Re: Advice about speeding ticket please

In message <8hbg13lp2u4bv41k1el0e48bslr3fksqpg@xxxxxxx>, Alex Heney <me8@xxxxxxxxxxx> writes
On Sat, 7 Apr 2007 23:16:36 +0100, Norman Wells
<norman@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

neither of the videos told us anything whatsoever in relation to
whether a 2 second gap is sufficient for safety, or whether indeed it
needs to match the overall stopping distance.

The gaps left were clearly insufficient whatever rule the drivers thought they were applying, and it follows that greater gaps need to be left and encouraged to be left. At speeds in excess of about 40mph, the 2 second rule gives vehicle separations LESS than the overall stopping distance rule. If a vehicle in front of you stops suddenly, as at least the second video shows can and does happen (and we've all been in similar situations), and you're applying the 2 second rule exactly at such speeds, you WILL crash into it. You cannot avoid doing so as you're inside the overall stopping distance. And that's clearly not safe.

Incidentally, I think it rather arrogant of you to suggest that the
police, the highway code, and all road safety organisations are wrong,
while you are right. And by saying that "overall stopping distance" is
the *only* safe rule, that is exactly what you are doing.

The Highway Code contains both the stopping distance rule and the 2 second rule. But they are not consistent with each other, and in particular give different results at different speeds, so they can't both be right all the time.

The rule given primacy by use of the words 'the safe rule' is that of never getting closer than the overall stopping distance, and that is the rule I support. It has the benefit of being based on immutable laws of physics, one of which says that the energy a body possesses is proportional to the square of its velocity. You will note that the stopping distances quoted each contain a certain distance for a fixed thinking time, which is directly proportional to the velocity, and a braking distance which is proportional to the square of the velocity. The 2 second rule has no such scientific foundation, and is at best just a rough approximation of the stopping distance rule at around 40mph. I do not think it is arrogant of me to agree with the Highway Code in repeating its words that the stopping distance rule is THE safe rule, nor in putting the word 'only' in front of 'safe'.

It was you, I think, who said that the Highway Code should actually have said "but stupid" after "safe", and that the overall stopping distance is "a ridiculous distance to keep as a gap in normal motorway traffic". If that's not arrogant I don't know what is.

And its stupidity is amply demonstrated in the second video.

--
Norman Wells
NG

.

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