The gap you leave should be speed-dependent and about 2 seconds to allow for reaction time. Yes, this caps the highway's capacity to 0.5 cars per second per lane but roads are inherently inefficient.
Aye, and 2 seconds is the bare minimum. A company I have worked for wanted 4 seconds between you and the car in front. That always felt a little much, but it definitely helped prevent wrecks.
In my state, it's one car length(15-20 feet) for every 10mph. Good luck getting anyone to actually follow it though! Getting on a major highway here is like the Autobahn.
2 seconds assumes an instantaneous reaction and perfect road conditions. In the EU they'll teach you about 3s and at least +1 in poor conditions.
I was taught to look when the car in front drives past a landmark like a lamppost, then say to myself "Only a fool breaks the two second rule"
If you pass the lamppost before you finish saying it, you're too close
This is the only good answer. No need to distract yourself by figuring out your speed and guesstimating your gap like others are saying. Just count the seconds whenever you need to
3 seconds is the guideline I've been taught here in Sweden, but yeah. Riding too close is crazy dangerous and I don't understand why people keep doing it.
2 isn't much, over here they recommend 3 at highway speeds
If you're only two lengths away from the car in front of you while driving at highway speeds, you are tailgating. Back off. It's far more dangerous than speeding.
Help me out with this, because it's driving me crazy. Whenever I leave anywhere close to 2 seconds between me and the car on front of me, someone cuts in, and I'm now too close to them, so I slow down, leaving a 2 second gap, and another cuts in. Rinse, repeat. I end up being the slow ass that everyone keeps zooming around unless I tailgate.
Just be safe. You're still close to your desires speed
Let them hop in and keep your 2 seconds. I used to have a 40 minute commute and on a busy morning would have 10-15 people do that. Know how much time that sets me back? 20 to 30 seconds. Following this rule I have a 25 year clean driving record and I guarantee these lane hoppers can't make that claim
Beyond “don’t care” - you get to be the traffic hacker who improves traffic for everyone. yayyy
Credit for above I think: Traffic Waves
Anyone who wants to test how this can work?
Check this old-school site:
At 65mph, you cover two car lengths (~30 ft) in about 1/3 of a second.
Typically human reaction time for braking is about 1.5 seconds.
If something went seriously wrong in front of you (like a sideways car, or a hidden obstacle in front of the car in front of you) you would have covered 10 car lengths before your foot touches the brake pedal.
nothing gets me more pissed off than when I'm driving the speed limit on an open road with an open passing zone, no one coming towards me or ahead of me, and some dipshit decides to ride my ass
Then you need to lift off the accellerator, don't brake check or anything, just slowly slow down.
If the car behind you won't give you enough safety margin to maintain a high speed, then your only option to maintain safety is to reduce your speed so that the safety margin they give you is enough to stop in time for an accident.
Here in Sweden we have plenty of roundabouts, I will use those to also get rid of annoying drivers who just can't manage their distance, if I have someone like that behind me when I get to a roundabout, I just drive a full lap of the roundabout and let them pass.
I will allways let these guys past when I can, they are in a rush to their own accident, and I am not, let them pass and and make them stop being my problem, if I can't find a place to let them pass I will reduce my speed to compensate for their lack of safety margins
Or you're in the right hand lane and people are still tailgating you even though you're going 70mph.
Some people are unnecessarily aggressive on the road. Probably because they have unresolved emotional issues and take it out on other drivers. At least that's what I tell myself.
Probably because they have unresolved emotional issues and take it out on other drivers.
Oh they absolutely do.
Besides guns, motor vehicles are probably the most physically powerful things most of us (in the US) have the freedom to control in our lives. And there are almost no restrictions on allowing someone to drive when they can't or won't regulate their emotional state.
Its always a huge pickup truck too. I look in the mirror and just see the front grill
If what you’re doing makes idiots angry, feel good about yourself and keep doing it.
