At 60 mph in ideal conditions, the Oregon handbook says the total distance from when you recognize a hazard to when your vehicle stops is approximately what?
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A.
About one car length per 10 mph.
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B.
About 100 feet.
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C.
More than 300 feet. Correct
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D.
About 50 feet.
The answer is "More than 300 feet."
At 60 mph, the distance from the point you recognize a hazard and apply the brakes to where your vehicle stops is greater than the length of a football field, which is over 300 feet. The exact stopping distance depends on road and weather conditions, vehicle weight, reaction time, and brake quality, but the football-field benchmark is the handbook's shorthand for how much room you need at highway speeds. Answer D confuses reaction distance alone with the full hazard-recognition-to-stop figure the manual describes.
The traps in the wrong answers
A. About one car length per 10 mph.
The car-length-per-10-mph heuristic is a different rule of thumb, not the handbook's stopping-distance benchmark. This answer substitutes an unrelated following-distance rule of thumb for the manual's football-field stopping-distance benchmark.
B. About 100 feet.
100 feet at 60 mph is far short of total stopping distance from hazard recognition to stop. This answer underestimates total stopping distance by a factor of three relative to the manual's football-field benchmark.
D. About 50 feet.
50 feet is far too short at 60 mph; that is closer to reaction distance alone, not total stopping distance. This answer confuses reaction-distance-only with the full hazard-recognition-to-stop distance the manual describes.
This question tests your knowledge of Defensive Driving in Oregon. Source: Oregon Driver Manual, "Stopping Distances," p.29..
Related Oregon questions
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