Clearance to Cyclists

You should give as much room as you can to cyclists at least enough room to avoid them if they should fall off, anticipate their needs, cyclists may have to move out to avoid a hole in the road or manhole cover.

Cyclists may ride out into a road without warning, change position and turn without signalling and come up alongside you at junctions and in laned traffic.

When encounter cyclists and there is limited space slow down.

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Clearance to Pedestrians

If you are passing pedestrians in the street then you should give them as much room as possible and if space is limited then your speed must be reduced, you must be able to stop if a pedestrian should turn and walk out in front of you.

You need to anticipate for pedestrians walking into the road without warning, emerging from between parked cars and behind buses etc.

Be aware that children present a greater hazard than adults who normally will have a greater awareness of the dangers of traffic.

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Clearance to other road users

Good drivers should always be aware of what is going around them and this includes the amount of available space between themselves and other road users, hazards or obstructions.

We need to maintain a safe distance around the car at all times and this space is called clearance. The amount of clearance that we can allow will vary depending on the circumstances we are in and the volume of traffic on the road.

Let's look at some examples:

Clearance to parked cars.

You will already have encountered cars and other vehicles stopped at the side of the road - do you know how much clearance to allow when passing them?

Trading Speed for Space

In this diagram the driver of the green car has been looking well ahead and has noticed the 2 vehicles stopped at the roadside and will have been anticipating from a long way back that his position will need to be adjusted to pass them safely.

He has also noticed the red car approaching from the opposite direction and realises that they will both have to pass through the gap at the same time - but this will mean that he will not be able to give an open car door width clearance to both sides.

He deals with the situation by using the MSM routine:

He checks the interior and offside mirrors for following traffic and to make sure no one is thinking of overtaking.

There is no need for a signal because he has prepared early and will only need to steer gently to get himself into a position to pass through the gap.

He adjusts his position carefully - he's looking well ahead and making quite sure there is enough room for both vehicles to drive through the gap at the same time. He's also watching the driver of the red car - checking that he is adjusting his position and speed in good time.

Now the key to a successful manoeuvre - he has continued to assess the gap on the approach and knows there will be about 2ft of clearance to both sides - he brakes early and progressively down to about 20 mph - both vehicles are able to drive safely through the gap at the same time.

This is called TRADING SPEED FOR SPACE

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Speed relative to the available space.

The size of the gap that we will have to drive through will vary - the smaller the gap, the slower we'll be able to drive.

Travelling slower allows us more time to respond to any situation that we might have to respond to.

As a general guide if your clearance is reduced to about the width of the steering wheel (about 2ft) then we would need to be travelling at no more than 20 mph, if only 1 ft of clearance was available then no more than 10mph would normally be a suitable speed.

Notice I've said no more than - the actual speed will depend on the size of the gap and what is happening around us - sometimes we'll need to go at a walking place or even slower.

Look at this picture of a driver adjusting his speed to suit the circumstances.

Clearance to the front & rear.

We also need to maintain a safe distance from vehicles to our front and rear. When you are following other vehicles always leave enough room so that you can stop if they have to - ask yourself the question "If the vehicle ahead stops suddenly - can I"? If the answer is no then pull back.

So how much clearance do we need to allow when following another vehicle? The Highway Code shows a list of overall stopping distances and you should study and learn them. At 30mph in good conditions the overall stopping distance is 75ft, the total is made up of 30ft thinking distance (the distance the vehicle will travel between you realising that you need to brake and actually pressing the brake pedal - and is the distance you would travel in 2/3 of a second).
The braking distance is 45 ft and is the distance that the car will travel from the moment you press the brake pedal until the car stops.

It's quite difficult to relate these distances to actual driving situations, at slow speeds the space between you and a vehicle to your front should be at least the thinking distance shown in the Highway Code.
Here's a good way of judging how much clearance to allow when travelling at speeds of more than 30mph.

When following another vehicle watch for it passing a fixed point like a street lamp and say to yourself:

"ONLY A FOOL BREAKS THE TWO SECOND RULE"

If you finish saying it before you reach the same street lamp then you will be at least 2 seconds behind the vehicle in front (a safe distance)

If you haven't finished the phrase when you reach the fixed point you are driving too close to the leading vehicle, drop back and apply the2 second rule again.

Using this rule ensures an alert driver on a good road in a well maintained vehicle should have enough room to stop if the vehicle ahead does.

But remember to make allowances for the weather conditions on wet roads or a loose road surface stopping distances can be doubled and in icy conditions stopping distances can be up to 10 times more.

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Sometimes there will be less space - the driver of the green car knows there is not enough room for 2 cars to drive through the gap at the same time - because the obstruction is on his side of the road he has stopped and ha given way to the approaching red car.

This is called holding back - note the hold back position - he has stopped about 2 car lengths back from the obstruction but further out from the normal driving position but no so far out that he will obstruct the driver of the red car.

From here he will have a good view of the road ahead and will be able to continue to assess the situation, make his plans and he'll be prepared and ready to move off as soon as it's safe.

You may find it difficult to judge the width of gaps in this type of situation at first - don't worry - if you have any doub the safe rule is:

IF YOU DON'T KNOW - DON'T GO

It's far better to hold back and be safe than risk a collision - even if it didn't come to that imagine how embarrassing it would be to drive into the gap, discover there wasn't enough clearance and have to reverse back to allow the other vehicle through.

Now lets look at clearance to following vehicles.

Now let's look at clearance to the rear - we can't make other drivers drive at a safe distance behind us, but good defensive driving techniques can ensure a safe clearance is maintained.

Look at this diagram - here both the drivers of the blue and the red car are maintaining a safe clearance from the vehicle in front - the overall safe following distance for the 2 drivers is shown in this diagram

Look what happens when the driver of the red car fails to apply 2 second rule - the driver of the blue car would be able to stop safely if he had to - but in an emergency braking situation the driver of the red car would almost certainly collide with him!

The temptation in this situation is to speed up and increase the distance between yourself and the following vehicle - but look what happens.

The driver of the red car clearly has no idea of a safe separation distance and has maintained his dangerously close position - could the driver of the blue car still stop safely if he needed to? - probably not - he's now flirting with colliding with the vehicle in front as well as risking the following vehicle colliding with his rear end.

So what should we do? - the answer is to increase the distance between your car and the one in front - look at the final diagram.

The driver of the blue car has increased his clearance to the front - note that the overall separation distance is now the same as if both drivers were using the 2 second rule correctly. If the leading vehicle braked suddenly the driver of the blue car would have more time and space in which to react - he is, in effect increasing the available braking distance for both himself and the driver behind.

Being able to brake less harshly if the lead vehicle stopped suddenly should ensure that both drivers could stop safely if they had to.

That is the end of this tutorial - use the page navigation box if you want to review anything you have read about.