Wet roads don't make your brain slower — your thinking distance stays the same. What changes is grip. Your tyres simply can't hold the road as well, so the braking part takes much longer.
The rule is wonderfully simple: in the wet, allow at least double your normal stopping distance. On ice, it can be ten times as far.
There's an easy way to manage this without doing maths at 60 mph: the time gap. In the dry, stay at least two seconds behind the car in front. In the rain, make it four.
The bits that matter
- Wet roads: at least double your stopping distance.
- Ice: up to ten times the normal distance.
- Two-second gap in the dry becomes four seconds in the rain.
Memory anchor
Double in the drizzle, ten on the ice
Say it like a rhyme: "Double in the drizzle, ten on the ice." Two situations, two numbers, one little phrase that sticks.
Out on the road
The motorway in a downpour
Pick a fixed point — a bridge or a sign. When the car ahead passes it, say "only a fool breaks the two-second rule" twice. If you reach the point before you finish, you're too close for the rain. Drop back and relax.
The mistake everyone makes
Braking hard when it's slippery
Instinct says stamp on the brakes. On a wet road, that's how skids start. The calm move is the opposite: brake earlier and more gently. Smooth inputs keep your tyres gripping.