Time and Space
No matter how you look at it, from whichever angle, driving is, in essence, all about Space and Time and how you interact with it – yourself, and within proximity of any other object.
OK, so what do I mean?
At speed you are losing space faster and you have less space to work with the faster you go. The less space you have the less time you have within which to react. Simple.
As an example, let’s say you’re walking opposed to jogging, opposed to running – not a biggy, right?
Now let’s compare 40km/h to 60km/h to 90km/h to 120km/h…and then the flat-foot to the point where the speedometer’s needle gets stuck – huge difference, right?
Now let’s look how the human being is put together, visually, that is…
Humans have Central Vision (that part you use when looking at something head-on, in perfect focus), then there’s Peripheral Vision which is the rest (all the parts that’s not in focus when you look at something specific). In your Peripheral Vision area you sense movement, some shape, some colour, etc.
Did you know that you can see less, the faster you travel? Yip, your Peripheral Vision roughly reduces…
At 50km/h – 25%
At 75km/h – 50%
At 95km/h – 90%… and we’re not even up to 120km/h!
So, let’s say you’re travelling at 160km/h, what some consider a nice “cruising speed”…
Guess what? Other than what is straight ahead of you, with your eyes focused specifically on it…you can’t see for shit!
This necessarily means that you’d have a better chance of seeing hell freeze over than you would seeing a side impact, or even hazard, for that matter. Makes sense?
Just to prove a point that even 40 and 60km/h Zones are critical, here’s something to consider:
