Japan is another world. When I was traveling there, I remember seeing dots on the highways so as to space your interval with the car in front of you. Another person in my group started laughing because that would be ignored in the US but the guy driving was confused and couldn't fathom not following that rule. He was like, "why wouldn't you do that?"
EDIT: I meant that this isn't just a US problem. There are way too many selfish people worldwide, and they are one of the many reasons we still haven't made proper steps to avoid an ecological disaster. I don't really get the downvotes.
They have those dots on the road in some parts of PA, specifically around Lancaster. Some people follow the 2 dot rule there, but most I've seen do not.
Three is definitely better but a lot of places do go by the two-second rule.
And obviously use the visual aid if there is one. The point is to learn to use a fixed point to time it. If you only learn to count how many dots/lines there are, you might struggle when there aren't any obvious markings.
Your last point is fair! I didn't mean to imply that you should only use markings. It sounds a bit stupid to still reach the two second rule though, since the average reaction time seems to be 1-1.5s. If you need to break abruptly 0.5s won't get you very far.
I learned the two seconds rule, actually. And from personal experience, that seems quite enough.three seconds would out rather large distances that tend to fill up with other cars
Just saying that the two (or three,) second rule can be applied anywhere and everywhere
Really? You should probably go for the three second rule though, since the average reaction time seems to be 1-1.5s. That will not give you time enough to stop if needed.
I do agree with other drivers being idiots and not leaving enough room though, it's really annoying.
I have actually never heard of the 3 second rule, just 2 as I was taught in the Netherlands. and believe me, driving rules in the Netherlands are rigourous.
In practice it depends where you drive. 3 second rule in the Netherlands might work. In Canada maybe, in Mexico definitely not (there they have the .1 seconds rule and a LOT of head tail collisions)