Speed, distance, following and stopping
This domain tests whether you can derive a safe speed from the conditions and calculate stopping paths, not merely recite limits.
Limits and conditions
- 50 km/h inside built-up areas (measured from the Ortstafel), 100 km/h outside for motorcycles.
- Autobahn: Richtgeschwindigkeit 130 km/h - not a limit, but above it your contributory liability in a collision rises.
- Motorways and Kraftfahrstraßen are only for vehicles able to exceed 60 km/h.
- Visibility under 50 m from fog, snow or heavy rain: maximum 50 km/h, and only as fast as you can stop within the distance you can see.
The three distances
- Reaktionsweg = (v ÷ 10) × 3 metres, for a one-second reaction.
- Bremsweg = (v ÷ 10)² metres, normal braking on dry asphalt.
- Anhalteweg = Reaktionsweg + Bremsweg.
- Following distance outside built-up areas: at least half the speedometer reading in metres ("halber Tacho") - 50 m at 100 km/h. Two to three seconds is the safer working figure.
Worked example
100 km/h on a dry country road: reaction 10 × 3 = 30 m, braking 10² = 100 m, stopping path 130 m. On a wet road the braking path roughly doubles to 200 m, so 230 m. Emergency braking halves the braking path but never the reaction path. Doubling speed from 50 to 100 km/h takes the braking path from 25 m to 100 m - four times as long, not twice.
Traps that cost marks
- Quoting the halber Tacho figure as a target instead of an absolute minimum.
- Answering "Bramsweg" when the question asks for Anhalteweg.
- Forgetting the wet multiplier or the effect of a pillion and luggage.
- Treating 130 km/h as a legal limit that protects you.
- Reading the Ortstafel as the point where the limit ends.