Is the Follow Distance Rule of Thumb in Germany Really Sensible?

[Danger]

Ok...well...that's a very different situation than what we've been talking about in this thread!

On the contrary... that's exactly what the original post was complaining about. Jonny can't seem to get it through his head that speed limits and following distance guidelines are designed to minimize the chance of collision rather than just alleviate the effects of an inevitable one.
By the way, I hope that you don't think that Vancouver is in any way typical of Canada. It's a bowl of granola, like San Francisco; anyone there who isn't a fruit or a nut is a flake. It's far and away the drug capitol of the country (at least as far as importation goes), and has one of our mildest climates. Come visit me in Calgary when it's -40° C with half a metre of snow on the ground, and I'll show you what driving under adverse conditions is all about.

 

[mgb_phys]

It's a bowl of granola, like San Francisco; anyone there who isn't a fruit or a nut is a flake.

A place where, if asked by your wife to pick up Granola on the way home you don't know whether to go to the supermarket or daycare.

 

[mgb_phys]

I'm not surprised that US driving is unsafe. I believe a lot of it has to do with the definiton of "driving". In Europe, people tend to actually drive, whereas in US, people just get in the car and let the car do the work.

It's probably more to do with road usage.
In Europe freeways are much safer than surface roads, 5-10x as many accidents on A roads as motorways.
In the USA a lot more freeway driving is commuting. The freeways in LA are used very differently to a cross country autobahn.
If you could compare accident rates/km on an interstate with freeway rates in Europe I suspect they would be more similair.

 

[Phrak]

A place where, if asked by your wife to pick up Granola on the way home you don't know whether to go to the supermarket or daycare.