> And, for sure, sometimes the lane next to you is actually moving faster. But the point is that these cases are happening far less often than you think, and th

> And, for sure, sometimes the lane next to you is actually moving faster. But the point is that these cases are happening far less often than you think, and they largely fall outside our powers of detection. Maybe I am falling into the illusion they speak of, but I am very suspicious of their claims, especially because of the quoted point above. I realize that anecdotes aren't data, but I makes me think of two things I've noticed... 1) I have a family member with anxiety problems who has trouble just getting into traffic. She hates changing lanes because she perceives it as extra stressful, so she just stays put, content to follow the car ahead of her. While she always eventually reaches her destination, there are times when I've beaten her to a location by 10 minutes or more, all because I'm willing to change lanes. 2) When I am in traffic, I look at the car ahead (of course) as well as the farthest cars I'm able to see without obstruction. When I see the lane 'breaking up' several cars ahead and my own lane staying still, I tend to change lanes to take advantage of the temporary speed advantage I'll have. I can't count the times this has worked very well. The main reason is that people tend to get lazy in bumper-to-bumper traffic, and when cars start flowing there is inevitably one who is looking at his phone or just slow to react. By timing it so that I can overtake these slow-goers, I tend to make quite a bit of progress. Maybe this study is focusing on people who only change lanes in response to the movement in their immediate vicinity and not up ahead? Either way, it seems like a shortsighted conclusion.