[noodle]

i think its interesting that i used to drive like this site describes for the exact reasons it talks about. and now i don't/can't. the difference? i moved to atlanta.

rush hour drivers here operate under a greedy algorithm. they see an opening that will allow them to speed up or gain extra distance immediately, and they'll take it, for no other reason than to be going faster right now, to be farther down the road right now.

and that includes eating up my buffer zone, forcing me to break/stop, killing my flow optimization.

[zngtk4]

That (in addition to the fact that everyone lives in the suburbs) perhaps provides some of the explanation for why Atlanta rush hour traffic seems to be some of the worst in the country, despite having more lanes and a smaller population than cities that have better traffic.

[apotheon]

I have had to commute on two of the top ten worst rush hour stretches of highway in the country (and they're within a few miles of each other in southern California, on the 91 and I-10). Noodle is exactly correct that such driving "cultures" do exist, and they make this consciously regularizing driving style worse than useless.