safe braking zone (sbz)

5.00 4.50 4.00 3.50 3.00 seconds 2.50 2.00 1.50 1.00 0.50 0.00 0 20 40 60 80 mph 100 120 140

Overall Stopping Distances

1200

1000

800

feet

600

400

200

0 0 20 40 60 80 mph 100 120 140 160

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SafeSpeed vehicle braking physics calculator Enter data: Enter braking effort in g: Enter driver's thinking time in seconds: Calculated stopping times and distances
speed mph fps time thinking seconds 0.75 0.75 0.75 0.75 0.75 0.75 0.75 0.75 0.75 0.75 0.75 0.75 0.75 0.75 0.75 braking seconds 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5 3.0 3.5 4.1 4.6 5.1 5.6 6.1 6.6 7.1 7.6 overall seconds 1.3 1.8 2.3 2.8 3.3 3.8 4.3 4.8 5.3 5.8 6.3 6.8 7.3 7.8 8.3 distance thinking feet 11 22 33 44 55 66 77 88 99 110 121 132 143 154 165 braking feet 4 15 33 59 93 134 182 238 301 371 449 535 628 728 836 overall feet 15 37 66 103 148 200 259 326 400 481 570 667 771 882 1001 overall yards 5 12 22 34 49 67 86 109 133 160 190 222 257 294 334

0.9 g 0.75 seconds

10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 110 120 130 140 150

15 29 44 59 73 88 103 117 132 147 161 176 191 205 220

Notes:
sbz = "safe braking zone" = the braking space ahead expressed in seconds at a steady speed. A good modern car with good brakes and tyres on a flat dry road should brake at about 0.9g A good driver can physically move his foot to the brake pedal and start braking in 0.5 seconds Hazard assessment (recognizing a hazard and deciding to brake) might take upwards of 0.25 seconds A wet road will only permit downwards of 0.6g braking effort Braking while traveling downhill is less efficient (dry hill, 10% gradient, about 0.8g max) Braking while traveling uphill is more efficient (dry hill, 10% gradient, about 1g max) Braking on sheet ice might only allow a max braking effort of 0.1g A careful driver will not usually choose to brake harder than 0.45g
Copyright Paul Smith and SafeSpeed 2002.

Contact:

web: http://www.safespeed.org.uk

email: psmith@safespeed.org.uk

Physical factors and set-up data

Constant : conversion factor for mph to feet per sec Constant : acceleration due to gravity Calculated deceleration rate 1.466667 ft/sec / mph 32.17405 ft/sec/sec 28.95664 ft/sec/sec

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V1.0

sbz size seconds 1.00 1.26 1.51 1.76 2.02 2.27 2.52 2.78 3.03 3.28 3.54 3.79 4.04 4.30 4.55

ft/sec / mph

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