Timing Method for Assessing Speed and Distance of Vehicles (TMASD)
Now called "Determining Gaps in Approaching Traffic"
The term "Timing Method for Assessing Speed and Distance of Vehicles" (TMASD) has been used since 1995.
It was the name of a procedure to assess people's ability to determine whether approaching vehicles are far and/or slow enough to allow them time to cross (a "crossable gap" in traffic).
The reason it was called Timing Method for Assessing Speed and Distance of Vehicles is fairly obvious -- you start a stopwatch when you think there is enough time for you to cross, and you find out if you were correct by timing how long it takes for those vehicles to reach you (their time-to-arrival which, of course, depends on their speed and distance).
It was originally called "Timing Method for Unlimited Detection" because it is intended for situations where you can detect (see or hear) the vehicles at a great distance.
Throughout the years, people confused this timing method with the Timing Method for Assessing the Detection of Vehicles (TMAD).
In 2011 someone suggested avoiding this confusion by changing the name of TMASD.
I thought this was a brilliant solution to a long-standing problem!
So, what should we call it?
The TMASD is not really assessing the vehicles' speed (how many miles per hour they are going) or their distance (how many feet away they are),
it is meant to measure the time-to-arrival of the vehicles to provide feedback to students who are learning to determine if the gap in approaching traffic is long enough to cross.
I therefore decided to call it practice "Determining Gaps in Approaching Traffic."
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