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> The more accustomed you are to the road, the more difficult it is for you to imagine disaster. And so it is with LaBar. His eyes stop scanning, his attention

> The more accustomed you are to the road, the more difficult it is for you to imagine disaster. And so it is with LaBar. His eyes stop scanning, his attention withdraws, his response time drops from around 450 milliseconds to about 1,300. I noticed this in my own driving a year or two ago and I've since trained myself to become more alert as I get to intersections near my home. It's really amazing how alert I get. Unfortunately this training makes it difficult to fall asleep quickly after driving home. :) >You're About to Rear-End the Car in Front of You >The instinct: Brake hard >The right response: Brake even harder This is very dangerous if your brakes aren't in good condition. I did this last week with the SUV I normally drive. I applied the brake at full force to stop at a light.* I slammed on my brakes and on a flat, dry road surface my vehicle skipped 1/4 of the way into the intersect. I should have stopped before it. Now I had known my brakes were acting a little weird but my dad replaced them today and I found out about 50% of the rotor surface was gone in large patches. Had I known just how bad my brakes were (I don't know anything about cars) I would have had them fixed sooner. * I was driving the speed limit, not five over. I wasn't distracted. I did see the light change to yellow and started braking. Then the light quickly turned red. The light was way too fast for the intersection. (It's an odd intersect, there are two lights in a row and the traffic is usually heavy enough that you can't get up to 35mph to the second light during that time of day but I had a clear lane through the first intersection)

ars 16y ago
Brake full force anyway. There is no way that braking full force will cause it to take longer to slow down unless your tires skid. What does "skipped 1/4 of the way" mean? What does "50% of the rotor surface was gone in large patches" mean? Have you ever seen a brake rotor? Are you implying you had big holes in your rotor? The rotor does not have a special surface, it's just bare metal. The only way the surface could be gone is if you have a hole in it.
- wooster 16y ago
  By skipped 1/4 of the way, I take it to mean he skidded 1/4 of the way across the intersection (or, alternatively, 1/4 of his car was in the intersection). If your pads are worn through you can wear grooves into your rotor surface. Grooves in your rotors reduce braking friction and are very bad.
  - ars 16y ago
    Grooves are very bad. But they don't reduce friction. It's happened to me, they make the most horrible grinding noise, but they stop the car quite well. Too well.
    - epochwolf 16y ago
      There wasn't any grooves. My brake pads are still good. Only the rotors were bad.
- epochwolf 16y ago
  >There is no way that braking full force will cause it to take longer to slow down unless your tires skid. That's exactly what happened. Because of the way the rotors were worn my brakes would only catch on every few inches of rotor surface which would cause the tires to hop across the road. It was like braking on patchy ice. >What does "skipped 1/4 of the way" mean? I was 1/4 of the way into the intersection by the time I stopped. >What does "50% of the rotor surface was gone in large patches" mean? Have you ever seen a brake rotor? Are you implying you had big holes in your rotor? The rotor does not have a special surface, it's just bare metal. The only way the surface could be gone is if you have a hole in it. I don't know much about cars so I don't know how to describe it in the correct terms. I saw the rotors, on both of them 50% of the surface was smooth and gray and 50% of it was pitted and black. The pitted sections were lower than the smooth sections so I don't think the brake pads would actually grab on them.

ars 16y ago

Brake full force anyway. There is no way that braking full force will cause it to take longer to slow down unless your tires skid. What does "skipped 1/4 of the way" mean? What does "50% of the rotor surface was gone in large patches" mean? Have you ever seen a brake rotor? Are you implying you had big holes in your rotor? The rotor does not have a special surface, it's just bare metal. The only way the surface could be gone is if you have a hole in it.

wooster 16y ago
By skipped 1/4 of the way, I take it to mean he skidded 1/4 of the way across the intersection (or, alternatively, 1/4 of his car was in the intersection). If your pads are worn through you can wear grooves into your rotor surface. Grooves in your rotors reduce braking friction and are very bad.
- ars 16y ago
  Grooves are very bad. But they don't reduce friction. It's happened to me, they make the most horrible grinding noise, but they stop the car quite well. Too well.
  - epochwolf 16y ago
    There wasn't any grooves. My brake pads are still good. Only the rotors were bad.
epochwolf 16y ago
>There is no way that braking full force will cause it to take longer to slow down unless your tires skid. That's exactly what happened. Because of the way the rotors were worn my brakes would only catch on every few inches of rotor surface which would cause the tires to hop across the road. It was like braking on patchy ice. >What does "skipped 1/4 of the way" mean? I was 1/4 of the way into the intersection by the time I stopped. >What does "50% of the rotor surface was gone in large patches" mean? Have you ever seen a brake rotor? Are you implying you had big holes in your rotor? The rotor does not have a special surface, it's just bare metal. The only way the surface could be gone is if you have a hole in it. I don't know much about cars so I don't know how to describe it in the correct terms. I saw the rotors, on both of them 50% of the surface was smooth and gray and 50% of it was pitted and black. The pitted sections were lower than the smooth sections so I don't think the brake pads would actually grab on them.