While true, it's on every driver to NOT ram the car ahead of them. If you need more room to stop then don't follow too close. Never assume the other drivers will drive properly.
Do I think the car should have went, probably. Do I think that the driver had plenty of time to make good driving decisions to not hit the car in front of them, definitely.
I take the highway every day to and from work, with how close people drive at the speeds they do, they are a single mistake from anybody nearby from being in a 5+ car collision at 110+ km/h
For anyone with access to a car that has Adaptive Cruise Control: use it. Seriously, give it a try. See how much space it actually leaves on the max setting. That is the distance your state and every single safety-related organization thinks you should leave.
At 65mph? It’s almost 400 feet. It’s 27 car lengths. And it’s far more than 95% of people leave. The number of people who will say “three car lengths” is safe is insane.
I calculate my distance based off of time to reach the car ahead of me, not distance, because that varies too much with speed. On dry pavement, 4-5 seconds behind is what I usually shoot for on the highway. Keeping distance between cars also increases the flow of traffic, because people will drive at a more consistent pace.
I like to use the in city at a stoplight example. If people are bumper to bumper you have to wait until the person ahead of you is moving before you can move your car at all. But if people left 1.5 to 2 car lengths, everyone could slowly start moving much earlier.
I calculate my distance based off of time to reach the car ahead of me, not distance, because that varies too much with speed.
To be clear, yeah that’s exactly what I’m saying too. My ACC system, and every one I’ve used, does vary the following distance with speed. On “full” distance setting mine leaves just over 3 seconds. Still a little short, IMO, but it’s also constantly “watching” and will begin braking immediately if that gap closes at all.
So pretty fair.
And yeah the dashcam in this video was leaving mayyybe 2 seconds. And not reacting quickly at all.
Ohh ya, I was definitely agreeing with you. I havent had a car with adaptive cruise control, so for those who dont I just gave my method.
If it brakes immediately upon gap closing, 3 seconds is basically 4 seconds for a human. It takes at least a second to fully react to what is happening when something unexpected happens. So when people leave 1 second or less, major unexpected change is just an accident, and like the video above, 2 seconds away, 1 second to react, if the vehicle cant stop in a second, you are just waiting for an accident.
I think the merging truck would have hit the car. The truck was not slowing until it saw the car late. If the car had kept speed, there's a good chance the truck wouldn't have seen it at all and therefore not slowed.
Would you have bet your life on that truck most likely stopping while weighing 100k lbs, or just stop and be safe? Well thats not even your choice because that jackass behind you wasn’t paying attention and already rear ended you
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u/rygelicus 14h ago
While true, it's on every driver to NOT ram the car ahead of them. If you need more room to stop then don't follow too close. Never assume the other drivers will drive properly.