I’m trying to figure this out too. Those distances seem really suspicious. At 30km/h, I’m pretty sure I can stop my (admittedly small) car in less than 1 car length. Maybe half a car length, something like 2m? Way less than 9m.
And looking at 60km/h, that’s 17m/s and they are claiming a 43m stopping distance. That would be like hitting the breaks and your car just slides on the pavement for 2.5 seconds, traveling the distance of an Olympic swimming pool, before stopping. That’s only reasonable in the worst possible driving conditions. Or maybe with an enormous and heavily loaded vehicle?
Or maybe I’m being too optimistic here? Maybe these are numbers from actual accidents and in real life people hit the break slowly at first and stuff like that?
I get that my performance will change depending on whether I’m expecting a test or not. But I think if my car has its breaks slammed, it’s going to stop in less than 9m starting at 30km/h, regardless of whether it’s expecting it or not. It’s the stopping distance that I’m feeling is larger than it should be.
A couple questions. Is the stopping distance in this diagram the distance the car travels after the driver has completed their reaction time and started hitting the breaks? And where does the value from this distance come from?
I wouldn’t have thought to ask you before. A lot of times people just post things they find online that impact them in some way. But you seem to have a lot of knowledge that goes beyond just seeing this image.
And, anecdotally, I was driving late last night and an animal jumped out into the road ahead of me. I would like to avoid hitting an animal just as much as hitting a person. But I didn’t immediately slam on my breaks to stop the car as quickly as possible. I gradually squeezed that break pedal until I was rapidly slowing. So maybe my assumption about stopping distance is wrong. Maybe the car can stop faster, but when driven by average people it doesn’t, simply because average drivers don’t stop optimally.
Yep. 2.5s is the average perception reaction time. This includes
Perceiving the person
Understanding the situation and thinking about whether you need to stop
Moving your foot to the brake pedal
Keep in mind, most people feel comfortable driving and not expecting to have to make an emergency stop at all times. Sure, you’d be ninja-fast if you were in some test environment where you expected the hazard and were trigger happy on the brake but that’s not the real world.
A few US states, including California, have adopted a standard driver reaction time of 2.5 seconds. The United Kingdom’s Highway Code and the Association of Chief Police Officers ACPO Code of Practice for Operational Use of Road Policing Enforcement Technology use 3.0 seconds for driver reaction time.
30 km/h is 8.3 m/s, are you implying the driver reaction time is 2.5s? Or is this chart for mentally challenged drivers?
I’m trying to figure this out too. Those distances seem really suspicious. At 30km/h, I’m pretty sure I can stop my (admittedly small) car in less than 1 car length. Maybe half a car length, something like 2m? Way less than 9m.
And looking at 60km/h, that’s 17m/s and they are claiming a 43m stopping distance. That would be like hitting the breaks and your car just slides on the pavement for 2.5 seconds, traveling the distance of an Olympic swimming pool, before stopping. That’s only reasonable in the worst possible driving conditions. Or maybe with an enormous and heavily loaded vehicle?
Or maybe I’m being too optimistic here? Maybe these are numbers from actual accidents and in real life people hit the break slowly at first and stuff like that?
Please check out my other replies. :)
Sure, if someone says 3-2-1 brake and you’re expecting a test. But that’s now how people react while driving every day.
I get that my performance will change depending on whether I’m expecting a test or not. But I think if my car has its breaks slammed, it’s going to stop in less than 9m starting at 30km/h, regardless of whether it’s expecting it or not. It’s the stopping distance that I’m feeling is larger than it should be.
A couple questions. Is the stopping distance in this diagram the distance the car travels after the driver has completed their reaction time and started hitting the breaks? And where does the value from this distance come from?
I wouldn’t have thought to ask you before. A lot of times people just post things they find online that impact them in some way. But you seem to have a lot of knowledge that goes beyond just seeing this image.
And, anecdotally, I was driving late last night and an animal jumped out into the road ahead of me. I would like to avoid hitting an animal just as much as hitting a person. But I didn’t immediately slam on my breaks to stop the car as quickly as possible. I gradually squeezed that break pedal until I was rapidly slowing. So maybe my assumption about stopping distance is wrong. Maybe the car can stop faster, but when driven by average people it doesn’t, simply because average drivers don’t stop optimally.
Yep. 2.5s is the average perception reaction time. This includes
Keep in mind, most people feel comfortable driving and not expecting to have to make an emergency stop at all times. Sure, you’d be ninja-fast if you were in some test environment where you expected the hazard and were trigger happy on the brake but that’s not the real world.
A few US states, including California, have adopted a standard driver reaction time of 2.5 seconds. The United Kingdom’s Highway Code and the Association of Chief Police Officers ACPO Code of Practice for Operational Use of Road Policing Enforcement Technology use 3.0 seconds for driver reaction time.