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How long have you been driving? Actually most vehicles would need a minimum of 1/4 car length, without backing up (parallel parking style) and risking getting hit by another vehicle while doing that. 1/2 car length is probably a more reasonable estimate the minimum space needed to get around the vehicle in front. One car length would make it much easier, quicker, which would reduce the likelihood a collision during the maneuver.
To answer your question ... 15 years.
And it's not that hard to turn a car, they all have power steering unless you're driving your grandfather's 1950s Buick. Just turn the wheel, all the way, not like 1/2 way or anything, push gas pedal. Done. I do it all the time using 1/4 car length. It's called parallel parking. Seems to work just fine for me.
Now if you're not used to parallel parking, maybe 1/2 a car length is needed. But still. I see huge gaps that are more than a carlength and I just shake my head at the idiots.
Boy, we have some UBER paranoid folks on here! I mean, exploding cars, 10-car pileups at a stop light, carjackings, etc?? I live in a big city, and have lived in some reaaalllllly bad neighborhoods over the years... and yet I don't recall seeing this stuff happen regularly, if ever.
I am still laughing from this statement, and it's so true. I've never been carjacked, or witnessed it, had/seen an exploding car, or anything of that sort, even in some less than stellar neighborhoods in NYC. Multi-car collisions, I have witnessed a couple, but they are very rare in traffic, and on all occasions when I have seen them, and known people hit in them, the weather has been inclement (snow/ice/torrential rain) by a car that was speeding.
If one tried to leave multi-car lengths in Manhattan traffic, someone would rear end them, i.e. a yellow cab, just to get them to move, either that or cars in the next lane would immediately fill the void, and the taxi may still decide to hit the car that left the excessive gap when they could not get through the intersection because of the gap. Mind you, I have seen a gap on some streets, and it's mind-boggling as there is literally nowhere to go on a one-lane, one-way street with parallel parking on both sides of the road. You cannot pull out around anyone, yet that's where I have seen the gap-leavers in full force.
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All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players: they have their exits and their entrances; and one man in his time plays many parts, his acts being seven ages.
~William Shakespeare (As You Like It Act II, Scene VII)
Your on a steep hill at a stop light.
Unbeknownst to you the driver in front of you is just learning how to use a clutch. they mess up and roll back.
Are you all cozy with there rear or did you leave a gap?
Or same light same hill and a slippery road from ice.
you can easily stop going up hill but when you try to go your tires breake traction and you slide back.
Was there a gap?
think, people, your not going any faster than the car if front of you.
While not technically carjacked, my mom's friend was driving in Cleveland and 4 large dudes came up to his car and tried to tip it over, lol. I guess that's what he gets for driving a light blue mini cooper in the city, but I bet he wished he had left enough space to drive off. Things like that don't happen often, but they do happen.
I also had a friend that would leave a car length or more between her and the car in front, and I would always joke that she constantly had an invisible car in front of her. It's good to leave space, but that was a bit excessive.
I usually powerbrake and smoke my back tires in anticipation of a green light so I need a lot of room for my launch. Sorry for the inconvenience I cause to other drivers.
And it's not that hard to turn a car, they all have power steering unless you're driving your grandfather's 1950s Buick. Just turn the wheel, all the way, not like 1/2 way or anything, push gas pedal. Done. I do it all the time using 1/4 car length. It's called parallel parking. Seems to work just fine for me.
Now if you're not used to parallel parking, maybe 1/2 a car length is needed. But still. I see huge gaps that are more than a carlength and I just shake my head at the idiots.
This reminded of the time my wife asked how to tell if a car had power steering. I told her, if she could eat an ice cream cone and parallel park at the same time, the car has power steering.
I was at a light in my Jetta when a Suburban plowed into me from behind at around 30+ mph. It plowed me into the van in front of me, and that van into the car in front of it.
The kid who hit me, at the scene, said "oh man, I hope you have enough insurance to cover that van!" I glowered at him and was like, "that's all you, man."
"Nah, but... I mean, I hit you, but your car hit the van."
"Yeah, because you hit me. If you hadn't hit me, I wouldn't have hit the van."
Cop agreed and explained to him that we were obeying the law by being stopped at the light, and when he broke the law by not stopping, he caused an accident that would not have occured if he hadn't broken the law. Plain and simple.
Kid who hits me is considered "100% at fault." I am considered "0%" at fault. His insurance has to shell out $12k for my car (bent frame, all body panels damaged, drivetrain damage), plus another $5k for the van in front of me, and another $1k for the bumper damage to the Camry in front of the van.
I always leave between about 1/2 to 1 car length between me and the car in front of me for just such a reason.
Exactly. That's the same way it works in TX too. Happened to my wife and I while driving her car, some guy in a truck hit the guy behind us, they got pushed into us, and we got pushed into the car in front of us, just barely. Would have been a lot worse, but I tend to keep about 6-8 ft between me and the front car, more if I'm driving one of my sportscars.
Why do people do this when there is no car ahead of them? I saw this last night, I was in left lane at light, the lady next to me in right lane stopped about 50 feet from the light to wait for the light to change. She didn't creep up, just sat there 50 feet back until the light turned green. It didn't bother me as I wasn't behind her (no one was), but I found it curious as I can't think of a plausible reason to stop that far from the light.
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How long have you been driving?
Actually most vehicles would need a minimum of 1/4 car length, without backing up (parallel parking style) and risking getting hit by another vehicle while doing that. 1/2 car length is probably a more reasonable estimate the minimum space needed to get around the vehicle in front. One car length would make it much easier, quicker, which would reduce the likelihood a collision during the maneuver.