I'd be fuckin raging if someone was driving two car lengths behind me. That's fucking idiotic
More space means less braking, reducing bunching up. Check this article on traffic waves out
I tend to annoy people by dropping off the gas much sooner for lights than strictly necessary, but by gently slowing I both save gas, wear and depending on the timing of the light I can often even time it to miss the red entirely
I leave enough room for me to have time to react and give the person behind me enough time to react to my breaking. Because most people drive way too close to avoid a rear-end collision if I have to slam my breaks for an emergency. Sometimes that means I'm 4, 5 or 6 car lengths away from the car in front of me, but that has the added benefit of pissing off tailgators who will almost immediately choose to pass me which works out great for me. The less space the person behind gives, the more space I leave between me and the person in front.
Spoken like a true left lane hogger
Edit: OP is bragging about forcing cars behind them to pass on the right because they are too entitled to get the hell over. It's dangerous and you people applaud them. Pathetic.
Spoken like a true entitled bad driver
Nope, I stay in the slow lane, unless my exit is in the left lane of course.
I just moved to Michigan
I have never seen a group of drivers so committed to Tail Gateing .... Like it's the state sport
I was driving in slowish freeway traffic in Detroit and the guy behind me plowed right into me, didn't even slow down, didn't even look away. He sort of bounced off of me, pulled onto the shoulder, and squeeled off while I had to find some sketchy spot to stop and make sure my bumper wasn't dragging too much.
A person I was visiting there in Detroit told me that insurance wasn't required so many people run off rather than risk getting blamed and the cops wouldn't even bother with a report.
Insurance is required in all of Michigan, with fines, license suspension, and jail all possible for not having it. With Michigan's no-fault insurance we have some of the highest rates in the country in Detroit—especially relative to income—and almost no viable alternative to owning a car.
That said, as a native Detroiter I feel safer in Detroit driving around other Detroiters, the suburbanites and out of state folks are always in the way.
Brake check!
I think my biggest pet peeve about driving is when you come to a stop and the car behind you tries to shove their nose up your ass. Like bruh you don't need to ever be that close
My driving instructor taught me that I should still be able to see the other car's back wheels when I stop. I actually don't know how close that looks from the other driver's perspective.
What it looks like:
Not actually as the "see the tires" rule is fairly good advise. Keep in mind sometimes it is smarter to give a little more space depending on the situation. Think of it as more of a minimum. Also lose most of your speed farther back and then role forward. This allows for recovery time in case of failure or loss of traction.
Terrible, terrible advice. That leaves a full car-length of empty pavement with the driver sight-lines of modern SUV and crossover designs. Pickup trucks are worse; I've seen pickup truck drivers stop a full 30 feet back. It wastes huge amounts of space on the street, and causes traffic congestion. On the other side of the coin, van and bus drivers can still get right up on your ass when following this advice.
Maybe they just really love the smell of exhaust and are trying to get high off of your emissions
Then get out and suck my tailpipe but stay off my ass lmao
At a stop? Who cares? Can't being closer together at a stop light at least help with intersections? I guess it depends on the city.
If you're driving a manual and you roll back on a stop, you shouldn't be driving a manual. Unless you live in like San Francisco I guess? In the Appalachian region, cops will stop you for rolling back.
Ever heard of clear distance? If you're at a stop and someone rear ends you and you hit the car in front of you you are at fault and will be held liable.
As for the rollback in my state they'll again look at distance. Because if I don't have enough space to back up because you're too close you're once again at fault for not having clear distance.
On top of all that it helps move traffic along faster. You don't have to wait as long to accelerate if you maintain distance because you don't have to wait for the car in front of you to move far enough to start accelerating.
Getting bumper to bumper has zero benefits outside of the false psychological feeling of forward progress.
if they are following the two second rule they should be less than a foot from your car. If your car is stopped you are always more than two seconds from the car in front of you.
Id get that close if I want to give the phone enjoyer behind me plenty of time to stop
So you can hit the car in front of you too?
It's not only a safety hazard but it leads to slower traffic. If you maintain the right distance at a stop the whole line of cars can accelerate faster because you don't have to wait as long for the car ahead of you to move. There are zero actual benefits of sniffing my ass at a stop.
Intelligent people leave a space of about two cars ahead of them on the freeway.
Stupid people think that space must be for them.
Intelligent people leave a whole fucking lot more than just two car lengths.
I think they're saying 2 car lengths when in heavy traffic going 20 mph. I hope...
