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The question is too vague to give a good brief answer. Narrowing it down, I believe that it is possible for a good driver to reduce the stop-go element of heavy

The question is too vague to give a good brief answer. Narrowing it down, I believe that it is possible for a good driver to reduce the stop-go element of heavy traffic by following the car in front at a judicious (more than average) distance and then braking more slowly than the car in front as the traffic in front is reducing speed. When the traffic in front starts to accelerate again the driver then accelerates more slowly until a sufficient distance is achieved between him and the car in front such that the slower braking technique can be used again as necessary. I know from personal experience that it is possible to reduce the stop-start nature of the traffic in this way.

quxbar 11y ago
As you turn the dial of driver response time, you're basically changing the congestion function of the road. Tim Roughgarden has a fantastic book that's very satisfyingly deep, but succinct. https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/selfish-routing-and-price-anarchy https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/selfish-routing-and-price-ana...
yareally 11y ago
The other variable to consider is those that decide they'll reach their destination faster by cutting one car in front of you when you are keeping some distance. I see this happen a lot in traffic and sometimes results in nearly having an accident.
kbenson 11y ago
As someone who tries to do this whenever possible, it can be largely for naught if cars in the bordering lanes see the gap you've allowed in front and move into it. :/
- firebones 11y ago
  If you expand the "leave a gap of 2 seconds" rule to instead follow the car in front of you by 3 seconds, then someone cutting in should only require you to add 1.5 seconds of distance to the new, smaller gap. And since the car cutting in will often tailgate the car in front of you, it's often really around 750ms you'd have to bleed off, which shouldn't require much speed change.
  - kbenson 11y ago
    We're not really talking about that, we're talking about stop-and-go traffic, and smoothing out the stop-and-go portion through the use of an expanding and shrinking buffer in front. It will by necessity be larger and smaller at different times. Additionally, when the gap is lessening because the car in front it stopped or at the slowest speed of the variable speed traffic, another vehicle inserting itself into this buffer can make you slow rapidly, thus negating the point of leaving a buffer to smooth out the variable traffic speed.
- mirimir 11y ago
  Sometimes I also cut off such interlopers. I can accelerate quite rapidly in first. After a while, surrounding drivers learn to respect that space in front of me.
chm 11y ago
I used to commute by car for about 40 minutes to an hour each way. I got pretty good at avoiding "stop and go" without leaving too much space between my car and the one before me. Some useful practices I developed: Don't look at the car directly in front of you. Stare through its windshield if possible to get an idea of what the car second in line is doing. If you can't see through the windshield, try looking at its shadow. And if you don't see a shadow, look under the car right in front of you: you should be able to see the first car's lights illuminate the pavement and guess what it's doing. When it's raining, that is especially easy since the pavement is much more reflective. Also set your mirrors in such a way that creates a "single" mirror. Where the proximal end of your left mirror ends, the proximal (left) end of your cabin mirror begins. Where the distal (right) end of your cabin mirror ends, the proximal end of your right exterior mirror begins. This eliminates the need to look behind you every time you want to switch lanes. It doesn't eliminate your blind spot, merely moves it, but that's only a problem if someone is making a 2-lane change. That's usually pretty rare in heavy traffic. Of course, all of these tricks don't work when others drive too erratically. If you don't gauge the distance between you and the vehicle right before you, others will 100% jump at the chance to cut you.
- mirimir 11y ago
  > Don't look at the car directly in front of you. Stare through its windshield if possible to get an idea of what the car second in line is doing. Yes! Also, when it's darker, you look for brake lights way ahead. That's also a marker for speed traps.

quxbar 11y ago

As you turn the dial of driver response time, you're basically changing the congestion function of the road. Tim Roughgarden has a fantastic book that's very satisfyingly deep, but succinct. https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/selfish-routing-and-price-anarchy https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/selfish-routing-and-price-ana...

yareally 11y ago

The other variable to consider is those that decide they'll reach their destination faster by cutting one car in front of you when you are keeping some distance. I see this happen a lot in traffic and sometimes results in nearly having an accident.

kbenson 11y ago

As someone who tries to do this whenever possible, it can be largely for naught if cars in the bordering lanes see the gap you've allowed in front and move into it. :/

firebones 11y ago
If you expand the "leave a gap of 2 seconds" rule to instead follow the car in front of you by 3 seconds, then someone cutting in should only require you to add 1.5 seconds of distance to the new, smaller gap. And since the car cutting in will often tailgate the car in front of you, it's often really around 750ms you'd have to bleed off, which shouldn't require much speed change.
- kbenson 11y ago
  We're not really talking about that, we're talking about stop-and-go traffic, and smoothing out the stop-and-go portion through the use of an expanding and shrinking buffer in front. It will by necessity be larger and smaller at different times. Additionally, when the gap is lessening because the car in front it stopped or at the slowest speed of the variable speed traffic, another vehicle inserting itself into this buffer can make you slow rapidly, thus negating the point of leaving a buffer to smooth out the variable traffic speed.
mirimir 11y ago
Sometimes I also cut off such interlopers. I can accelerate quite rapidly in first. After a while, surrounding drivers learn to respect that space in front of me.

chm 11y ago

I used to commute by car for about 40 minutes to an hour each way. I got pretty good at avoiding "stop and go" without leaving too much space between my car and the one before me. Some useful practices I developed: Don't look at the car directly in front of you. Stare through its windshield if possible to get an idea of what the car second in line is doing. If you can't see through the windshield, try looking at its shadow. And if you don't see a shadow, look under the car right in front of you: you should be able to see the first car's lights illuminate the pavement and guess what it's doing. When it's raining, that is especially easy since the pavement is much more reflective. Also set your mirrors in such a way that creates a "single" mirror. Where the proximal end of your left mirror ends, the proximal (left) end of your cabin mirror begins. Where the distal (right) end of your cabin mirror ends, the proximal end of your right exterior mirror begins. This eliminates the need to look behind you every time you want to switch lanes. It doesn't eliminate your blind spot, merely moves it, but that's only a problem if someone is making a 2-lane change. That's usually pretty rare in heavy traffic. Of course, all of these tricks don't work when others drive too erratically. If you don't gauge the distance between you and the vehicle right before you, others will 100% jump at the chance to cut you.

mirimir 11y ago
> Don't look at the car directly in front of you. Stare through its windshield if possible to get an idea of what the car second in line is doing. Yes! Also, when it's darker, you look for brake lights way ahead. That's also a marker for speed traps.