> Mark,
>
> I don't mean to jump all over you here, but your comments on the
> function of ABS _miss_ the point which is that brakes are supposed to
> stop the forward motion of the vehicle.
>
> You wrote:
>
> > The point of ABS is not to stop faster rather it is to keep the car
> > from going out of control during panic stops.
- -snip- -
>
> The purpose of any braking system is to stop the car, and we usually
> need it to stop in as short a distance as possible. I was traveling
> down a slight decline on a road glazed with black ice with a light rain
> falling. I had lots of space between me and the stopped vehicle ahead.
> I was going 35 mph and following at a distance of 1000 or 1500 feet. I
> came around a bend and there was the stopped vehicle way up ahead. If
> I'd had any choice, I wouldn't have been out on the roads at all, but I
> had to get home from work. There are many times when I'd have to admit
> that I was following too closely or going too fast for conditions, but
> this wasn't one of them. The simple fact of the matter is that a
> high-tech system purposely permitted the wheels to continue to rotate in
> spite of the fact that I was pushing on the brake pedal thereby taking
> me out of the equation and effectively putting the car out of the
> driver's control. This, in my opinion, is not what a braking system
> should do.
>
> Glen
You were going 35MPH on BLACK ICE and you blame ABS for your
accident?? I live in southern New England and we have our share of
black ice, ice storms and snow. When you are on ice or black ice all
the brakes in the world aren't going to stop you. Had you not had ABS I
suppose that you would have locked up your wheels and slid into the
stopped vehicle.
- -Mark
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