In a traffic jam, wouldn't the alternative to leaving plenty of space be constantly starting and stopping? That seems pretty like a lot of work for the driver in a big rig.
ding ding ding ding! We have a winner. The just leave it in the fastest gear that is slow enough to not hit the car in front of them. For the extra 5min it costs it's a lot easier than pushing a bazillion pound clutch twice per cycle.
Yep! I've only ever driven manual transmission cars, and my dad taught me that early on. "Just leave it in first and idle along." Even in a very driver-friendly manual car, stop and go traffic can be brutal.
I cannot speak for others, but, at least to me, this reads as extremely condescending: it makes it sound like other commenters are basically picking arguments at random and you are the only one to know the truth.