what will be the distance between two cars travelling on a highway

[alsayyed]

Hello every one I am curious use about keep distance between two cars. If you are driving on highway at rate of 65 mph what is the distance should be between your car and the front car on major highway?.
What is the distance should be if you are driving on the city?.
Is there any law regarding the two cases I have mentioned.

[gary]

I try to stay one car length away from the car in front for every ten miles an hour . Sisty-five would be six and a half car lengths or about 120 feet.  Yes there are laws about folling to close behind the car in front of you.

[Ianab]

The rule of thumb here in NZ is 2 seconds
Doesn't matter what speed you are going, you should be 2 seconds behind the car in front.
When the car in front passes a mark on the road start counting 'one thousand one, one thousand two', if you have passed the same mark you are too close.
The idea is that your reaction time to start braking is about 1.6 seconds, so if the guy in front slams on the brakes and you are less than 1.6 secs behind, you are going to hit him. So the 'rule' works for any speed.

If the road is wet and or otherwise slippery go with 4 seconds.

What your local law says may be different, but the 2 second rule should stop you rear ending the guy in front of you.

Cheers

Ian

[TexasTimbers]

I always try to stay close enough to the people in front of me, like touching, so that if I rear-end them no damage can occur. 

Tailgaiting is a pet peeve of mine. I have always thought that we should rig up some sort of high pressure nozzle that can spray a mist of oil or black paint on the perpetrators windshield; or maybe an egg canon. Tailgaters really bring out that Christian brotherly love in me 

[Qweaver]

We live south of Houston and regularly travel back and forth to W.Va. which takes us thru lots of cities.  If you try to leave a reasonable distance between cars in heavy traffic, someone will always pull into that space and take away your safety zone.  So I just try to leave just as much space as I can without inviting another car to make the situation more dangerous by dodging in and out. Traffic in Houston will often be rolling along at 65-70 MPH with very little space between vehicles.  Your choice is to do what everone else is doing or drive miles out of the way to go around the entire city.  I've never had an accident in a large city but I've seen plenty and I drive with extreme care always looking for a way out if S*** hits the fan.
Quinton

[thedeeredude]

I follow what looks good, usually 3-4 seconds, unless I'm late for work

[beenthere]

2 seconds is what I learned in 'Defensive Driving" course, but I hear nowadays that the 3 or 4 seconds is preached.  But the use of cell phones while driving probably is where the longer time is thrown in   
But when getting into traffic, even 2 seconds will invite others to fill in that space. The space changes depending on traffic, whether two lane or four lane, and what locality one is in will have a big effect on the spacing. 

[slowzuki]

I use the 4 seconds cause if theres some good tunes on or "interesting" sights to see it can take a second or two to notice the car in front stopping

[sawguy21]

I get really nervous with tailgaters. I almost got run over by a transport truck when a car made a turn in front of me. Tapping the brake pedal just enough to flash the lights often gets their attention although that could create havoc in heavy traffic.

[alsayyed]

I thank you all for your different opinion replies. From the information gathered I have found out that there is no standard rule regarding keeping the distance between two cars. In our case in Qatar almost the same as some replies. In our case except that we have tremendous tail gait which is unbelievable and accidents by hundreds. Incase of keeping fair amount few meters between two cars suddenly you end up with stupid driver pushes his car through. But in case off running through red light the penalty is $ 3280
 

[RichlandSawyer]

As far as tailgating goes i have developed a system were distance and speed are "directly proportional" as the distance between my rear bumper and the tailgaters front bumper reduces. my speed reduces accordingly. I'd rather get a finger or two than get i bumper up the kazoo!!

[sawguy21]

The risk there is having the jerk get mad and pull out into oncoming traffic.

[CHARLIE]

When I was learning to drive back in the late '50s, I was taught the "one car length per every 10 mph" just like Gary does.  I find that has served me well over the years.  I also have had people zip into my safety zone and I usually just back off from them too.......unless they get me mad, then I'll honk my horn real good  before dropping back.  When the conditions are slippery, I pretty much double my distance from the other drivers if I can because I really don't want to hit my brakes and lose control.  Usually, common sense and courtesy should be the rule.   

Tailgating is also a pet peeve.  What I do during the daytime is......turn on my lights. That causes the tail lights to come on and the tailgater thinks it's brakes and they usually drop back fast.   

[Tom]

Charlie and I must've been taught by the same folks.  I use a car length for every 10 mph too.  Sometimes I find that it isn't enough.   There are crazy folks out there today who believe that they are on a super speedway.  They dive in and out of traffic and "draft" cars and trucks.  When I'm in my Kodiak, I have times when someone is completely hidden from view.  Some of them will even get within 5 or 6 feet, maybe less, to the back of my sawmill trailer.  Now, that's scary.  Most of perpetrators, I've found, are young women in their teens and early twenties.  Most of the guys stay back.  If it's a guy tailgating the sawmill, it's usually one of those little cars with 20" wheels, spinning hubcaps and a ground clearance of about 6 inches.

