How Do You Check Your Following Distance in Texas?

Choose something fixed near the road, like a sign or a pole. When the vehicle ahead passes it, start counting: one thousand one, one thousand two. If the front of your car reaches the same spot in less than two seconds, the Texas handbook says you are following too closely.

Two seconds is the floor, and only at 30 mph or less in good conditions. Above 30 mph the handbook asks for four seconds. On wet, crowded or dark roads, leave even more. It also calls a four-second interval the best practice for a beginning driver.

The reason is reaction time. The handbook says the average driver takes about a second and a half to think, react and hit the brakes, and at 60 mph a car needs roughly 303 feet to stop on dry pavement.

Source: Texas Driver Handbook (DL-7, January 2026), page 45.