[manquer]

It is not about efficiency or trying not to be slow. I am not bothered how many people cut in line or "cheat".[1]

Someone will always keep cutting into the space. It is impossible to maintain 3 second to the car ahead. First one car will cut in, you make room for them and add 3 second gap the next car will cut in. Maintaining even a 1 second gap is sometimes very hard close to exits.

[1] Personally my driving pattern changed once I switched to driving a hydrogen fuel cell Mirai, slower is better on the mileage and fuel cell owners are very range conscious.

[orpheansodality]

it's anecdata but I drive this this on the regular and don't have any issues! May be some regional differences

[Shocka1]

In the Midwest here and drive the same way, from rural to busy city and back. Never had any issues at all with it minus the car or five I let in front of me. I usually keep about 5 car lengths, so a fairly reasonable gap without being annoying to drivers that happen to be behind me. Also, I have zero panic braking incidents, which seem to be a big cause of crashes and slowdowns in heavy traffic due to the slinky phenomenon that tends to happen.

Not only can I see everything beyond the car in front of me, I tend to "soak" up the braking energy when there is a panic braking incident in front of me. I have no data to back this up, but I'm almost positive I've kept traffic moving much better behind me and prevented rear ending incidents using this tactic. Also, I wouldn't downplay the amount of fuel that is being saved that comes with not having to almost stop, then start over again from the slinky effect.