How are thinking distance and braking distance linked?

Question

How are thinking distance and braking distance linked?

Answer 1

Depending upon the weather and traffic conditions, try to maintain more than two-second space. If a lighter vehicle is ahead of you it will take lesser time to stop while if a heavy vehicle is ahead of you it would be blocking your view of the road ahead.

Drivers have to understand that however good a driver they think they are and however good their car is, a vehicle at a higher speed will take much longer distance to stop.

A more driver oriented view of braking is to look at braking time. It isn't normal in driving to make judgments in feet. Mostly judgments are based on how long it will take to get there, or how long it will take us to stop.

The way speed changes with time shows how drivers are able to judge "stopping distances" on the road with comparative ease. They soon learn that brakes shed speed at a constant rate.

Speed 40 kph, 60 kph

Thinking distance 8 meters, 12 meters

Braking distance 14 meters, 30 meters

Total stopping distance 22 meters, 42 meters

Answer 2

Well, both are dependent on the speed you are going. The faster you are going, the more distance you will travel whilst your brain processes the fact that there is an obstacle in front of you. Similarly, the faster you are going the more distance you will travel before your brakes bring you to a stop.

Therefore, as your speed increases, your thinking and braking distance will increase as well. However, your thinking time will always be about the same no matter how fast you are going, while braking time increases dramatically as your speed increases. Another obvious difference is that your thinking time (and therefore your thinking distance) will increase if you are tired or have consumed alcohol (or drugs, whatever).

Answer 3

Thinking distance is not linked to braking distance. Thinking distance is dependent on the speed of the vehicle, while braking distance depends not only on speed, but on road conditions (surface, weather etc).

Answer 4

i think it depends on your brain. I had to do a short driving test before getting a license to become a private hire driver and the examiner told me that the distance doesn't make any difference, as long as you break as soon as the car in front does then you should stop in time, although i think that depends on how had you break, some people are cautious about breaking too hard too quickly. i think it all depends on a persons reaction speed. i always keep an eye on the car thats in front of the car in front of me, so if he breaks tghen i know the car in front of me is likely to break and i can be prepared

Answer 5

Use the 2 second rule, its easier.

Answer 6

you have to consider both

thinking distance is the time elapsed between seeing the need to brake, thinking 'i need to brake' and actually braking.

then braking distance is the time it will take to stop.

Obviously if you are going faster you will travel further during these periods of time especially as the brakes can only exert a certain amount of force and is not proportional to speed (ie faster you go harder it brakes)

Hope this helps

Answer 7

There is lots of scientific this and that to them but they only come linked together usually just as you hit something when you get one or both wrong. irony aint it great.

Answer 8

Dead easy, the faster you drive the more distance you cover before you get to press the brake peddle, the faster you drive the longer it takes to stop from that seed.

The reaction time tends not to change in people, so by in large the word is drive slower.

Ja.

Answer 9

Above are correct and also think sensibly - thinking time is the time it takes you to register and get your brain to press the brakes - therefore they are linked

Answer 10

You should also be aware of the road conditions, and observe not what the vehicle in front of you is doing, but the one in front of that, in-fact as far ahead as possible. If I sense a problem ahead I drop down a gear even at 70mph, and cover both the brake and accelerator pedals. One cannot avoid all collisions as my father found out when he was hit head on by a car that came over a hump back bridge on the wrong side of the road. This incident put him in hospital. On another occasion I was leading a string of cars when a suitcase fell off the roof rake of an oncoming car. I braked and dropped a gear hoping to minimise the damage to my car. However I need not have worried as the driver of the car behind me  accelerated overtook me and hit the suitcase head on! I trust this illustrates that one should not look just  a few feet / centimetres ahead of ones nose, but be mentally driving the car in front of you. Happy and safe motoring.

Answer 11

They're not!  The thinking distance is the time taken to realise that you need to brake to the time that you actually hit the brake.  This time is more or less constant for everybody so the thinking distance is directly proportional to the speed of the car.  So the thinking distance at 60mph is twice the thinking distance at 30mph.  However, the braking distance increases at a greater rate than this.  The road surface (wet or dry) also has some bearing on the braking distance whereas it will have no effect on the thinking distance.

Answer 12

Your overall stopping distance is made up of your thinking distance + braking distance.

Thinking Distance = the time between realising you need to brake and hitting the brake pedal. This = 1 foot for every mph you are doing.

Braking Distance = the distance required for the car to stop once you hit the brakes. The more speed you are doing, the more momentum you have and the braking distance grows accordingly.

