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

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.