In the stop light line: how much space between cars?

vigil617

vigil617

US Veteran
Joined
May 25, 2012
Messages
6,501
Reaction score
14,222
Location
Greenville, NC
The turn-signal thread reminded me of something I've been meaning to ask the national audience here on the Forum.

Where I now live in the Fayetteville, North Carolina area, I have observed a phenomenon I don't ever remember seeing anywhere else I have lived. I can't figure it out, and I wonder if anyone else sees it and whether it's some kind of new trend.

When coming to a stop for a stoplight, my habit has always been to leave perhaps 3 to 5 feet or so between me and the car ahead. This is what feels like a comfortable space, plus I do it in consideration of people behind me so when the light changes, most or all of us can get through the light before it turns red again. Simple, right?

Well, it's amazing to me that so many drivers here will stop a full car length, or even more, behind the one in front of them. Some even stop that far behind the stop line if they're first in line. In a long line of stopped traffic, this means that the folks near the end of the line are gonna have to wait through another light cycle to move through.

Not to mention the fact that when someone "stops short" ahead of me as I'm decelerating, I have less room to stop and sometimes have to brake hard, even if I had not been following too closely. We have a ton of rear-end collisions in our area, and I wonder if this is partly why.

This behavior puzzles, and frankly, gripes me. It's another grrrrrrrrrrrr moment among the many others I have when driving these days. ;)

Do people do this where you live? Is there a reasonable explanation?
 
Register to hide this ad
ColbyBruce said:
I like to be able to see the rear wheels of the vehicle in front of me touch the road. A minor impact shouldn't push me into the vehicle in front of me.
Click to expand...

This is sort of what I do. Sometimes I'm actually at the point where I can't see their rear tires but I can at least see the bottom of their rear bumper. My main reason is to "leave myself an out". In other words, if traffic doesn't move for whatever reason (someone broken down in the lane, etc.) or any weird monkey business goes down (car jacking attempt, terrorist attack, etc.) I want to be able to pull out of my lane without having to back up.
 
On a open road in a safe area, i get a few feet behind the car in front. In a more potentially hostile area, I do my best to stay back far enough that I can pull around the vehicle in front of me if that action is needed. Too many years of living in the city I guess, its just part of my being aware! (AKA street creed)
 
THRICE BITTEN, QUITE SHY.

Having been hit from behind while stopped 3 different times and left disabled/forced to retire, I MAY have a different view than most. AT LEAST 1 full car length! Sorry for the inconvenience. If you have to brake hard at a stop light (which turns yellow BEFORE red) it should not come as a surprise & you MAY be tail gaiting or speeding. Stopped too close together and a rear end hit causes a multiple car chain reaction. In the event of a car jacking or other S/D evasive type maneuver, that space can make all the difference. Where's the fire? ;)
 
As far as some of the OP's questions...

I think the high rate of rear end collisions you are noticing are more likely due to inattentive drivers. Cell phones and other distractions are way out of hand in society today.

Getting a decent volume of traffic through an intersection between lights seems more difficult in the south. Where I live pretty much everyone in line starts going when the light turns green and you can get a lot of cars through the intersection before the light changes. It drives me nuts when I'm in the southern states because when the light turns green people start to move in a sort of chain reaction. In other words, the light turns green and the first car starts to go then when the first car starts to move the second car starts to go and once he moves then the third car begins moving, etc. People are lucky to get through the light if they're five or six cars back.

Not sure if that makes sense the way I explained it.
 
Here in FL, many older folks can't judge distances very well, so they tend to overcompensate. We have a few intersections where that means sitting through several cycles, or worse, having your car sitting out halfway in the travel lane because you can't get into the turn lane.
 
I usually leave what I consider a reasonable, respectful distance between me and the car in front of me. Most people in my area don't. When I come to a stoplight in the Jeep, it seems like the driver behind me is trying to fit his bumper under mine. :(
 
vigil617 said:
The turn-signal thread reminded me of something I've been meaning to ask the national audience here on the Forum.

Where I now live in the Fayetteville, North Carolina area, I have observed a phenomenon I don't ever remember seeing anywhere else I have lived. I can't figure it out, and I wonder if anyone else sees it and whether it's some kind of new trend.

