There’s nothing like data to clear the air. Thanks for bringing us the research.
The only problem with this theory is that in many driving environments there simply isn’t another place to steer TO!!
It simply allows he driver to be terrified when he/she hits his/her brakes and the car keeps rolling… right into someone else’s rear end.
I’m an advocate of having ABS as an option for those who like it. I’m not an advocate of having it mandatory for those of us who don’t want it.
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…and that was the exact issue I was faced with. What I needed at that time was the shortest stopping distance possible on dry level pavement, and I believe ABS took that away. I was in the left lane of a divided four lane highway (two lanes in each direction) with no shoulder on the left. There were cars on my right and too little space on the left between the car in front of me and the guard rail for the minivan to fit on the median.
Not to nitpick, but what @Mustangman provided was more than mere data. Data are statistics without context, which are pretty meaningless until the data are analyzed and described.
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The ABS worked better in this situation than locking the wheels. You were just too close to the other car. Maximum braking is achieved at the threshold of locking the wheels. Good luck doing that in a panic stop.
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When did I ever mention locking the wheels??? I know I get the most stopping traction before the point where the wheels lock, and the ABS activated before that point.
Please don’t treat me like I’m ignorant.
…and you have no way of knowing whether I could have stopped the vehicle in less distance without ABS. I admit my belief that I could have stopped in shorter distance without ABS is not proven, but I have far more information to go on in this scenario than you do.
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Whitey feels he might have been better off without ABS. I am not going to argue with him because he could be right. He was in a no win situation to start with. No one injured and that is good. I do feel that most of the driving public benefits from ABS. I myself have been able to modulate the brakes on a non ABS vehicle panic stop and also have experienced the push the pedal harder and grip the steering wheel harder as if that was going to help feeling.
Lets say ABS is better 90% of the time. That leaves a lot of cases where it’s not better. We’re still better off overall with it, but I don’t doubt there are some cases where it doesn’t work as well.
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I hate to disagree with you, but the fact you hit the other car shows you didn’t have plenty of distance between you and the other car. The minimum safe distance on dry straight roads paved road is 3 seconds between cars when passing a fixed object (ie the 3 seconds rule), if the road is icy, wet, curvy, or there is an overall reduction in the amount of visibility, the general consensus is to increase the following distance to 6-seconds rather than three.
Personally I shoot for 4-5 seconds on good road and if the roads are bad, 8 - 10.
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The only thing I would caution to anyone who wants to deactivate the abs is the following. Abs works to keep a car on line even going around corners and braking at the same time. There are many people who were saved by abs without even knowing it, even in dry pavement while braking and cornering. I am sure your tires were good but not being the regular driver of this car, they may have been deficient. Tires as you know have more effect on braking then any other single factor, abs not withstanding.
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Just another 2cents worth…if you had never had to emergency stop in this car before, maybe it was the best distance it could have achieved. That it’s an older car with possibly other braking defect factors, IMO, it’s too difficult to make an assumption that disabling the abs on this particular car would have shortened the distance.
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If the accident in the OP had happened to me, I wouldn’t have even thought about whether or not I should have ABS. I would have focused from that point on leaving a safe distance between my car and the one in front of me.
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This kind of comment makes me wonder if you thoroughly read my original post, because I acknowledged my complicity from the start. Talk about beating a dead horse.
You asked what people thought of your idea. I replied. If you only wanted people to agree with your idea to disconnect a safety feature, you should have stipulated that.
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I invite disagreement, and I was pointing out I’ve agreed to your one and only point since the start of this discussion. I pointed that out because it appeared you missed it in my original post.
If you want to re-litigate a point I already made, as though I had never made the point, that’s fine. I’ll file your point in the Department of Redundancy Department. 
Oh, and I asked for opinions about deactivating the ABS, which was settled in the first few responses, but it’s a free country. You don’t have to read the posts to which you’re responding.
Until now, I had only responded to your opening post. It looks like your goal now is to have the last word. I hope you succeed at that and find a car with an ABS on/off switch that gives you happiness and confidence that you will never again crash into the car in front of you.
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I chose to follow the wise advice given to me on that question. If you’d read the responses, you’d know I no longer desire an on/off switch for the ABS.
Fortunately, I don’t mind rehashing these points to spare you the struggle of reading the posts above.