Category: Accuracy
Topic: Lock to lock time
Answer: The lock to lock time refers to the average time (in seconds) that a reasonably skilled driver would take to turn the steering wheel from one side of its maximum steered position to the opposite side. This time is used as a proxy to approximate the rate at which drivers may negotiate turns either from a tangent or a curve to another curve of a different radius. Based on the field tests undertaken by Transoft Solutions, lock-to-lock times for low speeds (under 10 mph or 16 km/h) were observed to be an average 4.8 seconds for an able-body, experienced driver. AutoTURN uses a time of 6 seconds as default for turns up to 10 mph (16 km/h) to represent for a broader range of driver abilities.