Two car lengths on the highway is not enough car lengths to make a meaningful difference in the event of a crash or giving you time to react to an emergency situation up ahead.
That being said, I respect that you leave any car lengths at all and it’s probably better than nothing. Especially since other drivers see any more than that as a challenge to enter that gap. Which is dangerous as shit and they are wrong but won’t learn even after they wreck doing it.
This was my first thought. When I learned how to drive, the rule was one car length per 10 mph. So at highway speeds of 70, that would be 7 car lengths of space to ensure enough distance to safely stop or avoid a collision. I see approximately 0% of people following this rule nowadays, and while I try to maintain it myself, it often results in a stream of vehicles merging in front of me and messing up my distance. Fun times.
Handy tip:
In the USA, the lines on a highway are 10 ft long, the spaces between them are 30 ft.
So, a line and a space are about two car lengths. It’s a handy way to judge how close you are to the car ahead. At highway speeds, you want 3-4 lines between you.
This is the way
It’s the 2+ car lengths when at a traffic light that baffles me.
The entire time you spend sitting at a light after it turns green is solely to wait for those gaps to reappear.
deleted by creator
I love setting my auto cruise control and watching everyone flood in front of me to just go the same speed they were going behind me.
This is not a problem if you drive at the speed limit. Then what happens is that everyone else, who will be speeding, will continually pass you and thus create more car lengths in front of you. Unless you’re in a no passing zone on a two lane road, in which case they can follow the speed limit for once.
Try that on the NJ Turnpike and see how fast two cars jump in that space.
I dunno I find the drivers who dart around me in the slow lane really like having that space to dart back into.
My driving instructor said leaving 4 seconds of distance was safe for highway speeds. Ok busy highways the best I can get is a few car lengths.
Half a meter is fine when I’m in need of bullying away the car blocking the fast lane on the Autobahn. Sometimes they act like they had not rear view mirrors and the road was their own.
