[estiaan]

> Leaving space in fronto of you and trying to keep a constant speed also reduces this effect

I would like to see some sources on that claim. Or some reasoning.

The thing is I live in one of the cities with the longest commute distances and I’ve spent a lot of time in stop and go traffic thinking about this exact thing. I used to think as you do. I would focus on a truck in the traffic far ahead of me and try to use it to maintain a constant speed at the average of the highway speed. in my experience it creates this laggy elastic effect that probably doesn’t help.

Recently I heard that you should try to maintain an equal distance between the car in front of you and the one behind you, and I think this actually works better (obviously this is my anecdotal experience)

Of course safety comes first always

[rdtsc]

It starts to work when there are a few others doing it too. All of the sudden, it’s like magic, traffic is suddenly moving and there so no annoying stopping and going.

[RevMen]

There are for sure studies on this. I remember seeing one from Seattle specifically, but others as well.

Speeding up and slowing down causes an accordian effect that results in slower speeds for everyone. The time it takes to reduce speed or stop, then recover to a higher speed is higher than just cruising at a middle speed.

[neuralRiot]

I drive a manual and I never hurry in my commute, at rush hour or when there’s some accident on the highway people get crazy, they look like ants on a kicked nest, i just try to drive at a constant speed, and most of the time it takes me almost the same time, compared with a reference vehicle, to get out of that craziness without any stress.