Following distance including two-second minimum, when to increase speed and dealing with tailgaters

FOLLOWING TOO CLOSE

Being too close is only a good thing in horseshoes and drive-in movies, not in traffic.

The concept of one car length for every ten miles per hour has been rendered obsolete by NHTSA (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration) research. The primary reasoning for this is people have difficulty judging what one car length is consistently. Furthermore, at fifty-five miles per hour, a vehicle travels 80.63 feet in one second (55 mph multiplied by 1.466 conversion factor equals 80.63 feet per second). If the driver has accurately judged fifty-five feet of distance behind the car and has to stop. In the three-quarters of a second reaction time, the car will travel 60.47 feet before the driver can even begin to apply the brakes, all but assuring a collision. If you maintain a minimum (for clear, dry weather) of a two-second interval between you and the car ahead, at fifty-five mph you will have a 161.3- foot buffer ahead to react and stop within.

When you are following another vehicle in your lane, you should want to be in the two-second cushion. Pick out a stationary object ahead of the car in front of you. That may be a white line across the road, a shadow of an overpass, or a parked car on the shoulder. Pick out something that enables you to start counting when the lead vehicle passes that spot. One-thousand one, one-thousand two, if you are not at the spot that the car ahead of you was when you started counting, then you are a reasonable distance behind him. If you have passed that spot before you say "one-thousand two" you are too close. Now what do you do? You can take your foot off the gas and slow down until you are a safe distance or you may change lanes if it is safe.

Now, there are times that two seconds is not enough. The two-second rule is a minimum. Additional seconds need to be added for darkness, bad weather, towing, vehicles following too closely, etc. This is in the short or close range environment scanning for immediate hazards. Drivers should also be looking at least 10 seconds ahead of their vehicles to become aware of the medium distance potential hazards. You need to always try to keep a safe area around you. Keep from getting boxed in and not having a way out if someone presents a hazard. The law does not leave any good reason for hitting another vehicle in the rear. F.S. 316.0895 (1) "The driver of a motor vehicle shall not follow another vehicle more closely than is reasonable and prudent, having the regard for the speed of such vehicles and the traffic upon, and the conditions of, the highway."²