How far is the recommended distance you are suppose to drive behind a car?

merigold00

Actually, most driving schools recommend 3 seconds under ideal driving conditions. All the stuff you hear about car lengths per mph is old school, and doesn't work.

Hear is how you do it. Wait til the back bumper of the car ahead of you passes some stationary point, then start counting - one, one thousan, two, one thousand.... If you reach that spot before 3 seconds, you are too close.

You have to increase this distance for wet/snowy roads, heavy loads in the vehicle, dirt or gravel roads, night driving, or thin tires...

elizabethnj

If I remember correctly from my driver's ed class, one car length for every 10 miles..so if you are going 40 mph, four car lengths.

monie99701

2 to 4 second rule... depending on the road conditions

redhotboxsoxfan

It is recommended that you are at least one car length behind the car in front of you for each ten mile an hour you are driving. It is also recommended that you are at least 2 seconds behind the car in front of you. I find the 2 seconds is the easiest to do because you see the car say go by a telephone pole and start counting and when you arrive at the telephone pole you should be at least 2 Mississippi

angel20072002

2 or 3 car lenths behind, depending on your car and how good your breaks are. It is also a 5 second rule. Make sure that you will be able to stop within the 5 second of the car in front of you without hitting it's rear.

Blazs (Skoda 120GL)

Think of the reaction time you need from detecting that the car before you travel, brakes, to actually starting to brake your car. The distance you travel during this time is your reaction distance. When you have at least such a good braking system as the car in front of you, you can stop your car behind this car, when you follow it at least from this reaction distance. For safety, you can multiply this distance (for weather, visibility, road surface etc reasons).
When you are driving a truck with air brakes, be aware that air-brake systems have a significant dead-time in response, so choose a bigger distance to compensate for this issue.

In Europe the 2 second rule is commonly accepted. In Germany, for 'sticking' on the car in front of you on the highway is strictly penalized.

two seconds. start counting when the car in front of you passes past an identifiable spot - shadows from overpasses are good markers. stop counting when you pass the same landmark.

nommiesan

one car length for every 10 mph of speed that you are traveling, you should also allow more distance if the road or weather conditions are bad.

blahblahblah

3-4 seconds rule, depending on road and weather conditition.

theyuks

Depends on who you ask, but the general rule of thumb I was given during driver's ed was that you should leave at least one car length per 10 mph. Of course, on the freeway, it means you get cut off a LOT if you leave 6 or 7 car lengths between you and the next car... but..

jgunslingerj

Pick a fixed point on or near the road. When the front car passes this point you should be able to count one one thousand, two one-thousand, 3 one thousand, before you pass this point. It is surprisingly far back. This rule is for Ideal conditions. Make it 4 or 5 one thousand in the rain and double that in the snow.

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