We need this law in the US.

 

I'm in Spain now and for some reason some drivers just like to check my licence plate from 2m distance (I think) on highway. The best satisfaction for me is to give full throttle and speeding up to 200Km/h for few seconds .. you never see them again

Anyway, having 4s is not possible, traffic cuts .. you'd have to have left (right) turn signal on all the time (and it helps only in some cases).

 

Sorry you got pinched for this, although at least it's not a points fine.

I've never been a fan of camera based enforcement - it's proven to be causative agent ( for red light cameras), and generally is a revenue generation tool while not increasing public safety.

At least in California we do have "tailgating" laws and over the years have had insurance companies, the AAA and public agencies roll out the "1" second per 10 mile rule of thumb...

These is no possible way for about 12 hours a day on the major freeways ( 10, 101, 405, 5 ..you name it) in Southern California to even come close to that

When you do leave that type of spacing some wanker will start playing traffic hole pinball to get home 5 minutes faster cutting through 4 lanes in a zig zag pattern from hole to hole.

As for needing a law like this - we passed a no hand held cellphone while driving law - must use a hands free - and I'm always catching ladies whove decided they'd rather talk with one hand and drive and a no texting while driving law as of Jan 01 09 ... we keep adding laws but people don't necessarily obey them.....

 

Thats plenty ppl here in Los Devil, CA drive 80 - 85 mph without any car lengths between them haha. But I see the point for that rule. I wish we had the autobahn here and that slow ppl would move the hell over.

 

I want to know how this rule is supposed to be enforced when every time I get to autobahn speeds (200kph+) someone pulls right out in front of me to pass a diesel truck (usually from Poland or Czech Republic - no offense, but I could have followed and killed a few of these a-hole's for making my ABS come on in a panic).

And now this? Having a two lane autobahn is a stupid idea, I am glad they are being smart about this and expanding. I cannot count how many times I have seen the 'fast crowd' of the autobahn riding the a$$ of someone who refuses to get over to the right, since passing on the right is a cardinal sin out there, what are you supposed to do at those speeds? This is not exactly the passive country they want you to believe....

 

That was all covered in the description of my offence in the letter I got. They stated that they observed me maintaining that 35 metre gap to the car in front over a distance of about 500 metres and (here's the part relevant to your point) "nobody had pulled out in front of me or forced me to brake which may have caused the short gap to suddenly appear".

So if you're maintaining a healthy two second gap, and someone pulls into the middle of your gap leaving you with only a one second gap, then you won't get a ticket for that. These aren't automated cameras that are simply snapping you with a short measured gap. They're cameras that a police operative monitors and sees that (as in my case) the only reason I had that shorter than allowed gap over those 500 metres, is because that's how much I chose to leave.

 

The fine sucks, but it is with safety in mind!

 

I would be quite angry for such a fine!... I mean WTH for keeping distance crazy!... In my country Russia we are a lot free on our roads only Moscow where I live they are bringing in all these new fine system like in US and EU :thumbsdown: forces people like me to get new number plates that you can break the law with...

 

LOL, there's the new episode of Greenberg

 

162 kmh or 45 meter per second. Not only would you have to react within 0.77 seconds if something happens (which is really short if something unexpected happens), but you should also remember that if you engage the brake later than the person in front of you (which always happens, because you have a non-zero response time) and the brakes of both cars are equally effective, than the distance between the your car and the car in front of you will decrease during the braking as well.
I saw this point illustrated in a tv programme once. It was shocking to see that, while the distance between the two cars was around 20 meters at the moment that the tailing car started braking fully (hence, from that moment on there were 2 identical cars with wheels locked coming to a full stop), that the cars still collided before they came to a halt.
Message: while braking, the speed difference is still positive, so you continue to close in on the car in front of you.

With only 35 meters and a speed of 160 kph, you wouldn't stand a chance if the car in front of you would brake to a full stop.