When coming to a stop for a stoplight, my habit has always been to leave perhaps 3 to 5 feet or so between me and the car ahead. This is what feels like a comfortable space, plus I do it in consideration of people behind me so when the light changes, most or all of us can get through the light before it turns red again. Simple, right?

Well, it's amazing to me that so many drivers here will stop a full car length, or even more, behind the one in front of them. Some even stop that far behind the stop line if they're first in line. In a long line of stopped traffic, this means that the folks near the end of the line are gonna have to wait through another light cycle to move through.

Not to mention the fact that when someone "stops short" ahead of me as I'm decelerating, I have less room to stop and sometimes have to brake hard, even if I had not been following too closely. We have a ton of rear-end collisions in our area, and I wonder if this is partly why.

This behavior puzzles, and frankly, gripes me. It's another grrrrrrrrrrrr moment among the many others I have when driving these days. ;)

Do people do this where you live? Is there a reasonable explanation?
Click to expand...

It irks me as well, and it seems a lot of them are your basic paper license plate, trash throwing, loud music playing, gems of society that are the same ones that take off extra slow to punish you when you give them a polite tap on the horn when they are asleep at a green light change.
 
I've seen examples of it pretty much everywhere I've been. My guess is that, for the most part, it's people who have difficulty judging distances, for whatever reason.
 
I leave enough room to get around the car in front of me. The instructor of a driver ed course for speeders once said that you should be able to see the rear wheels of the car in front of you when stopped. That's probably about right. IMO, anything up to a car length is OK. More invites someone to nose in. IMO, the distance between cars makes NO difference in how many cars get through the light. OF COURSE there is what one poster calls a chain reaction in starting up. Do you think that all drivers should start moving at the same time and maintain near-zero distance between cars? In MA, it would make sense, because they would just be practicing for 90mph driving in the left lane with less than a car length between cars, but in fact, even in MA no one starts up that way.

Not to mention the fact that when someone "stops short" ahead of me as I'm decelerating, I have less room to stop and sometimes have to brake hard, even if I had not been following too closely.
Click to expand...
If you have to brake hard, you ARE following too closely. I admit that it happens to me occasionally, but I recognize it as MY error, and try to do something about it.

STOP TAILGATING. Even in MA, you don't have to do it.
 
ColbyBruce said:
I like to be able to see the rear wheels of the vehicle in front of me touch the road. A minor impact shouldn't push me into the vehicle in front of me.
Click to expand...

And if I'm having to stop behind a large truck, I actually tend to leave correspondingly more space. One of my (probably statistically irrational) phobias is getting squished to death by being rammed forward by another truck. Happens often enough.
 
I've seen this big gap at the stop light. It is always someone texting. they want to get completely stopped as fast as they can, so they can continue on the phone without looking at the guy ahead. Guess they've learned after bumping into people.

Charlie
 
I've actually had people get out and walk back towards me, but stop and go back when they see how much room I left between us. My F 250 looks WAY closer than it actually is behind a small car. I leave 4-5 feet.
 
Absalom said:
And if I'm having to stop behind a large truck, I actually tend to leave correspondingly more space. One of my (probably statistically irrational) phobias is getting squished to death by being rammed forward by another truck. Happens often enough.
Click to expand...

Somewhat off topic...

I once got stuck driving in the left lane on a freeway, with a semi-truck in front of me, a semi-truck tailgating me, a car on my right, and the divider to my left, while raining. Needless to say, I got out of there as soon as I was able. It was not a peaceful, easy feeling.

On the plus side, the vehicle in front of me was not a Pinto, so...

;)
 
Distance between cars when stopped at stoplights?

Until I just read this thread, it's never even occurred to me to think or wonder about this.

And get irritated about it? No. Life is too short. I'd hate for my last coherent thought to be, "I wonder if I'm far away enough from that car in front of me?" Saint Peter would be laughing and pointing at me when I got to the Pearly Gates..."Hey, look, here he is guys! Should I let him in?"
laugh.gif
 
Ray1970 said:
This is sort of what I do. Sometimes I'm actually at the point where I can't see their rear tires but I can at least see the bottom of their rear bumper. My main reason is to "leave myself an out". In other words, if traffic doesn't move for whatever reason (someone broken down in the lane, etc.) or any weird monkey business goes down (car jacking attempt, terrorist attack, etc.) I want to be able to pull out of my lane without having to back up.
Click to expand...