There is also the other end of the extreme in that we experience some of the most disrespectful and aggressive drivers who have CDL's and drive Chip Trucks and container trailers.  It's not unusual to find your entire rear widow filled with radiator, and the show of "Tasmanian Devil" type teeth drawn on the top and bottom.  These big trucks will bunch up and tailgate each other.  It's quite unnerving to find yourself boxed in the right lane with "professional" drivers  all the way around.

I have a dream......!   I want to develop a canister for the back of my truck or car that could be attached somewhere around the rear axle.  This would be filled with some of the foulest smelling liquid that man could devise. I wouldn't want it to be caustic, just smelly.  I would put it under pressure or feed it through a pump that would atomize it into such a fine mist that it couldn't be seen.  There would be a button on my dash that would actuate a solenoid that would open and close the valve that would disperse it.   Anyone who was close enough behind my truck that I couldn't see their headlights would be fair game.

I actually went so far as hiring a fellow to develop another like device.  It failed because he couldn't find the technology.

I wanted a chip with a panic stop recorded on it to be actuated by a button that ran the noise through a large amplifier and then through speakers located just under my left front bumper.  When one of these smart Alec drivers "dove" in front of my truck, nearly taking off my fender, I would push the button and let them wonder where all of the tire screeching, horn blowing, glass shattering sounds were coming from .

I have thought that it would be cool to have one of those signs, like you see in some retail stores, that has programmable  lettering that will display in a marque or blinking lights.  You could put one of these on the back of the truck, at eye level and let it say things like  "back off",  "too close",  "loose load", or, something to that affect.  I priced them for this purpose one time and was amazed at their perceived value.

It would be easy to hook a switch up to the brake lights though.  It would be kinda like Charlie's "turn the lights on" accept it would really turn on the brake lights when you pushed the button.

Why drivers get in such a hurry or use such bad judgement as to tailgate is beyond me.  They are only considering their actions from the standpoint of their harming themselves, not from the standpoint of causing an accident where another driver is killed.  You never know the expertise of the driver in the other car.  Just redirecting their attention by yelling and flipping a finger as you pass could be enough to get them killed.

[Onthesauk]

Old bumper sticker I saw somewhere along the way read: The Closer You Get the Slower I Go

[SwampDonkey]

I'm like Charlie and Tom, a car length for every 10 mph. That is also written into the driver's ed booklet as I recall. If your too close during the test, you'll be back next month for a redo.

I'm always telling my mother to pull back from the driver ahead, she likes to ride on the guy's bumper. When I'm driving I don't care how many want to pass, some asses get *pithed off if somone passes them legally. Where is that from?

[CHARLIE]

Tom's mentioning of gadgets on the car reminded me of my 1953 Olds straight 8 with 3 on the column. I painted it fire engine red and put in red, white and black rolled and pleated seat covers from Wachoski's. Painted the dash black.  I didn't have stereo (wasn't available back then) but I had about 6 drive-in speakers (not the whole thing....just the speakers) all over hidden under the seats. All inside lights I painted green. I put a modified truck taglight under the dash with a toggle switch and called it my "Leg light" to check out my date's legs. I put a toggle switch on the horn so I could turn it off when I took my date home. Didn't want to hit the horn and wake up the Dad. I also had a toggle switch so I could turn off my brake lights so when I whizzed by a cop, I could hit my brakes without him knowing.

Tom, the stink bomb sounds like a real winner to me. But if you hook it to the rear axle, run a small hose to the rear bumper and maybe an inch past. You don't need the stink under your truck.  I also like the one where you hit the button and get some sound affects.  I'm surprised the guy told you the technology does not exist. My bet is that it does. If they can have talking bass mounts and talking deer mounts they have the technology.  I've often wished I had one of those message lights too. Many times I'd love to tell someone to turn on their lights or that their tail lights aren't working or they have a real low tire but can't.  Great ideas Tom!

[sawguy21]

We put toggle switches on our brake lights too. Good for ducking out of sight on short notice  I had a car tailgating me down a long hill one night. I shut the key off then turned it back on as I floored it. The bang was almost deafening, the floor shook and there was a bright orange glow. The headlights behind me went sideways. Surprisingly, the old Jeep six still ran at the bottom but  the muffler split  end to end. The tailpipe had already rusted off. I imagine he never got too close again but I don't recommend this practice.

[Den Socling]

Tom,

I have spent long hours of driving and thinking about a stink bomb. I've also thought about a short range dart to penetrate radiators. 

Den

[Tom]

I like the stink bomb better.  It's kinda like the "who done it" in the elevator.  Even if you knew, all you can do is scowl.