Desert Captain wrote:

Second only to excessive speed following distance or rather the lack thereof tops the list of dangerous driving. In a recent thread following distance was mentioned and the old "one car length for each 10 miles per hour" was suggested. There are a couple of problems with that rule, first of all it is about 60 years old, secondly most folks do a very poor job of judging specific distances like car lengths. What is a car length anyway? My F-150 is 22.5' and my brides Toyota is 16'. Guesstimating the difference between say 80' and 120' is going to fall short of being accurate for most of us.

A much better method of creating the proper following distance is the 2 second rule (Google it). Your following distance should be sufficient that you have 2 full seconds between you and the vehicle in front of you. It is very easy to accurately judge, simply watch the vehicle in front and start your 2 second count when they pass a fixed object like a signpost, crosswalk, or a shadow across the lane. If you get to that marker in less than two seconds you need more following distance. One suggestion is to recite "Only a fool breaks the 2 second rule" which in a normal speaking voice takes 2 seconds to say.

Now the 2 second rule is for conventional vehicles traveling on dry pavement. If it is raining the rule becomes the 4 second rule and the presence of ice or snow kicks it up to 6. When towing I make it the 3 second rule (5 in the rain etc). It is pretty hard from a safety standpoint to have too much following distance so long as you are not holding up the normal traffic flow and the 2 second rule makes it very easy for anyone to effectively assure themselves sufficient following distance to respond in an emergency.

As always...Opinions and YMMV as when you get free advice you get what you paid for.

LynnandCarol wrote:

Common Sense rules and these should be the Rules of the road. As we all know with towing, it takes longer to stop. In addition, there are many, many idiots out there that have no idea that it will take us longer to stop as the whip in to your lane and your planned stopping distance suddenly goes to all "hope".

WoodGlue wrote:

The average car travels 80.3 feet per second

Average car length is 17 feet

The average response time is 1.5 seconds

This means that your vehicle will have traveled almost 5 car lengths (85 feet) before you can react to what is in front of you!

There is something to think about. Physics wasn't made up yesterday!

Although the 2 second rule may be valid, so is the statement above.

Add into that, towing a 30 foot trailer, and well, I shouldn't have to explain that!

WoodGlue