I'll let this short video speak for itself on the topic: Traffic Waves

 

Very commendable guy! Apart from the practical techniques he outlines, his attitude is a breath of fresh air. As long as the highways are not at "saturation", these techniques work!

 

Geez, the drive I had yesterday was one big 40-mile "traffic wave". I was doing what this guy suggested, leaving a big space in front of me and trying to maintain a steady speed to prevent the "rubber-band" effect. This seems to be what drivers of big rigs do. They're not going heavy on the gas, then slamming on the brakes, but the average joe sure seems hell-bent on driving that way. The traffic finally freed up when we passed a poor soul off to the side of the road, his rim in flames...

 

Wow, good advice though I have to say I'd be frustrated driving behind that guy. That said I already try to keep my distance in traffic and hate it when people decide that my buffer zone between me and the car in front of me is going to squeeze them forward one more car length and somehow get them home faster!

 

"hate it when people decide that my buffer zone between me and the car in front of me is going to squeeze them forward one more car length and somehow get them home faster"

I think that's the key the author of this video is trying to drive home: when everyone gets territorial about that little space in front of them, they guard it, get pissed when someone moves into it, then eventually start closing it up. And you don't get to your destination quicker, it actually takes longer when everyone starts closing up those gaps, and the stop/go kills your mileage.

 

I tend to learn where these choke points are, before I even get to them I slow down as much as possible, and its true. People will merge in sooner and the result is they dont have to try and force their way in at the last second which ends up not slowing things down.

 

Most people are _very_ irrational when they drive. There's this thought, and it's probably not even conscious, that the closer you get to the car in front of you, the faster you're going and the faster you'll get to your destination. Neither is true of course, but it never stops the tailgating.

I like to calculate how much driving 10 mph faster will actually save me. For example, on a trip to Portland (100 miles for me) going 75 instead of 65 will save me 12 minutes. My time is certainly not so valuable that stressing out about how fast I'm going, changing lanes every 30 seconds, etc. for an hour and a half is worth 12 lousy minutes.