Following distance - some real life data

[aschendel]

I know we've had our share of discussions, concerns, and near misses (or worse) due to following distances being too short.  I did a search just now to see if I should revive one of the many threads that included this topic and decided to start my own here in the safety forum to discuss a little data I happened to collect.

Last Saturday night I went riding, leaving my house about 9pm and heading down into the good roads (for a photo tag game on the other forum).  I didn't ride too many of the really good roads as I was short on time and didn't want to be way out in the boonies if something happened so late at night.    The whole night was slower than average, as I had assured my wife that hitting a deer or drunk was unlikely, and a deer probably wouldn't kill me... plus I didn't want to talk to the police.

As I was cruising along on 25 in Wisconsin north of Nelson I had a truck (F350?) pull out in front of me at a T and while I "saw" it happening ahead of time, more-so than say, a deer jumping out of the woods or a person in front of me having a mechanical failure, I still feel that the information recorded by my GPS might be enlightening (attached below).  The truck was clearly visible to me well in advance, I didn't know he wasn't waiting for me at first but then I noticed a car was also coming the other direction, hidden from view by the rise / bend in the road.  The car passed the truck and then the truck pulled out in front of me.

Keep in mind that I was riding by myself, no music, I wasn't fiddling with the GPS or the bike or anything, I was hyper-alert, going slower than normal and was watching the truck; on the other hand, I was cold, it was pretty late, I had been riding for a few hours already, and I was mentally getting close to the home stretch.  Notice I was already slowing and then braked pretty hard from 57mph to 17mph, taking about 124 feet.

I know the GPS data presented here isn't perfect / science, especially during acceleration (positive or negative) (so let's not argue about that too much) but I still feel that this shows how long it might take an average person to comprehend an emergency and attempt to stop.  At 17mph or less, broadsiding a truck probably wouldn't have been that bad, but hitting a kid in the road or a friend that had successfully stopped would have been awful.

It was a "close call", and would have been much worse if he would have panicked and stopped covering my lane or had been pulling a trailer, I honestly don't know if I braked hard enough to fully stop.  I do know I did *not* execute a full-on panic stop; I didn't skid, probably only used my front brake and at the time (too much thinking about deer?) didn't consider it a major situation, I remember talking to myself about him once I realized he may have been waiting on only the car.

a.s.

p.s. I should point out that had I just laid 'r down @ 57 I would have had a better story, and new bike and a honor among pirates.

[pkpk]

The first thing that jumps out is how well you detailed your surroundings and situation.  This tells me that you did a great job at systematically scanning and logging everything in your mind.  Right there that puts you far ahead of many motorcyclists, even ones I ride with.  This experience also is a demonstration of good scanning and reaction habits.  You were already at attention the moment you registered the truck.  Well done!

Unfortunately, many riders do not have this sense of environment and wind up in a compromised position, sometimes with a very bad outcome.  One of my pet peeves are riders who tailgate vehicles, some with unsecured loads and boats with no covers.  Watched a motorcyclist almost eat a prop because he was too close to even see the boat lamps and could not see traffic coming to a halt down the road (he lowsided right under the prop and somehow missed hitting anything.)

I'll admit having my own battle over distractions (sat radio and gps) which avert my attention more than I would admit.  I'm trying to work on this and your experience underscores the importance of full vision, situational awareness and following distance (time and space.)