Why the Extra Car Length

[kerry1379]

I have been genuinely curious about something for awhile and wondered if y'all could provide insight. I have been coming across more and more drivers that stop 1, sometimes 2, car lengths back from either an intersection or the car in front of them at a stop light. Does anyone know why? The only thing I can come up with is that they may have had a bad experience and been rear ended and pushed into an intersection/other car at some point in their past. Is there another reason I am missing? On the negative side, they don't trigger a sensored light when they are first in line at the intersection. Aside from that, it really doesn't bother me. Just curious more than anything.

 

[JimMIA]

Most of the people I see doing that are in a rush to get back to their texts, or Facebook, or whatever. They're just not paying any attention. They also still sit there when the light turns green.

 

[DVC-Don]

I once got out of my car and walked up to the lady driver in front of me and told her if she did not pull up to the line the sensor would not trip and the light would stay red all day. She moved up and the light turned green in a short while.

 

[VandVsmama]

Most of the time when I've seen people doing that, it's because they're messing with their phones and not paying attention. It's super annoying sometimes.

 

[chickapin parterre]

folks on screens in the cars will need about 2 car lengths before they see you to stop. I always leave 2 car lengths because afraid of the rear ending. more and more I will see 5-7 cars involved in a stop light fender bender

more and more pedestrians are walking against the light, so if you are on the crosswalk and hit the pedal at green, you could very well be wiping the grin off someone who decided to walk against the light.

the biggest problem now , is if you lose your car to an accident...good luck in finding a similiar rental and buying a new vheicle similar to yours....the car market is really bad now with no new cars and who knows what lemons are filling up the used lots.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

I actually don't see it much with people on their phones- I see that with slow driving most often.

Usually when I see such great distance it's often someone older whose depth perception may be declining and that goes for others. Several people I know have issues with that. My sister-in-law doesn't like to drive at night as much because she's had more issues with that and she's younger than I am.

I can say that after having been in a rear end accident where the lady hit me twice (mistaking the gas pedal for the brake) where the second time she pushed me into the car in front of me which then got pushed into the car in front of it I was a bit more leery of distance for a while after that but I'm not that far like mentioned in the OP from vehicles and never was just gave a tad bit more room than I did before for a while (I was never on someone's bumper though that always made me nervous when someone was like that).

One other thing I've noticed that can trip people up is when the line is different distances depending on the lane you're in. Some people just line themselves up with the car next to them despite the fact that their line is farther forward.

 

[NotUrsula]

DS was told to do it in Driver's Ed class. The reasoning is indeed to prevent chain-reaction collisions.

I should probably also mention that decades ago I was advised by a cop friend in New Orleans to do it anytime that I was driving alone at night or in an iffy neighborhood, as a defense against carjacking, as at that time there was a rash of incidents where the thieves had used 2 other cars to box in the victim at a stoplight.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

DS was told to do it in Driver's Ed class. The reasoning is indeed to prevent chain-reaction collisions.

But 1 to 2 car lengths is a lot. That can lead to a lot of traffic if every car was that far back especially with how long some cars are. Take the Santa Fe car we're looking at. It's over 15 1/2 feet long. 1 car length of that is over 15 1/2 feet. 2 car lengths is over 31 feet. Can you imagine if everyone stayed back over 15 1/2 to 31 feet in between cars? Who would get through the lights? And traffic congestion leads to accidents as well. The longer a backup exists the increase in accidents occurs. It's why there often is a subsequent accident from a backup from an accident (aside for gawkers). It's also why diverging diamonds are popular in my area as it allows traffic to flow in the most needed direction (like entering a highway on ramp) instead of always having to stop.

There's a difference between driving and stopping. You need more distance if you're driving to stop which is why there's the "look for a landmark/sign and count" rule but when you're at a stop like at a light it's different. I think a lot of people are told you need to see the back tires of the car in front and if you can't you're too close.

 

[Stratman50th]

From what I've seen it's what's been said already. Got to get back to whatever important things happening on the phone.
Also, the elderly seem to have vision issues and make sure they stop with plenty of distance.

 

[Dan Murphy]

People are nuts in recent years in how they deal with making left turns. I have been behind people who do not pull out into the intersection, perpendicular to the lane they are turning in to, and wait for a traffic clearing to turn. They wait behind to white line at the intersection. And then, to top it off, when the light turns red, they stay there. I can't imagine where they learned how to drive. If they pull up properly and wait, they, plus 2 more cars, can make their left turns, even after the light turning red.

 

[DisneyHardin]

I've also noticed it a lot lately in drive-thrus. At a McDonalds with a double window, it is designed that one car is at the pick up window, one car is in between the windows and one is at the pay window. All it takes is for that middle car to not pull up right behind the picking up car and the whole chain is messed up.

 

[LYSE]

Most probably do it for no reason but when stopping behind another car it's smart to leave enough space to maneuver around that vehicle in case of an emergency/some other reason.

 

[StageTek]

I have been genuinely curious about something for awhile and wondered if y'all could provide insight. I have been coming across more and more drivers that stop 1, sometimes 2, car lengths back from either an intersection or the car in front of them at a stop light. Does anyone know why?

I always leave at least one car length back from either the intersection or the car in front of me at a stop light to avoid a collision from cross traffic or to keep from hitting the car in front of me if I get rear-ended. If I'm at an intersection that need to be triggered to work I'll move forward to the sensor.

