Keeping a safe space around the vehicle

by: Phil Mann

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Date: Tue, 12 Jan 2010 Time: 9:08 PM - 0 comments

To stay safe, you have to be able to manage the space around your car. This is, a 2 second gap to the front, a 2 second gap to the rear and 1 metre on either side.

Imagine your car is in a bubble. Try and drive the bubble around rather than the car. You have 2 options. As you approach a problem,ask yourself "can I move my space?" If you can, then option 1 would be move your space to a safer position by moving out further to pass the obstruction. If you can't move the space, maybe there is approaching traffic, then option 2 would apply, this is reduce your speed. If you can keep other drivers out of the spaces I have just mentioned, then in theory, you will NEVER have an accident. So how do we do it?

The 2 second rule is used to maintain a safety space to the car in front. As the vehicle in front passes a fixed point we say "only a fool breaks the 2 second rule" or I prefer to count "one thousand and one, one thousand and two" and so on. We should be able to say that before we pass the same fixed point, otherwise we are too close & should drop back. The same applies if someone overtakes and then pulls in front of you, open up a 2 second gap by easing off the gas. This rule applies in good, dry conditions. In wet weather the gap should be doubled (4secs.) and in snow or ice it could take you up to ten times to stop (20 secs).

When passing obstructions, you should leave at least 1 metre or 2 metres in the case of a cyclist. It is true to say that we could proceed through tighter spaces, but as we have reduced the space to say, 0.5m, then we should reduce our speed to compensate for the reduction in space. "Can I move my space?" "No" "Then slow down". Always being prepared to stop.

Finally we have the space to the rear. Some people think a driver has no control over this, but in actual fact we do. We should have 2 secs to the front & 2 secs to the rear. This comes to a total of 4 secs when added together. If a tailgater is following at 1 sec interval, then we gently drop back from the vehicle in front, to 3 secs. We should have a total of 4 secs. If the following driver then decides to overtake, he then has a bigger space in which to return. You can then open up a 2 sec space & now that he is in front, he is a far less danger to you. What about the argument "If we keep dropping back every time someone takes our space in front, we would never get anywhere" If you where taking a six hour journey & this happened 20 times (even this is unlikely), it would only add approx 4 mins to your journey time. Now, after six hours what could you do with that extra 4 mins? Is it really worth sacrificing safety for the sake of 4 mins? I think most people would say No!!

Happy motoring for 2010 & be safe.