London, 23 August 2007 – Gauging the distance it will take to stop a moving vehicle is a vital skill for drivers, but some UK motorists’ understanding of braking distances is so poor that they claim its takes over two miles to stop their cars.
A new study by motor insurer Highway reveals that the majority of drivers are unable to name the correct braking distances. More worryingly from a safety perspective, even when informed of the correct braking distance, most drivers are simply unable to judge how far that is.
Highway’s survey revealed that, on average, only 9% of drivers could get close to naming (within 10%) the correct braking distances for a car moving at 30mph, 50mph and 70mph. Of the 250 drivers surveyed, only two actually knew the correct distances in metres for all three speeds.
Results varied wildly with 24 motorists citing braking distances from half a kilometre (0.3 miles) up to 3.5 kilometres (2.18 miles), 37.5 times the correct figure for 70mph.
Having assessed their knowledge of the distances, drivers were then tested on their ability to judge distance based on the Highway Code figures. Only 5% of motorists could get close to judging how far this distance was in real terms when asked to mark them out. The majority of drivers (66%) underestimated the distance involved – some by up to three-quarters.
When asked to mark out 23 metres, the stopping distance at 30 mph, distances marked by drivers ranged from 6-41 metres.
When asked to mark out 53 metres, the stopping distance at 50 mph, distances marked ranged from 15-81 metres.
Age seemed to play a major part in the knowledge of braking distances with younger drivers aged 18-30 performing best in this test and the over-60s performing worst.
When it came to ability to judge distance, drivers aged 31-50 performed best.
To assist in the measuring process, drivers were provided with a ‘human traffic cone’ – a researcher dressed in orange overalls and wearing a traffic cone on his head – to pace out distances and then measure them. Drivers were asked to let the human traffic cone walk for what they believed to be a distance of 23 meters or 53 metres and then stop him. The distance paced out was then measured and compared with the actual braking distance.
Commenting on the findings, Highway Insurance’s managing director Chris Hill said:
“The Highway Code works on an unspoken assumption that if drivers are told it will take them 53 metres to stop, they can visualise how far this distance actually is. This survey suggests that this assumption is deeply flawed and many motorists’ brains simply don’t work in this way.
“Some people, particularly older drivers, seem to have difficulty visualising distances in metres. Clearly something odd is happening when a driver says he thinks the stopping distance at 30mph is 700 metres and then measures out what’s actually 30 metres.
“There may be some value to placing greater emphasis on other methods of teaching braking distances such as saying it might be five lengths of a car or three seconds stopping time. This approach might help more people be able to visualise how far it will actually take them to stop safely. The Highway Code does refer to a separation distance of two seconds but doesn’t talk about braking distances in this way.
“In reality, all you have to do is go onto any given road in the UK and see how dangerously close people get to cars in front of them. If people saw the devastating effects of some of the accidents then they may think a bit more seriously about maintaining safe stopping distances.”
According to the Highway Code, the typical stopping distances for a car travelling at 30 mph, 50 mph and 70 mph are 23 metres (40 feet), 53 metres (175 feet) and 96 meters (315 feet) respectively.
Highway Insurance is one of the UK’s leading broker-only motor insurers with over 650,000 customers driving both private and commercial vehicles.
The survey of 250 drivers was carried out by Highway’s researchers in Swindon, a statistically representative town, during 30-31 July this year.