[mrguyorama]

It is your responsibility as a driver to maintain a safe distance behind the car you are following. The car in front of you should be able to spontaneously turn into a brick wall, and you should have enough space to stop before hitting it

[tbirrell]

That is completely unrealistic. If I had brand new tires on a dry, straight, road. That's still something like 15-20 car lengths (~160-180) feet.

[sangnoir]

> That is completely unrealistic.

Why is it unrealistic, besides the fact that you're following too close behind? If your line-of-sight is shorter than your braking distance, you are driving wrong.

[undersuit]

Something more realistic then. Drive far enough behind the vehicle in front of you so that you can stop before falling down the same sinkhole/broken bridge/earthquake damaged overpass they just fell into.

[randomfinn]

Math seems to work out if you keep a 3 second distance to the car in front of you.

Google shows two-second rule when looking for "safe following distance" - I was taught 3 seconds and it seems more reasonable assuming slightly over a second reaction time.