Blick experiments with himself: keeping distance is almost impossible

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Everyone who drives has probably faced this dilemma at some point: On the one hand, you need and want to maintain adequate distance from the person driving ahead, especially on the highway. Because too little distance is expensive and poses a major safety risk, for example if the braking distance is longer than the distance to the vehicle in front. However: It is almost impossible to maintain the prescribed safety distance on our motorways; because every space is used by others to instantly change lanes and overtake.

We tried this: We took the Renault Captur E-Tech, a long-term, tripmeter-equipped test vehicle, and set off on the A1 motorway in the Zurich area. Traffic is quite light today; It should work. At first it looks like this: Actually for a long time no one is cutting our correct range of 1.8 to 2.0 seconds.

Sometimes things get really hairy

Then the traffic gets even denser and goodbye, right distance. If we stick to the two-second rule, the difference seems huge to us. And car after car crashes in front of us. We take our foot off the accelerator to ensure the correct distance: less than 1.8 seconds can result in a fine of hundreds of francs. But then the cars behind us get very close. Most of the time it’s very close.

Sometimes things get really difficult: in the Gubrist Tunnel, a car passes so close (estimated at two meters at 80 km/h) that we have to get into trouble. This is not an isolated incident: Especially after the lanes in front of the tunnel were removed, almost everyone was driving very close together, many within a car’s distance. If everyone here had taken their foot off the gas immediately to maintain distance, there would have been a buildup behind them. But if you keep driving like this, you will earn more than your net salary on the bus and more than three months on foot.

Cruise control gets too close

We become skeptical: Is the ad exaggerating? We count using guideposts (50 meters apart each) and using the two-second rule (note the dot, then say “twenty-one, twenty-two” quite slowly). Result: Distance display is correct. It is also true that although traffic is still relatively easy, distance cannot be maintained very well (see video).

By the way: If you rely on radar-based cruise control, you may be in for a nasty surprise. Since each country has different regulations and you can vary between 2.4 to 2.0 and 1.6 to 1.2 seconds on the test car to suit each situation. In 1.6 seconds you are already in the expensive zone, and in 1.2 seconds you even enter the identity cancellation zone. This is not an excuse; drivers are responsible for choosing the correct level.

Fine instead of reprimand?

Maybe a Germany-style system would be better? Distance penalties are defined in the penalty catalog starting from less than one second. This alone is not enough, but perhaps it is more realistic. Distance is rarely checked in our country due to the lack of fixed penalties, but if this happens it is terribly expensive. And that’s another reason why almost no one knows exactly how much can quickly become too little.

Source: Blick