Just ONE car can reduce traffic jams. Try it: leave enough buffer such that when the car in front of you stops, you almost reach their bumper at like 5 MPH but never stop b/c it’s time for them to move again. The guy behind you may never actually stop too.
So you had all these stoppers in front of you, and several cars not stopping behind you.
Enough people do this, and there’s no more stop & go. Just cruise 5mph the whole time (not 10, 0, 10, 0, 10, 0, which sucks).
This is how I operate in most traffic jams, since I only own manual cars & it’s much easier on my leg.
I genuinely don’t even remember any specific scenarios where somebody merging in caused me to have to come to a full stop (where I wouldn’t have had to stop if they didn’t merge). Not saying it never happened, but it was so rare and unnotable that I don’t remember.
I do live in the northeast US, so maybe that has something to do with it, but I don’t usually feel like I spend meaningfully more time in traffic because I let a few people in front of me.
Bonus benefit: my life is measurably better since I stopped getting pissed about people being in front of me. Road rage had such a broad impact on me, even after I got out of the car.
stopped getting pissed about people being in front of me
The world would instantly be a better place if all the mouth-breathers in it could figure this out simultaneously. Wow, you’re pissed off at someone being “in front” of you. That’s because there’s totally an Earth-shakingly significant difference between having 9,784,326 cars in front of you vs. 9,784,325.
Honest answer involves deep breaths (at least as one first adopts the method), chuckling at one’s favorite podcast, and recreating the buffer.
On certain roads, monkey see monkey do and eventually folks behind you kinda copy you and there’s a chance fewer and fewer folks will be cutting you off. Notice this most on the longest trips. Perhaps they’re not copying you, btw, rather the most aggressive drivers continually pass you until a small cohort of Big Spacers remain behind you. If some of these Space-Not-Racers are in front and around you too, aggressive drivers passing are passing without cutting you off as much - they have enough space to jam themselves into the bumper of the car in front of you.
Kinda funny going around a curve and seeing a hundred cars bumper to bumper ahead, then checking mirrors to see safe following distances :) (oh yeah this style is safer too not just more efficient!)
Can require some SERIOUS brain hacking. How mad would we be if someone cut in front of us at the grocery store? We’d go butts2nuts in a blink. Gotta just, like, flowww mannnn
I leave a gap between me and the driver in front of me. Rarely does anyone pull into that space. They usually are in the lane that gets them where they need to go
sounds like you’re no worse off, and now you’ve given things a chance to improve. Keep doing that and you still won’t ever be worse off and eventually maybe that chance actually works and things get better.
If I leave any kind of gap between me and the car in front, it is an inevitability that some jackass will swoop in to cut me off. Happened 7 or 8 times just yesterday. Texas drivers are a menace
That’s what it’s for, for people to use. Let them, create new buffer. Let somebody else, create new buffer. There is exactly zero wrong with any of this.
Yeah when I do that then every time there’s a gap another person comes to cut me off, so it ends up with me pretty much at a dead stop while people go in front of me over and over. People underestimate just how many asshole drivers there are around here lol
And burning money in gas as you sit there all day going nowhere and shutting down your entire lane. That’s like saying you should congratulate yourself for throwing yourself in a puddle and letting people walk on you.
If you ever wanna spend seven minutes (no gas needed) on YouTube, I’d be very curious to know of any timecodes where you think this driver/philosopher has shortcomings:
I’m not arguing the philosophy. It’s a wonderful idea. As someone who regularly drives a stick shift I very much wish that it would work. But like many wonderful ideas it doesn’t survive contact with actual humans. In any large city if there is a car length open in front of your vehicle then someone will be zipping into it. I’ve had people do that while we’re traveling at 65mph let alone in slow moving traffic. If you keep sitting there and letting people go in front of you until there is room then you will not move and you will probably get shot by one of the people stuck behind you. It’s like if you were at the grocery store durring a busy time and you kept telling people to go in front of you then you wouldn’t be able to check out until everyone was gone.
Somehow that driver managed to exit! Not suggesting one stops…
This is something I do and I’ve made it out of California and back - perhaps I’m leaving less space than it sounds? 6 figures of miles and it’s worked on the West Coast! The other commenters who have chimed in, at least half, seem to be able to pull it off as well.
I’d linked to the video because I do see your point. There must be a disconnect if this is a filmable, anecdotally reproducible practice. (…uh-oh, that’s how a homeopathic astrology witch would defend their Ouija board! 😬😉)
I concur. I used to be able to leave a huge gap and nobody would care. I drove a manual and didn’t want the hassle of stopping. But, I tried this recently, and I ended up making the fast lane the slow lane and I had the guy behind me honking and yelling out his window to stop letting everyone in.
