Have you ever wondered how far behind the car in front of you should stop? A good rule of thumb is one car length. In visual terms when you stop behind another vehicle you should see both of their back tires on the pavement and a little bit of the pavement in front of those tires.
How many times have you heard that someone was rear-ended causing them to rear-end the car in front them? Probably quite a few. The reason for this is that most people stop approximately three to four feet behind the car in front of them. If they get rear-ended that lack of space causes them to rear-end the car in front of them.
If you leave that one car length space between you and the car in front of you that space is approximately fourteen feet. This eliminates the chance of you rear-ending the vehicle in front you. The benefit is two-fold, because having this fourteen feet between you and the car in front of you also gives you the ability to go around the car in front of you should that vehicle suddenly have a problem. This way you won’t be stuck in traffic.