[jerf]

I'm not sure who actually thought that "smoothing the wave" did make you actually go faster though, since a moment's thought shows that "going faster" would necessarily involve going through the bumper of the car in front of you. I think it's about a "laminar" traffic flow being a lot less annoying and dangerous to drive in, if you are going to go slow.

I think he fell down on his own argument when he claims that doing that causes a "big traffic jam" downstream of you; how can it, if you're only 10 or 20 seconds max further behind than you otherwise would be? You can only cause that much additional "traffic jam" in the back, and it may well be worth it to create a more laminar flow.

[SilasX]

>I'm not sure who actually thought that "smoothing the wave" did make you actually go faster though,

Probably all the people that passed around the critiqued link and suggested that it gives a way to improve traffic flow?

[j-kidd]

The gist I get from the link is that the act of "smoothing the wave" will not benefit the one who performs the act, but it benefits the drivers behind the lane. You can't fix the traffic jam in front of you, but you can do your part to prevent one from forming behind you.

And that's why people pass around the link.

[SilasX]

Right: like I said -- and like the GGP (jerf) just denied them saying -- the claim is that it will hasten the traffic flow. Individual vs group benefits is beside the point.