Right please have a read.

Last week I went on a speed awareness course.

Clarkson has indeed done the test and proved the stopping distances to be fairly accurate, much to my suprise. A driving instructor I know also takes great pleasure in telling me this.

The course I went on put it down to todays living, they say YES cars stop quicker no problem.
But in todays world we have too many things going on in our lives, we pay less attention to the road we have kids in the car, loud stereo's on ABS ete et etc... The list is endless.
They said your reaction time goes up and therefore overall stopping distance and then showed some videos and graphics and I am quite happy that its true.

Jim, if you try and stop from a set distance and you know its coming up you will stop quicker- esp if u have anything about you in the driving dept. THis is because you're expecting to have tobrake and are ready for it. However thats not what Highway code stopping distances are about. They are include thinking/reaction time.

Hope this helps

J