Back when i drove. I was taught 3 car lengths, or 3 seconds. Whichever is greater.
Two car lengths isn't even remotely enough space if you're traveling at high speeds.
It depends.
On a well developed well maintained "freeway" with multiple lanes, shoulders for break downs, gentle curves, et cetera it's common. 3 car lengths is more common here I think.
That said, on a "highway" (interstate?) without everything listed above I aim for 2 seconds, which is about 60 metres at highway speed.
When i was 13 bill Clinton told me 1 car length per every 10mph i was traveling at. Ive been following that advice ever since
And I know it's state dependent, but the highways by me, each white line is about one car and each gap is one car, so if you're doing 50, having two to three white dashed lines between you and the car in front of you is probably good.
3 seconds is the minimum safe distance, regardless of speed
What is this in imperial? How many bullets per square-child?
3 seconds from you to get to where the other car was previously.
Depends, African or European?
Yes
This is just plain untrue.
In all cases you need to drive to the conditions. Observe your circumstances and adapt your behavior accordingly.
3s is a good yard stick, but there's plenty of situations in which it is not the ideal safe distance.
At 110km/h that's about 90 metres. Every idiot around is going to try to move around you to take up that spot. Being overtaken by idiots is unsafe. This is just one example, there's plenty of others.
If you see people weaving like crazy you just slow down even more.
When I leave two car lengths, four cars will go into it, and at least one of their drivers will throw a half empty beer can at me.
Infinite free beer exploit?
Only half infinite unfortunately
My car's "smart cruise control" leaves what seems to be around a car length for every 10 mph, which is what I remember hearing in driving school. Feels a bit excessive in practice, but I also never feel like I'm being an asshole so I'm okay with it.
I was rear ended, HARD once. That distance gave me the space to control both my vehicle, and the one that hit me. It turned a potential multi car, multi lane pileup into a 2 vehicle wreck, either 1 more dinged car.
The space isn't for the 99.999% of the time, but that 0.001% OH FUCK time.
I almost had that happen to me a year ago. Traffic had stopped on the interstate and I hear skrrt, skrrt, skrrt, skrrt getting closer and closer to me. I looked up in my mirror and see a Silverado rapidly closing the distance and thought "god damn it". I fortunately left enough room between me and the car in front of me that I was able to give him some more space and turned a full on collision into a tap that didn't do any damage. Pretty sure my foot was actually off the brake when he hit me and that helped absorb some of it as well. I was still pretty pissed though because I had more than enough time to think about all these things and consider moving onto the shoulder but I thought he would do that instead and still hit me with how fast he was going. Being an idiot, he did not and hit me anyway.
Well you want the automated system to be overly safe usually. It is better than the other way around.
Having more space also gives the driver the to react.
Oh I'm not saying anything against it! I love that it leaves as much space as it does. Sometimes I just have to give it a little umpf to pass a semi because it sees the car waaay ahead and slows down.
Two car lengths? You absolute madman! That's positively grotesque!
For the purposes of this comment, I'm assuming that cars are about fifty feet long.
At 60mph with a 2 second following distance, you'd need about 176 feet, so you'd want 3 car lengths with 50 foot cars.
Limo driver moment
I leave 2-3 seconds following distance minimum on interstate highways.
"Only a fool breaks the 2 second rule."
I was taught to repeat that phrase, at a normal steady pace, when I saw the back of their car go past something, to use as a marker (a signpost, the end of one of the lines on the road, whatever).
If you finish the phrase after the front of your car has gone past the same marker, then you don't have a big enough braking distance and need to ease off a bit.
I think you mean a 1/10 of a second. (Local drivers, apparently)
My brother in law does this. Gets so close that you can't see the rear tires of the car ahead, going 80+ mph. He's been in multiple wrecks, including one where he totaled his custom BMW and almost died. He blamed the other driver (somewhat reasonably, they were drunk, but he was driving like a psycho), and refuses to change any of his driving habits.
He also used to street race in Florida, with his family in the car. No, they did not consent to it, they're just too scared of him to say anything.
The simplified distance rule we learn in europe is: half your speed (km/h) in meters or as an equation, v/2000. E.g. you drive 120km/h, keep 60m distance.
