[chausen]

It brings me peace to see other people thinking this way. You should be an active participant on the highway, making decisions to maximize flow. Leaving space so people can merge, controlling speed to smooth slowdowns, anticipating traffic patterns, etc.

All of the people tailgating are contributing to the congestion.

https://youtu.be/iHzzSao6ypE

[leviathant]

The trick I keep in mind in situations like this is to look at brake lights ahead of me. If cars are braking and I'm accelerating, I'm probably going to end up driving very inefficiently. By letting off the accelerator, I don't close the gap as quickly, and eventually, the turbulence in the traffic flow steadies out. Instead of stopping and starting, I roll at an averaged out speed, which doesn't feel as frustrating (it's kind of relaxing) and is better for fuel economy. There are, of course, the weavers who jump from gap to gap, tailgating and pushing. Sometimes it works, sometimes they just get jammed up.

I don't drive as often as I used to, but on I-76 coming into or out of Philadelphia, traffic gets snarled and becomes stop-and-go. Every now and then, someone next to me appears to have the same understanding of fluid dynamics as I do, and we build up enough of a buffer that we are able to eliminate the stop-and-go, even if it means rolling at 5mph with a big gap between us and the cars in front of us.

There's no good way to communicate what we're doing, even to each other. But I like to think that when this happens, it has a positive effect that ripples out for miles.

[Sohcahtoa82]

> I roll at an averaged out speed, which doesn't feel as frustrating (it's kind of relaxing) and is better for fuel economy

Yup. The brake pedal is an evil device that converts cash into brake dust and waste heat. Before I got an EV, I always drove in such a way to use the pedal as little as possible. As a result, in my previous car that was stickered at 24 mpg city/30 mpg highway, I averaged 32 mpg. I don't even drive slow, I just drive smoothly. If your average speed is going to be 5 mph, then you'll get much better economy driving a constant 5 mph than your speed being a sine wave between 0 and 10 mph.

[westmeal]

76 is the worst

[paganel]

> making decisions to maximize flow

Good driving instructors make you aware of that early on, at least mine did.

I'm not saying that I'm a good driver, because I make mistakes like any other driver out-there, it's just that I oftentimes go with the "maximize the flow" thing instead of just following my individual "well-being" as a driver as a result of what my driver instructor told me some years ago.

[frogulis]

Funny that I could guess that the link would be to that CGP Grey video :D

Adam Something has a video responding to it that's worth watching too: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oafm733nI6U

[kqr]

"Turning urban areas into obstacle courses for pedestrians" was an excellent way to phrase that problem!