Starting from 20 mph, the braking distance increases by a factor of *0.5 per 10mph of the thinking distance as follows

Speed            Thinking Dist    Braking Dist       Stopping Dist

20 mph                  20ft       +     *1     (20ft)       =            40ft  

30mph                   30ft       +      *1.5 (45ft)       =            75ft

40mph                   40ft       +      *2    (80ft)       =           120ft

...and so on, further details are available in the Highway Code.

These of course assume an alert driver, good roads and a well maintained car!

Multiply the overall stopping distances by 2 for wet conditions - by 4 in Snow and by 10 on Ice!!!! (So at 40mph your stopping distance will be 1200ft on Ice).

Drive carefully - and KEEP YOUR DISTANCE!

Answer 13

also an easy way to remember these is

starting at 20mph the thinking distances go up in threes

eg 20mph is 6

30 is 9

40 is 12 and so on

braking distance is an easy one also

20 mph x 2    = 40feet

30mph x 2.5 = 75feet

40mph x 3    = 120feet

50mph x3.5  = 175feet

60mph x 4    = 240feet

70mph x 4.5 = 315feet

starting at 20mph it starts at 2 then 2.5 then 3. then 3.5 then 4.

then 4.5 if you remember this you will easily be able to do this on your theory, hope this helps.

Answer 14

thinking distance is the distance it takes for your brain to click in before and hitting the brake

Answer 15

How fast are you traveling (distance per second) and how long will it take to stop the car in the event of an emergency at that speed (braking distance).

Answer 16

this is a good website, hope it's useful  http://www.stoppingdistances.org.uk/resu...

Answer 17

The faster you travel the more distance you cover before physically taking any action.

However, if you read the road properly you will already be reacting to a situation before thinking through what you need to be doing!

Answer 18

Thinking distance is the time it takes you to think to brake Braking distance is the actual time it takes to stop the car.

Answer 19

"How are thinking distance and braking distance linked?"

Easy! If you don't have enough thinking distance you won't brake in time.

Answer 20

Thinking distance is the distance you travel between seeing the danger and reacting to it.

It takes time for the information to get from your eyes, go through your brain and down to your feet and hands. Its pretty much the same for everybody, everything else being even.

Braking distance is the distance is the distance your car takes to stop from the instant you start to react.

The faster you are going the higher the values for both will be.

Only drive fast on wide open roads where you can see at least hundreds of metres ahead.

Answer 21

You think about it then you do it thats the time delay from your brain to your foot.

Answer 22

Some very good advice given already. I just wanted to mention that the reason you need to keep a safe distance is because you dont know if the person ahead has pressed the brakes or slammed on the brakes.

Dont just look at the car ahead but look as far ahead as you can to see whats happening. You cant see ahead if youre too close.

Because most people tend to tailgate a lot, the driver at the front will press the brakes and the driver at the back of the pack will slam on the brakes, you will only be able to stop if youve given yourself enough distance. You need to double the distance in wet weather.

Answer 23

IT TAKES YOUR BRAIN SO MANY SECONDS TO REACT TO A SITUATION,THEN IT TAKES TIME AGAIN TO DO THE SAME WITH BREAKING.......THEN IT TAKES SO LONG FOR A CAR TO STOP DEPENDING ON WEATHER/SPEED.....EAZY.= BRAKING/THINKING DISTANCE

Answer 24

i for one am very confused by these as i have 3 cars  a 1971 ford cortina

1998 Toyota estema

and a 05 Renault  Maegan

and all break different

my old car takes a LONG TIME TO STOP COMPARED TO MY NEW AND AS NEW ONE FITTED WITH ABS

SAME AS  TOYOTA SO HOW CAN THE DISTANCE  BE RIGHT FOR ALL CARS

IF MY CAR HAS ABS AND THE ONE BEHIND  DONT   THEN MY CAR WILL STOP A LOT FASTER THAN THERES

Answer 25

How's your mental arithmetic?  If you still work in mph and feet the braking distance for any speed S id S squared divided by 20 plus S

e.g 100 mph squared = 10000 ;  divided by 20 = 500 ; plus 100 = 600 feet.  

If you are good at this sort of thing it means you do not have to remember tables for the test.

Answer 26

the faster you go, the longer distance you travel for a given time. The thinking distance is half a second or so, but that is longer distance at faster speed.

Answer 27

your speed should match the distance that you can safely stop. The indicated speed limit is not a target road conditions etc must be taken into account. Your stopping distance doubles in wet weather and is 10 times greater in icy / snow

Answer 28

.Thinking distance is the time between realising that you need to brake and the foot pressing the peddle.

= The distance of travel whilst thinking, which varies with speed travelled and is different for each of us to some degree, ie some people are slower to react, for instance when we get older.