While you might not think of your braking distance every time you drive across town, you will eventually be very interested in slowing down as fast as possible. All sorts of things can go wrong, and highway driving is deceptively fast. Children can run into the road, animals can wander in front of you.... the possibilities are endless, and they're very real. Here's a few tips I've put together to help you understand what kind of braking distance you can expect and how speed affects your braking distance.
- Braking Distance: "Braking distance" is the distance your car travels after the brakes have been applied. According to auto industry standards for deceleration, if you are traveling at 70 miles per hour, it takes 315 feet to stop an average car once the brakes have been applied.
- Stopping Distance: The term "stopping distance" takes into account the distance you travel before you hit the brake (reaction distance) plus the distance you travel while the brakes slow you down (braking distance). This might not seem like a big difference, but if you're moving down an interstate highway at 70 mph, you're passing 100 feet of asphalt every second.
- Reaction Distance: If it takes you 1.5 seconds to realize that a problem exists, you've already passed 150 feet. That means you've passed half a football field before the brakes have even begun to kick in. Since you and I probably agree that half a football field is a long time to travel before we start slowing down, we'll include reaction distance in the discussion....
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Author: Joshua Murphy