Tailgating doesn't help

I'd read before that tailgating slows traffic - people use their brakes more, and that leads to people further back seeing brake lights and braking themselves.

But the idea of a cruise-control system looking backwards really hadn't occurred to me before. Thanks for that.

 

I'll see that article, and raise you a video .

When I was working, it often occurred to me, that I never understood a project completely, until it was wrapping up. Similarly here: maybe we'll figure this out, just around the time self-driving cars take over.

 

A couple of years ago, we took Amtrak for the first time () and I notice that the train would slow for what seemed no apparent reason (between cities, good weather, etc.,). The conductor told me we were being paced to avoid other rail traffic thus minimizing stop/go. We did have to stop once later on the trip but I didn't mind as we had a stationary breakfast view of Mount Hood!

 

Truckers have known this for a long time. I have read an article a long time ago written by a trucker about this very technique and started practicing it. Living in and around Boston, then Washington D.C. for some years I have developed very aggressive driving style, but once I started practicing these jam busting techniques some years ago I began feeling so much calmer on the road, just like the narrator. As well, I have noticed that more and more folks have become wise to this technique and sometimes I see more than just my lane having a "big hole". Most of the drivers still get impatient and go around me at first opportunity, but as soon as the jam is cleared I find them in my rear view mirror as I like to go fast if conditions allow and most of the impatient drivers aren't all that brave, only impatient. I also make it a habit to look well ahead of me and maintain both short term status of traffic and longer term (of I can see that far ahead). If I see brake light in the long term field I will begin to create a hole ahead of me in preparation. It really does work and everyone should try it and practice it. I think it's true that many traffic jams would simply not exist if this were the case.

 

Brilliant video! Should be mandatory for all driving-tests (…at least as part of the class-work!) Thanks for sharing!

 

from 2008 but I remember discussing it even earlier here:

Urban Traffic Jam Simulation Based on the Cell Transmission Model | SpringerLink

 

What I need is a Chinese study on how beeping your horn gets rid of the traffic jam in front of you. It is clearly something a lot of people in China know, and yet it is unfamiliar to me.

 

I recall the earlier study was from Japan. Hope somebody else's memory goes back as far as our days with Hobbit here.

 

these things are not about speeding up traffic, they are about road rage.

co author has an interesting surname, goes well with tailgating.

 

I occasionally see another driver doing this. It's refreshing. I imagine that there must be close to five of them now in the Tampa Bay area who have discovered the obvious.

In the advanced motorcycle safety class, they teach you to scan about 12 seconds ahead as well as closer (3 seconds, iirc). Doing this while driving as car helps you to see the slowdown up ahead and back off before you have to jam on the brakes. Irritates the heck out of the guy behind you when he doesn't get the chance to panic stop and then idle his gas engine for a while. They like doing that, you know.

 

I've been a motorcycle rider for almost 30 years now. Took the advanced course, too. Maybe that's why it's natural to me...

 

Twas on a long bicycle tour that I learned to look at driver's heads in 'threat vehicles'. Only on long descents do we look way out there.

 

In recent stateside trip, I actually wondered why cars were not honking at each other.

 

Back when I lived in China, I once had a taxi driver who I thought had a terrible nervous twitch whenever he was about to change direction.

Turns out he was checking his mirrors before manoeuvring. I just hadn't seen anyone do it in China before, so it took me a long time to work out what he was doing.

 

LOL!! That reminds me of the old story about a the guy visiting New York for the first time. His taxi driver kept running red lights. When he asked about it, the driver said his brother had been driving taxi in NY for 30 years and never stopped at red lights. About then, the driver stopped at a green light. The visitor asked why he stopped at a green light. The driver said, "Are you nuts?! My brother could have been coming."

 

Jalopnik just had an article that recommended giving the "thumbs down" instead of the "middle finger up" when another driver does something stupid/annoying. I'm gonna give it a try next time...

 

when i was a lad, a friend's father from cuba used to beep at every car that came near us. i assumed it was their culture, but not sure.

 

AND......if DRIVERS would try to do the same thing, matters would be a lot better too.
A steady flow works better that gassing it at every chance and then standing on the brakes.

But that ain't gonna happen. Too much stupidity.

 

This should be part of Drivers' Ed.
SCIENCE HOBBYIST: Traffic Waves, physics for bored commuters