Piss off the wrong guy in Texas and see where that gets you. I was lucky all he did was honk and yell.
I learned this technique – we called it “cutting off the head of the snake”.
Traffic moves like water, and becoming fluid and just rolling sometimes can kill traffic completely, I was on a stretch of bright red (5-10 mph) that began moving at 55 MPH after patiently rolling – there was no actual reason for the traffic jam.
Driving stick, I would do this all the time. In fact, I’d do it in the left lane, which I would never do, but for the fact all of the lanes are just constant stop and go. I’d leave massive buffers, 20-30 cars, and just cruise 5-10mph, and never stop. I just don’t understand why anyone wants to use their brakes at all, I hate using my brakes. I’d rather just coast in perpetuity than feel inertia in any direction.
From above the whole thing looks like an accordion. Drivers who tailgate tend to overreact when they see brake lights 50 feet in front of them, compound this by the guy tailgating them and so on. Leave a buffer to absorb this and it smooths out
people who insist on going full speed and then SLAMMING their brakes drive me to drink, and this applies to literally all modes of transport.
If you’re walking through a grocery store and are about to round a corner, fucking slow down so you have time to see anyone else coming your way, then you can speed up again when you know the coast is clear.
If you’re driving a car and coming up to a red light, or even worse a pedestrian on a crossing, FUCKING SLOW DOWN and just coast slowly, it’s not worth the off chance that you get to blast through at full speed, not for you or anyone else.
When I do this, I hear horns behind me, telling me to stick it into the car in the front, which is clearly stopped on a red light counting down from 20s.
Just ONE car can reduce traffic jams. Try it: leave enough buffer such that when the car in front of you stops, you almost reach their bumper at like 5 MPH but never stop b/c it’s time for them to move again. The guy behind you may never actually stop too.
So you had all these stoppers in front of you, and several cars not stopping behind you.
Enough people do this, and there’s no more stop & go. Just cruise 5mph the whole time (not 10, 0, 10, 0, 10, 0, which sucks).
Tried it. Now I’m stopped bumper to bumper with the guy who cut me off to cram his truck into the buffer I left. What’s the next step?
Not sure what the problem is. Keep doing it.
This is how I operate in most traffic jams, since I only own manual cars & it’s much easier on my leg.
I genuinely don’t even remember any specific scenarios where somebody merging in caused me to have to come to a full stop (where I wouldn’t have had to stop if they didn’t merge). Not saying it never happened, but it was so rare and unnotable that I don’t remember.
I do live in the northeast US, so maybe that has something to do with it, but I don’t usually feel like I spend meaningfully more time in traffic because I let a few people in front of me.
Bonus benefit: my life is measurably better since I stopped getting pissed about people being in front of me. Road rage had such a broad impact on me, even after I got out of the car.
The world would instantly be a better place if all the mouth-breathers in it could figure this out simultaneously. Wow, you’re pissed off at someone being “in front” of you. That’s because there’s totally an Earth-shakingly significant difference between having 9,784,326 cars in front of you vs. 9,784,325.
For you & @[email protected]:
🏅
Appreciate the affirmation. I’ve long theorized and experimented, glad to have real hoomans give nods.
Honest answer involves deep breaths (at least as one first adopts the method), chuckling at one’s favorite podcast, and recreating the buffer.
On certain roads, monkey see monkey do and eventually folks behind you kinda copy you and there’s a chance fewer and fewer folks will be cutting you off. Notice this most on the longest trips. Perhaps they’re not copying you, btw, rather the most aggressive drivers continually pass you until a small cohort of Big Spacers remain behind you. If some of these Space-Not-Racers are in front and around you too, aggressive drivers passing are passing without cutting you off as much - they have enough space to jam themselves into the bumper of the car in front of you.
Kinda funny going around a curve and seeing a hundred cars bumper to bumper ahead, then checking mirrors to see safe following distances :) (oh yeah this style is safer too not just more efficient!)
Can require some SERIOUS brain hacking. How mad would we be if someone cut in front of us at the grocery store? We’d go butts2nuts in a blink. Gotta just, like, flowww mannnn
I leave a gap between me and the driver in front of me. Rarely does anyone pull into that space. They usually are in the lane that gets them where they need to go
sounds like you’re no worse off, and now you’ve given things a chance to improve. Keep doing that and you still won’t ever be worse off and eventually maybe that chance actually works and things get better.
