smeggy wrote:
.. could leaving a gap of less than 500ms for a prolonged period (say more than 5 secs) ever be considered safe?
Yes. On a motorcycle we can travel VERY close if we are offset. (I will have an escape route.) Not only is it safe, to my knowledge it’s still perfectly legal.
smeggy wrote:
.. could driving at more than say 50mph (even a blip) on a residential road ever be considered safe?
Absolutely, of course it can.
smeggy wrote:
With what I propose I have assumed these factors as being at best case (considering the possibility of emergency braking), so leaving no room for interpretation.
So what happens when things go tits-up? If you tell people they are legal up to 500ms, won’t they interpret that as safe? We already have the 2 second rule and it’s a great starting point. It really only becomes unsafe in poor conditions.
smeggy wrote:
I wouldn’t agree that the figure of 500ms is arbitrary; also it should be generally treated as a minimum.
I really can’t see why you see a necessity for a minimum figure. Ok so it’s not arbitrary, but it’s based on your best-case scenario and therefore hardly ever safe for most people.
smeggy wrote:
Looking at it from another angle: do you suggest we let (the less considerate) drivers to continue leaving their < 100ms gaps? Sure we can teach risk management but they’ll always be some nutter who will continue to take the p*ss. We can't continue to do nothing about it can we?
The nutter will always be such and we know we can’t legislate to cure him, but there are enough laws already to prosecute him. I for one, would not thank you for making another of my perfectly safe manoeuvres, illegal.