 

[Southernmiss]

Social distancing

 

[chickapin parterre]

People are nuts in recent years in how they deal with making left turns. I have been behind people who do not pull out into the intersection, perpendicular to the lane they are turning in to, and wait for a traffic clearing to turn. They wait behind to white line at the intersection. And then, to top it off, when the light turns red, they stay there. I can't imagine where they learned how to drive. If they pull up properly and wait, they, plus 2 more cars, can make their left turns, even after the light turning red.

I think waiting in the intersection to turn left has now become old school.....with emergency responding vehicle technology in intersections, those ER vehicles can now cross over traffic lanes and travel in the wrong direction, enter the intersection and go back to the correct lanes.

Senior citizens and new drivers can get really confused by the ER sound and what to do and will freeze, hence blocking the er vehicle. Having spent 45 week days straight going to the clinic, I saw many times where vehicles just froze in th middle of intersection and ambulance having to come to a complete stop to figure out what the other vehicle is going to do.

also more and more intersections are including the arrow left hand turns so as drivers have become accustomed to that convince that was around 20 years ago at most intersections. We have one trouble some major intersection, with no signal arrows in our neighborhood....troublesome because it is one block from county sheriff station and many times we have seen their vehicles come tearing up to the intersection. residents will not pull out into the massive intersection just for that reason..way to many accidents.

Roundabouts are still troublesome for about 40% of the drivers...in part, that as younger healthy driver they never saw their folks use a roundabout, now as seniors in Yuma, AZ they have a hard time understanding the concept of the technique of roundabouts .

 

[NotUrsula]

In the state where I learned to drive (LA), pulling out into an intersection to wait to make a left turn was a ticketable moving violation. So, no, not doing that.

I'll pull up to the point where my front tires are on the white line if the street has a sensor, but that's as far as I go if there is is no break in oncoming traffic or if the light is red.

 

[fla4fun]

I do pull up to the white line at an intersection to be sure the light will change, but I allow extra space when pulling up behind another driver. We were taught in driver’s ed that you need to leave enough room to pull out around the vehicle in front of you in the event it is broken down, without having to put your car in reverse and possibly hitting the car behind us. The recommendation was a full car length based on the length of the car you are driving (as that was the car you would be trying to move around the obstruction). Having that cushion of space actually allows me to accelerate from a stop more rapidly, as I don’t have to wait until the car in front of me has moved far enough away before starting to move myself. I don’t have my phone on when I drive, so that doesn’t factor into it.

In Florida you can be ticketed if any portion of your car is still in the intersection when the light turns red. I do not want to risk a ticket, so I don’t pull forward to turn left unless I can complete the turn without stopping, and while the light is green. Most of our major intersections also have automatic walk/don’t walk signs that count down the green light, which helps with timing turns. Most of the intersections I have come in contact with here give plenty of time for clearing the left turn lane on green arrows. The only one that doesn’t also has red light cameras that do issue tickets for not quite clearing the intersection before the light turns red. One of my former coworkers got several tickets for not completing a left turn before red or not coming to a complete stop for turning right on red. We were all pretty paranoid about that intersection. It didn’t help that they kept changing the cycles, so one day the left turn would be before the through traffic, and the next day it might be after, and the third day you might get left and through one direction and then left and through the other way. I think it was deliberate to cause more violations, as I was going through there at the same time after work each day and would have expected the cycle to be consistent (they do sometimes change cycles at intersections during rush hour for 2-3 hours to make traffic movement more efficient, but those are predictable and these were not).

I expect a little bit of everything driving in greater Orlando, since we have people from all over the world driving here.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

In the state where I learned to drive (LA), pulling out into an intersection to wait to make a left turn was a ticketable moving violation. So, no, not doing that.

I'll pull up to the point where my front tires are on the white line if the street has a sensor, but that's as far as I go if there is is no break in oncoming traffic or if the light is red.

Are there flashing yellow signals there?

Here if you have flashing yellow you are supposed to get into the intersection so long as you can safely do so. There's an intersection near me where in high traffic times you won't have enough time to get through the light even with that flashing yellow before it turns solid yellow then red but all the other times you can and by the traffic signal rules should. Flashing yellow is also quite common in my area and many signals have had that added.

 

[Living42Day]

People are nuts in recent years in how they deal with making left turns. I have been behind people who do not pull out into the intersection, perpendicular to the lane they are turning in to, and wait for a traffic clearing to turn. They wait behind to white line at the intersection. And then, to top it off, when the light turns red, they stay there. I can't imagine where they learned how to drive. If they pull up properly and wait, they, plus 2 more cars, can make their left turns, even after the light turning red.

Around here if you do that, you will most definitely get into a T-bone accident sooner rather than later. Multiple cars in the oncoming straight lanes will run the light so either you wait many seconds after the light turns red to ensure people actually stop (while also holding up everyone else with a green light) or you wait until you know it is clear before initiating a turn.

I'm one who waits, but I've had cars honk behind me wanting me to turn in front of other cars. Two girls died in the exact scenario I described last month, they thought a semi was going to stop so turned on red when the semi did not stop. It's worth it to wait the extra minute.

 

[Living42Day]

I can answer this! I'm one who stops at least a car length behind other cars. I get anxious when I'm too close to the car in front of me because all it takes is one distracted driver to smash my car into the one in front. I also do it for safety in case I need to get out of the way quickly. I don't understand why some people like to get so close to practically kiss my bumper. It's weird when someone pulls up behind me at a light, getting super close, so close in fact that I can see what their eye color is by looking in my rearview mirror lol