Following too close

And we haven't even gotten to the part where following distance can be momentarily regulated by others besides the one behind. Can you say "cut in front of" or "just being a jerk"?

 

6 to 7 seconds following distance at any speed. You can double that depending on road conditions.

 

This is also what I was told in driver training. Distance is not a good way to judge. If I stay 2 car lengths behind you at 10mph, that's fine. If I stay 2 car lengths behind you at 70mph, there's no way I can stop in time. So you use time instead of distance.

 

I learned years ago from my cow hauler pals about following distance .
Ya rarely ever see a cow hauler tailgating anyone .

 

The penn cdl manual says for a 60 foot long truck, under 40 mph should maintain an interval of 6 seconds between vehicles. If over 40 mph, add 1 second, for 7 seconds.

Most state manuals say the same thing, if they follow the federal model.

 

If I am on the interstate or a divided highway and in the right lane.
I turn on my flashers and leave them on, let off the gas, and crowd the fog line......anyone tailgating me will either pass me or drop back.
They don't want to be behind me if they think i am having car trouble.

As soon as the do, I turn off my flashers and resume my speed.

If only I could make my car fart black smoke, I would do that to!

 

Unfortunately we share the road with our fellow citizens. Rarely will someone allow a truck to have 3 truck length following distances, they see that much space and use it as an opportunity to get 2 car lengths ahead of everyone else.

Because this is going to get them where they need to go sooooo much faster..../sarcasm.

 

This is true, its what we learned in the JJ Keller Manual as well at the community college program. Also add 1 second for night time and 1 second for bad weather. General rule is 1 sec per 10 foot of vehicle length. As my class room instructor says, "you can never have to much space."

 

At 60 mph 7 seconds would be 616 ft. It takes a human over a full second for our brain to recognize an event, process it, and react by getting the foot on the brake pedal. In that 1 second that 616 ft just shrank to 528 ft. Good luck getting a class 8 truck to come to a full stop in that distance, not to mention the fact that a sudden hard emergency stop has a very high likelihood of resulting in the vehicle behind you eating your icc bar.

 

a safe following distance is when no other vehicle can be seen, the farther away the better.