I've always preferred the 2 second rule. You don't need to do distance math in your head, just find a tree and count the time it takes to get from their car to yours.
In my country it's 3 seconds out of town and 2 seconds in town, by law. And I think that's beautiful.
In France the way we learned is (for the highway at least)
- 110km/h: 5 small markings between you and the other car
- 130km/h: 2 large markings
I have a two lane road for most of commute every morning. What hate is when you pick up a buttplug. A buttplug is some dipshit who crawls up your ass and refuses to pass. They wont leave enough gap for the person behind them to pass without passing both of us and they wont pass themselves.
What is crazy about this is that person will usually stay there until every car behind them has passed. After that they usually pass almost immediately.
In my experience, slowing down to just below the speed limit will usually irritate these tailgators enough to shake them off. Your mileage may vary though.
This is the way. Though I've had to come to a full stop and pull off the road a couple times...
I've always followed the rule of 1 car length for every 10 miles per hour you're going.
I always (sometimes) do three seconds between me and the car in front of me. That automatically adjusts for increased speed.
3 seconds when under 65. 5 seconds when it's raining or I'm moving faster than posted highway speeds. It pisses people off but I'm hauling a ton of steel and plastic around, I'm not going to risk my life and everyone's around me just because some guy is late for work or can't be patient and needs to get where he's going a few seconds before me. People tend to lose the reality of the situation when driving their super fast metal explosion machines.
How am I supposed to leave 10 car lengths while speeding through a school zone? Explain!
If it's a school zone you leave 10 school bus lengths.
Lord I hate those fucking cunts who see two car lengths of space as an invitation. I'm going 85, you're going 75, don't suddenly hop in front of me because the clown in front of you is going 70.
You can't do this in LA, but LA fucking sucks so fuck 'em haha.
What I don't get is the current trend of leaving 1-2 car lengths at traffic lights. At first I thought it was maybe all the new cars with their assisted driving features. But I've seen older cars do it too.
Cars are getting bigger, but people aren't getting taller (as fast). Little granny can barely see her hood over the steering wheel so she needs to leave 2.75 miles of space between her and the car in front.
You should be able to see the tires (generally) of the car ahead of you. That means you can easily / quickly turn out if the car ahead is stalled or something.
It also means you might not rear end the car ahead of you if someone hits you
It’s in case some jackass on their phone rear ends you, if you’re too close you’ll get pushed into the car in front of you. IIRC you can be liable for the damages to the car in front of you while stopped if a multiple car accident happens.
I leave one, maybe one and a half when stopped. I like having ample room to GTFO if I need to.
You don't need to leave a crazy amount of space when stopped at a traffic light, but you still should be leaving some. So if someone rear ends you, it minimizes the risk of your car then smashing into the person in front of you, so it reduces the risk of additional people being involved in an accident.
That's a thing? Seems pretty silly to me. You need space but not that much.
What annoys me here is that people will enter the intersection before traffic on the other side has a chance to clear thus blocking the road when the light changes.
I also don't think the people who speed though the turn light. The light turns green and I have to sit and wait for traffic to clear
It's a nice thought, but it has so many modifiers it's pretty much worthless. Everything from road conditions, to time of day or night, to the size and weight and type of vehicle you are driving, to how old you are affects stopping distance and the interval you should be leaving.
Remember children - Driving should never be "relaxing." It's real work and demands your total concentration to protect yourself and everyone around you. So put the phone down and even turn off the radio. Put your head on a swivel like a fighter pilot. And have an escape plan for every inch you drive.
I don't know why you are being downvoted since the distance from other cars should absolutely reflect the current conditions. I also agree that to drivers need to proactively look for possible collisions in mirrors and blind spots, though they should be generally calm and patient when driving.
Should be at least 5 car lengths on the highway
yeah me too. i get a lot of rollerskaters squeezing into the space so i keep backing off til theyre all jammed ass to mouth like a human centipede. gotta keep my distance for when the chain binds. and it will
Robert Loggia and David Lynch have something to say about this:
I salute you good sir! That's plenty of space to squeeze past if necessary 😁 Just maintain a constant speed and you're a hero
And stay out of the passing lane.
Now there'd be a saint 🙏🏽
