And yet, many believe that the best way to reduce traffic jams is to accelerate as slowly as possible, brake as softly as possible, and leave as large of a gap

And yet, many believe that the best way to reduce traffic jams is to accelerate as slowly as possible, brake as softly as possible, and leave as large of a gap in front of them as other drivers will allow. Normal drivers, unaware of the above, will generally also stop and go slowly in traffic jams. My personal pet peeve is when there is a reason for a slowdown (emergency vehicle, crash, etc) and drivers slow down further to look at it, unaware that they're are then currently causing the jam they just waited in.