If I leave any kind of gap between me and the car in front, it is an inevitability that some jackass will swoop in to cut me off. Happened 7 or 8 times just yesterday. Texas drivers are a menace
That’s what it’s for, for people to use. Let them, create new buffer. Let somebody else, create new buffer. There is exactly zero wrong with any of this.
Yeah when I do that then every time there’s a gap another person comes to cut me off, so it ends up with me pretty much at a dead stop while people go in front of me over and over. People underestimate just how many asshole drivers there are around here lol
It’s okayy, we do the best we can. Congratulate yourself on each person who merges in - you’re the change (instead of “the anti-socials are winning”).
Hopefully saving some $ on brakes & calipers too!
And burning money in gas as you sit there all day going nowhere and shutting down your entire lane. That’s like saying you should congratulate yourself for throwing yourself in a puddle and letting people walk on you.
If you ever wanna spend seven minutes (no gas needed) on YouTube, I’d be very curious to know of any timecodes where you think this driver/philosopher has shortcomings:
Traffic Waves from 16yr ago
I’m not arguing the philosophy. It’s a wonderful idea. As someone who regularly drives a stick shift I very much wish that it would work. But like many wonderful ideas it doesn’t survive contact with actual humans. In any large city if there is a car length open in front of your vehicle then someone will be zipping into it. I’ve had people do that while we’re traveling at 65mph let alone in slow moving traffic. If you keep sitting there and letting people go in front of you until there is room then you will not move and you will probably get shot by one of the people stuck behind you. It’s like if you were at the grocery store durring a busy time and you kept telling people to go in front of you then you wouldn’t be able to check out until everyone was gone.
Somehow that driver managed to exit! Not suggesting one stops…
This is something I do and I’ve made it out of California and back - perhaps I’m leaving less space than it sounds? 6 figures of miles and it’s worked on the West Coast! The other commenters who have chimed in, at least half, seem to be able to pull it off as well.
I’d linked to the video because I do see your point. There must be a disconnect if this is a filmable, anecdotally reproducible practice. (…uh-oh, that’s how a homeopathic astrology witch would defend their Ouija board! 😬😉)
The weavers will go as easy as they came
I concur. I used to be able to leave a huge gap and nobody would care. I drove a manual and didn’t want the hassle of stopping. But, I tried this recently, and I ended up making the fast lane the slow lane and I had the guy behind me honking and yelling out his window to stop letting everyone in.
Piss off the wrong guy in Texas and see where that gets you. I was lucky all he did was honk and yell.
This happens to me too, often. But even so, there are some moments where they don’t
Just one train can reduce traffic jams much more, imagine a bunch if them in different sizes, speeds and even underground some of them.
I learned this technique – we called it “cutting off the head of the snake”.
Traffic moves like water, and becoming fluid and just rolling sometimes can kill traffic completely, I was on a stretch of bright red (5-10 mph) that began moving at 55 MPH after patiently rolling – there was no actual reason for the traffic jam.
Driving stick, I would do this all the time. In fact, I’d do it in the left lane, which I would never do, but for the fact all of the lanes are just constant stop and go. I’d leave massive buffers, 20-30 cars, and just cruise 5-10mph, and never stop. I just don’t understand why anyone wants to use their brakes at all, I hate using my brakes. I’d rather just coast in perpetuity than feel inertia in any direction.
From above the whole thing looks like an accordion. Drivers who tailgate tend to overreact when they see brake lights 50 feet in front of them, compound this by the guy tailgating them and so on. Leave a buffer to absorb this and it smooths out
https://youtu.be/ozG3EfPkXoY?si=iqdVjV92LvNz-cXC
Great video but it doesn’t show the accordion effect. This one shows it though it’s far less entertaining https://youtu.be/6ZC9h8jgSj4?si=ODxg0a_tkPXu9mR5
Thanks, had not seen it so clearly.
All it takes is one guy behind you checking his phone, getting distracted so he gets cut up to create another stop start system about 5 cars back.
You’re vision of the traffic jam is a fragment of the entire pie.
Will ask the same of you as here :)
people who insist on going full speed and then SLAMMING their brakes drive me to drink, and this applies to literally all modes of transport.
If you’re walking through a grocery store and are about to round a corner, fucking slow down so you have time to see anyone else coming your way, then you can speed up again when you know the coast is clear.
If you’re driving a car and coming up to a red light, or even worse a pedestrian on a crossing, FUCKING SLOW DOWN and just coast slowly, it’s not worth the off chance that you get to blast through at full speed, not for you or anyone else.
When I do this, I hear horns behind me, telling me to stick it into the car in the front, which is clearly stopped on a red light counting down from 20s.