to cram in uncomfortably? It won't make the line move faster.
Half a meter is fine when I'm in need of bullying away the car blocking the fast lane on the Autobahn. Sometimes they act like they had not rear view mirrors and the road was their own.