Traffic Hack: How one Driver can get rid stop and go traffic waves

stevenmu

I came across this a while ago, and remembered recently and I've been trying it out

Page1, Page2.

I've tried it a few times along the N4 leaving the city centre, which can be pretty bad as far as the M50 when it's busy. It's hard to say for sure what effect it really has, without seeing what the road is like 10 minutes later, but from looking in the mirrors everything seems to stay smooth behind. It definitely makes the drive more enjoyable too, or at least less frustrating. A slow crawl is far preferable to a constant stop-start. I've been surprised too that apart from the odd eejit who would use the bus lane to undertake you and get a whole 1 car ahead, people don't seem to jump into the gap you leave, although that's possibly because they've wedged themselves too tight to each other to move.

It's definitely something I'll be doing from now on in traffic jams. Anyone else tried it? Any thoughts?

OldmanMondeo

stevenmu wrote: »

Any thoughts?

yEAH, HURRY UP AND CLOSE THAT GAP!!!

robtri

it works.... quite well actually...
its how i used to drive on the excuse of a road called the M50....

likewise leave a big gap.... and not use the brakes... it is a lot less frustrating to drive that way than mm away from the bumper of the car in front and jamming on the breaks every two seconds...

unkel

I've always done this* - to some extent. It works a bit, but nowhere near as well as described in the link, probably because people change lanes, whereas in the US people tend to stay in their lane.

*when I'm alone in my car - Irish passengers tend to give out hell that I should be closing the gap

stevenmu

OldmanMondeo wrote: »

yEAH, HURRY UP AND CLOSE THAT GAP!!!

I was wondering how long that would take, I thought at least 5 minutes

concussion

Good find, thanks for that!

Jip

Pretty much common sense I would imagine, I do it every day.

hugoline

OldmanMondeo wrote: »

yEAH, HURRY UP AND CLOSE THAT GAP!!!

hmm...the video in Page 2 is 7 minutes (besides quite a bit of text)... somebody didn't even try to understand the full concept :rolleyes:

I myself would try to adhere to the above (although let's be clear, this method will not resolve traffic jams - it will however make your driving less stressful) but would find myself back at the front bumper sooner or later. Driving with only minimal use of breaking would probably describe my style better.

Similar idea for driving over the speed-limit to 'get there' faster... i.e. for a 50 km stretch: driving at 140 km/h will take you over 21.5 minutes... at 120km/h it will take 25 minutes...
What will you do in these 3 and a half 'gained' minutes? Boards, watch TV, ....

_Kaiser_

I'd do this most of the time as well but as noted above, it goes awry when someone decides to cut into that space in front.

Equally I try not to have to use the brakes unless I have to by watching 2/3 cars ahead and predicting their actions thus able to come off the accelerator and let the engine braking start before the car in front's brake lights come on - it's like a game EDIT: Of course part of this is leaving enough room between you and the guy in front to react in case they do something random!

Definitely one of the more annoying things on the road is the guy who's hitting the brakes for no real reason every 15 seconds, or who does the same at night if the headlights of an oncoming car appear. :mad:

Mc Love

Kaiser2000 wrote: »

Definitely one of the more annoying things on the road is the guy who's hitting the brakes for no real reason every 15 seconds, or who does the same at night if the headlights of an oncoming car appear. :mad:

Oh a fecking hate that - flash them and they just hazard you back. Just best to try and overtake them at the earliest opportunity

tommmy1979

I do this too.. in fact i started a thread about it here some time ago..

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055489258

different reaction to it from most posters though:(

T