What Is a Safe Distance Between Cars While Driving?

To stop on a dime is to come to a stop in a very short distance. Every driver makes several stopping choices with every trip. They bring their vehicle to a halt at a traffic light, an intersection stop sign, and their final destination. The sudden or “surprise” stops can lead to accidents. To prevent that, you want to practice a safe distance between cars while driving.

Why does maintaining a safe distance between cars matter? According to the Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT) there were 298,347 motor vehicle collisions in 2022. Maintaining a proper safe distance could have had an impact on bringing down those collision numbers.

Below, we discuss what is a safe distance between cars while driving and highlight different techniques for adequately pacing oneself.

The 3-Second Rule

While driving, the distance you keep between you and the vehicle in front of you is referred to as the braking distance. That is the length you need to come to a complete stop without ramming into another car. To achieve a safe braking distance, you should deploy the 3-second rule.

As you are driving, you want to notice when the car in front of you passes a fixed object. That can be a road marker, underpass, or another landmark. As soon as the vehicle passes the object, count to three, such as one-1,000, two-1,000, or three-1,000. If you drive past that same fixed point before you finish counting to three, you are too close and should slow down to increase your braking distance.

The Car Lengths Approach

The 3-second rule is extremely fluid and might require some effort to implement. So, if you’re finding it hard to utilize, you could take the car-length approach. That is where you would create a distance between you and the vehicle in front of you based on the number of imaginary cars that are traveling ahead. You need to consider your reaction time and braking distance to reach that number.

At 30 mph, it takes you around 45 feet to react to something ahead of you and another 45 feet to come to a complete stop for a total of 90 feet. That equals six cars, considering how the average vehicle is around 15 feet in length. In other words, if you see something ahead of you and need to come to a complete stop, you need 90 feet to make that happen at 30 mph.

The faster you go, the more car lengths you have to add. For instance, at 50 mph (highway speeds), you would need around 14 car lengths in front of you to come to a complete stop safely. According to the IDOT source cited above, speed accounts for 31.8% of crashes.

Practice Defensive Driving

Do you think you’ve ever driven consistently with that much braking distance? Even if you do it a few times, you can appreciate the amount of distance you should maintain to reduce the risk of a collision. Even if you get rear-ended, that driving distance can prevent you from colliding with the car in front of you, which would compound damage and injuries.

Practicing defensive driving means increasing your braking distance under certain conditions. Here are the driving conditions when you should proactively create more braking distance:

• Bad weather
• Heavy traffic
• Exiting or entering a highway
• Driving a larger vehicle or towing a heavy load
• Following a semi-truck
• Driving behind motorcycles or bicycles
• Approaching a vehicle that makes frequent stops like a bus, delivery truck, or garbage truck.
• If you’re being tailgated

When Accidents Happen

Just because you practice reasonable braking distance doesn’t mean other drivers will. If that leads to a traffic accident, you must take care of any injuries, make any repairs to your car, and talk to the Prince Law Firm. We have been successful in helping our clients achieve notable settlements and jury awards. We can provide you with guidance to decide how you should approach your accident claim. Call to arrange a free consultation today.