That is acutually what they taught us 100 or so years ago, well they weren't thinking about terrorists, but if you had a Model A, Dillinger or the Barrows might ' jack it.:)
 
Last edited:
Very interesting comments by all, and thank you.

I do understand why, in a sketchy neighborhood, you might want to leave room to get away without being boxed in. I seldom if ever drive in one of those around here, but I see the logic.

Otherwise, leaving enough room to see the rear tires of the vehicle ahead just seems to me to be overkill. Just my opinion, nothing more.

I sorta understand the reasoning that if you're hit from behind, you don't want to be pushed into the vehicle ahead. A front impact, though, is what is going to activate your air bag, and that's a good thing, whereas rear impacts don't do that. Working in a personal-injury law firm handling many auto collisions, I see much more injury in crashes with only rear-impact involved, when there was the typical stop-and-go traffic situation.

I'll be giving more of the benefit of the doubt to those who stop a car-length behind, from now on. Thanks again for your inputs!
 
I also leave enough that I can swing around if the car in front conks out. Having been trained to drive in the UK, the car is also in neutral with the handbrake on. We are taught there is NO circumstance where your car can roll from a stop uncommanded. Being pushed with the wheels locked is on the other guy.

There are other groups of people at lights who REALLY frost my chops.

"Creepers" cannot stop in one place. A red light shining in their eyes causes their ankle muscles to atrophy and repeatedly release the brake. I have been honked at for NOT creeping.

"Squatters" are incapable of stopping before the line or the pedestrian crossing area. I don't know if it's poor distance judgement or a control thing. Either that or they have a brother with a road painting company and they are drumming up business.

A close cousin of the "squatter" is the "hooker", who is incapable of taking a freeway off ramp without hooking their right wheels over the solid line at the shoulder. Maybe they are all ex-World Rally Championship drivers and think they are using the ditch to help them around the curve.

As for the OP saying he has to brake hard before people stop short, that is because he has an automatic expectation of where the guy in front will stop. It is a VERY dangerous to assume the guy in front drives like you. My only assumption about other drivers is that at some point they may try to kill me.
 
Great looking boat/ship on the avitar. Its funny but the Coasties back east always called them ships no matter how small, Coasties in the Lake call 'em all boats no mater how big.
 
Enough room so I can get out of the lane. I must be able to see their brake lights at a minimum. I was rear ended once in Tampa in 1983 and vowed it would not happen again. So far so good.
 
LVSteve said:
As for the OP saying he has to brake hard before people stop short, that is because he has an automatic expectation of where the guy in front will stop. It is a VERY dangerous to assume the guy in front drives like you. My only assumption about other drivers is that at some point they may try to kill me.
Click to expand...

So very true, and helpfully pointed out. I could not agree more.:)
 
WHAT'S AN AIR BAG?

Not all cars/trucks on the road have them. My older truck took the hits with very minor damage, ME not so much, I was the crumple zone. I'd rather pay for a new vehicle than a surgery. Down here, running into people stopped at red lights and into buildings is a favorite pastime. After my 3rd and last (hopefully), I was getting checked out in the ER and my nurse said his parents live near Orlando & have been rear ended sitting at traffic lights 5 times. :eek:
 
I've noticed this also. I missed a light yesterday because of it. Most of the time the people are looking down at their phones. Not paying attention to anything else. So the just fail to pull forward when the rest of the cars settle in to position.

How much time is wasted waiting on these idiots to realize the light turned while they were updating their Facebook status.

Sent from my SM-G920V using Tapatalk
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

lihpster
Really getting tired of other people's entitlement attitudes.
2 3 4
Replies
96
Views
5K
Grayfox
Grayfox
JohnRippert
Somebody stop me aka 'I may need a intervention'
Replies
19
Views
712
BillyKframe
B
6string
Went to the range. Got shot at!
2 3
Replies
68
Views
5K
DixieRanger
DixieRanger
Tony Tiger
FYI, Not A Political Post! Whitehouse releases Billions to get ammo to civilians, namely Lake City Ammunition factory!
Replies
15
Views
1K
Rick H.
R
IAM Rand
Pucker factor 10
Replies
14
Views
629
wundudnee
wundudnee

Latest posts

Back
Top