When I took my driving test. The correct spacing was taught as, if you can see their bottom back tires visible above your hood, then that's the correct distance.
this post was submitted on 07 Jul 2025
59 points (83.9% liked)
Mildly Infuriating
40975 readers
863 users here now
Home to all things "Mildly Infuriating" Not infuriating, not enraging. Mildly Infuriating. All posts should reflect that.
I want my day mildly ruined, not completely ruined. Please remember to refrain from reposting old content. If you post a post from reddit it is good practice to include a link and credit the OP. I'm not about stealing content!
It's just good to get something in this website for casual viewing whilst refreshing original content is added overtime.
Rules:
1. Be Respectful
Refrain from using harmful language pertaining to a protected characteristic: e.g. race, gender, sexuality, disability or religion.
Refrain from being argumentative when responding or commenting to posts/replies. Personal attacks are not welcome here.
...
2. No Illegal Content
Content that violates the law. Any post/comment found to be in breach of common law will be removed and given to the authorities if required.
That means: -No promoting violence/threats against any individuals
-No CSA content or Revenge Porn
-No sharing private/personal information (Doxxing)
...
3. No Spam
Posting the same post, no matter the intent is against the rules.
-If you have posted content, please refrain from re-posting said content within this community.
-Do not spam posts with intent to harass, annoy, bully, advertise, scam or harm this community.
-No posting Scams/Advertisements/Phishing Links/IP Grabbers
-No Bots, Bots will be banned from the community.
...
4. No Porn/Explicit
Content
-Do not post explicit content. Lemmy.World is not the instance for NSFW content.
-Do not post Gore or Shock Content.
...
5. No Enciting Harassment,
Brigading, Doxxing or Witch Hunts
-Do not Brigade other Communities
-No calls to action against other communities/users within Lemmy or outside of Lemmy.
-No Witch Hunts against users/communities.
-No content that harasses members within or outside of the community.
...
6. NSFW should be behind NSFW tags.
-Content that is NSFW should be behind NSFW tags.
-Content that might be distressing should be kept behind NSFW tags.
...
7. Content should match the theme of this community.
-Content should be Mildly infuriating.
-The Community !actuallyinfuriating has been born so that's where you should post the big stuff.
...
8. Reposting of Reddit content is permitted, try to credit the OC.
-Please consider crediting the OC when reposting content. A name of the user or a link to the original post is sufficient.
...
...
Also check out:
Partnered Communities:
Reach out to LillianVS for inclusion on the sidebar.
All communities included on the sidebar are to be made in compliance with the instance rules.
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
so with modern hood heights, that's... 30 meters?
I still hear my driving instructor saying this, 30 years ago. Thanks. :D
I don't know... People have wildly different positions in a car and this easily fluctuates for a few car lengths. Then again, people in general suck at estimating distances.
You should just be able to see the ground under the back tires of the car in front of you. That’s the appropriate distance.
Usually this is the result of distracted driving. At a stop light? Perfect time to check your phone! Once the light turns green I give a solid three count then I honk. I'll probably end up shot dead sooner than later but fuck it and fuck those assholes on their phones.
In case of armed road rage, remember that your car is a weapon. It's self-defense if a gun is drawn on you.
Once the light turns green I give a solid three count then I honk
In Ottawa it's a customary 4 picoseconds.
I usually flash my high beams first as a more gentle “look up” and then do the horn if they don’t notice that one
Yup, I see this shit all the time. "The sooner I stop the faster I can stare at my fucking phone!" It's one thing I wish was actually policed, cause these people are a menace. It's one thing to risk your own life, but those dumb asses are making it dangerous for all of us around them. Throw in two or more and baby you've got a stew going.
I leave a couple of feet between the front of my Miata or Wrangler and the next car ahead. I've been driving since the late 70s and this is the first I've heard of the "botton of the tires" rule of thumb. It wasn't taught back in the day (is it, widely, now?) and it doesn't make much sense to me since it's a function of the size and the shape and height of one's vehicle, which can vary greatly, whereas I know where my front bumper is and I can (usually) clearly see where the rear of the car in front of me is, and hence create the appropriate gap. Sure, I might leave more space if I'm on a steep hill and think the person in front might have a manual (another Miata for example) but that's rare.
Up until very recently people seemed to always keep just a couple of feet between cars at stops like I did. This business of "a car length or two" seems like a very new thing - the past 5 years mostly - and that led me to think it's some kind of stupid new internet cancer. Probably some "influencer" telling his/her audience that you should put your dominance on display at stoplights by pissing people off and preventing them from getting through intersections. Or putting your dominance and alpha-hood on display by blocking them from getting into the turn lane at all. Anything to get attention, anything to show that you're not (truly) a nobody, even when you are, because you have power!
I've only been rear-ended once in 45 years of driving. Being a d*ck on the road in order to (allegedly) absolutely f-ing MAXIMIZE your own self-perceived "safety" (from highly unlikely events) at the expense of everyone else is a totally modern-American sort of thing to do I guess. But I'm not doing it.
Tyres and tarmac!
You should be able to see pavement under the rear tires of the car in front of you when stopped
load more comments
(1 replies)
I don't leave any space
I just ram them
Are 'road sensors that trigger a light change' a real thing? I thought lights are on a timed cycle.
There sometimes are induction loops under the street for this purpose: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Induction_loop
Video, radar, and infrared are also common. In some places I’ve been, only older non-upgraded intersections have induction loops.
In Germany almost every traffic light has them nowadays. It can sometimes be annoying when you're riding a bike made of carbon. But usually my phone and laptop seem to be enough to trigger them.
I once ran a red light with my moped, made of steel, because the light never turned green
load more comments
(1 replies)
In the US I've noticed a difference between west coast and the rest of the country. West coast tends to use these circle bandsaws to cut circles into the pavement, everywhere else uses a circular saw to cut rectangles into the pavement. Either way, these are the things you want to be stopped right on top of, especially if you're on a side street or left turn where you might get skipped if it doesn't sense you. If you're on a motorcycle, try to scoot up a bit so a car can be on them. They probably won't sense a motorcycle.
view more: next ›