What distance should you keep from a vehicle in front of you if you ride a motorcycle in a built-up area?
Show the correct answer
Correct answer
B. A distance necessary to avoid a crash in the event of the preceeding vehicle stopping.
Explanation
In the photo you are riding in town behind a line of cars and a motorcyclist, in a row of vehicles approaching a junction. When riding a motorcycle in a built-up area, you keep the distance from the vehicle in front of you that is necessary to avoid a crash if it stops - answer B.
The Road Traffic Act states that the driver of a vehicle must keep the distance necessary to avoid a crash if the vehicle in front brakes or stops. The provision does not give a number of metres - the distance should depend on the speed, the road surface and how well the brakes work, not on the length of the motorcycle, which at 50 km/h would not even cover the reaction time. "Any" distance is an obvious mistake. A practical rule is at least two seconds: when the vehicle in front passes a post or a sign, you count "one hundred and twenty-one, one hundred and twenty-two" and only then do you pass it yourself; on a wet roadway you double this time. A motorcyclist has one more reason not to ride too close: the car in front hides potholes, oil patches and pedestrians from him, and running into the back of a car ends in a fall.
Legal basis: Art. 19 para. 2 point 3 of the Road Traffic Act (Prawo o ruchu drogowym)