So thats how people die.

A question for the driving gods: are you saying I should be the stopping distance behind the vehicle in front of me? i.e. leaving a 100m gap behind the vehicle in front if I’m doing 70?

If that’s true, then those chevrons dangerously underestimate the gaps we should all be leaving, and we need to make every motorway 20 lanes wide to fit all the traffic on.

linky

A question for the driving gods: are you saying I should be the stopping distance behind the vehicle in front of me? i.e. leaving a 100m gap behind the vehicle in front if I’m doing 70?

If that’s true, then those chevrons dangerously underestimate the gaps we should all be leaving, and we need to make every motorway 20 lanes wide to fit all the traffic on.

I think, and I’m happy to be put right, that some people are confusing the 2 second rule with stopping distances. Surely they are 2 differnt things?

I believe the 2 second rule takes into account the fact that if something causes the car in front to brake, you’ll need that 2 seconds to react. The car in front will not come to an instant stop so you dont need to leave the full stopping distance from your present speed between you and the car in front.

As quoted earlier in the thread:
Distance between the 2 second chevrons on a 70 mph road is 40 metres .

Stopping distance from 50mph is 50 metres.

I certainly dont see many people leaving 10 to 12 car gaps as suggested earlier.

this forum has some judgemental assholes on it!

You took the words right out of my keyboard. Always the same ol’ culprits, too.

It’s almost as predictable as Druid recommending a Van Nicholas at every bleeding opportunity… 😉

@thisisnotaspoon

Unless it’s a spectacularly poorly designed car, no.

The best illustration I can find without giving it more time than it merits is here:

http://pages.cs.wisc.edu/~gdguo/driving/BlindSpot.htm

Essentially, a portion of the car will be in view in (at least) one of your mirrors at all points.

I ride motorbikes too and the lifesaver had become a habit in the car took, this takes some getting used to but is honestly 100 times better as far add I’m concerned.

I think it’s healthy to have an near miss like this and think constructively about how you might have avoided it. You can’t really influence the cyclist should an identical scenario occur, but you could do something differently.

As an example, my cul de sac has parking spots all the way round. As a result, the first bend is often blind. I thought I was going slow enough, right until the time someone chose to walk their dog in the middle of the road rather than on the pavement 2m away. He was invisible until I almost ran him over, despite me taking the bend at 5mph. I now drive round it at 2mph. Obviously I posted a shit through his letterbox though, what a knob 🙄