Mathematics of Driving

I helped supervise the Year 11 Road Safety Education excursion today.

There were a number of facts which will be very useful in future classes.
– the typical driver reaction time is 1.5 seconds. If a car is traveling at 60km/h it will move 25 meters in that time.
– a hands free mobile call will take approximately 37% of the mental resources away from the driver.
– increasing the speed by 20km/h from 40 to 60 or 60 to 80 doubles the stopping distance.
– doubling the speed quadruples the stopping distance
– a car enters the last quarter of the stopping distance still traveling at half the original speed.
One of the most graphic demonstrations was to witness the stopping distance when the car was traveling at 50 km/h. This was repeated at 60km/h (simulating a driver over the street limit by 10km/h).
This excursion was a very valuable experience for students and teachers.