23mph in 20 zone :(

Impact energy and stopping distance go up as the square of the speed. So the braking curve is also quadratic - most of the braking happens late on. I think my SAC instructor was a little disconcerted how I could do the calculations in my head... So was I actually, at my age.
I'd imagine not all cars/drivers are equal. There's no way Doris in her Honda jazz (the carbof old people:cry:) is going to have fast reaction, she probably wouldn't even notice the child. Do discs brakes stop you quicker than drums, ad those braking distances in the highway code are rubbish. As you say though lowest common denominator (may not have been you that said that).
 
The stopping distances still listed in the highway code make me laugh, but that is what authorities are still working to. It does not take almost 100m to stop from 70 in a modern car lol
 
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I'd imagine not all cars/drivers are equal. There's no way Doris in her Honda jazz (the carbof old people:cry:) is going to have fast reaction, she probably wouldn't even notice the child. Do discs brakes stop you quicker than drums, ad those braking distances in the highway code are rubbish. As you say though lowest common denominator (may not have been you that said that).
Drums are more effective at lower speed for smaller cars
 
The stopping distances still listed in the highway code make me laugh, but that is what authorities are still working to. It does not take almost 100m to stop from 70 in a modern car lol

There is a big push to increase the Highway Code stopping distances as they arent enough. Car's brakes may have improved but studies have shown the average reaction time used by Highway code of 0.67 seconds is rubbish and in reality its more like 1.5 seconds. In the US they use 1.5 secs and in Canada they use 2.5 seconds.

If the push by road safety campainers goes through the new stopping distances will be

Speed 20mph 30mph 40mph 50mph 60mph 70mph
Revised stopping distances 19m 34m 51m 71m 95m 121m

so at 70mph thats 25m longer than the current HC says and it 20mph thats 7m longer.

With more and more things to distract drivers eyes away from straight ahead in modern cars, i suspect the reaction/thinking time would need increasing again in future.
 
19m at 20mph lol. If I stamped on the brakes at that speed I'd pretty much stop instantly.

Thats not the issue. its how far you will have travelled before you stamp on the brakes..................I suppose you may have F1 reaction times of 0.2 secs but that doesnt apply to everybody esp Karen driving to work early in the morning after a late night and checking her makeup in the mirror.
 
The actual distance of braking isn't the issue, it's the fact people are apparently so focused on their speedo because they can't maintain a steady speed without staring at the dials, you need to allow more time for them to realise and react to what's going on in front of them before they even hit the brakes.
 
Those reaction times are very much the lowest common denominator.

When startled it doesnt take 1.5-2.5 sec to react unless you are either drunk or actually maybe a bit slow to be behind the wheel.

Which is what you have to work on with the HC. Tbh most normal peoples reaction times when driving are slower than the current HC. They just used an average, not a worst case.

Look at this study. When the driver didnt know there was going to be a stop signal the reaction times recorded were 1.3 to 1.5s to full lock braking.

Even when they were told there was a signal coming up the reaction times were 1 to 1.15s

Only when the stop light was mounted on the windscreen did the stopping time reduce to 0.7 to 0.85s

https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/eng-2020-0004/html

So yeah, the vast majority of people take longer than 1 second from needing to stop to the vehicle applying full stopping force and then you have how long the vehicle takes to come to a stop on top.
 
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Which is what you have to work on with the HC. Tbh most normal peoples reaction times when driving are slower than the current HC. They just used an average, not a worst case.

Its all worst case in the highway code, it has to be if its going to apply to everyone. 4 drum brakes, with old fat Karen behind the wheel, on budget tyres.
 
Considering how many cars I’ve seen on their roof in a 30 zone (one on my road yesterday) and the number of accidents I drive passed on the M25 (two separate accidents involving 4 cars in the space of a mile on Saturday) and M1, combined with people darting in and out and undertaking, jumping red lights, not giving correct right of way, for the first time in my life I don’t think speed limits should change.

My car will stop in ridiculous time, to the point where it’s saved me from a couple of accidents, but there are too many morons out there. In comparison, trying to stop my wife’s Audi and mini is not even close.

If we’re talking reaction times, I’ve seen many people not even react and crash in front of me. So many on their phones now too.
 
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Its all worst case in the highway code, it has to be if its going to apply to everyone. 4 drum brakes, with old fat Karen behind the wheel, on budget tyres.

Its not though. Loads of studies have shown that its basically average assuming everybody is a fully aware, fully rested driver observing the road in front all of the time. If it was worst case it would be 1.5s minimum reaction time. Thats why road safety people are pushing to get it changed.

Did you not read the study link I gave you?

The av across all drivers was 0.65s and the worst was 1.2 seconds. And that was with having a red light stuck to the inside of the screen which drivers had to respond to. In real life, the reaction times to events, especially unexpected ones like a kid running out, are much longer.

If you then throw in people using their phones or playing with settings on their car touch screens now that all knobs seem to have vanished and you can add another second to peoples reaction times.
 
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