Following too close

If they are 5 feet off your bumper at anything over a half mile an hour. They are too close.
Otherwise if you feel some one is too close to you. Just turn on your hazard lights for one blink. Usually a driver that is too close will back off when they see the brake lights come on (ie the hazard lights).

 

In Florida the law says 300ft. That said I'd believe it depends on the state.

 

Considering it takes what? 800 ft for a truck to reach a full stop from 65 mph...anything less than 2 football fields is to short. However good luck maintaining safe following distance when 99 out of a hundred vehicles come back over in front of you with less than 25 feet to spare.

 

I keep hearing that we should be at least 5 seconds behind, which is roughly equivalent.

The problem is that if you do that in traffic, you'll eventually end up in reverse. It's a good rule of thumb, but has limitations in the real world. But I do try to make sure that I have a healthy cushion as much as possible so 4-wheelers can cut in front of me without ever really cutting me off.

 

Yep. The best most stress free solution i have found is to slow down just a bit under the flow of traffic that way when they pull in front of me to close, the gap is increasing and not decreasing. And considering the vast majority ignores the speed limit this means in effect im still traveling at a good rate of speed.

 

Same here. The mantra of being a stone in the river. Dont try and wear yourself out by going faster than the flow. Let the flow go around you and enjoy the ride.

 

It would all depend on speed. I don't think there is any "distance" specifications per se because safe distance would be regulated by speed, road conditions, weight, etc. Too many variables to come up with exact numbers, and besides, no cop is going to be able to measure the distance from afar. That said, occasionally you do hear about being ticketed for following too close, and when it's flagrant, it's easy to see but without a fool-proof system to measure and document, it's very hard to prosecute a following too close in court until and unless a rear-end crash occurs.