re: Why does traffic on interstates ever come to a stop?

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The most frustrating part of it in ATL is when you're creeping along for 25-35 minutes and expect some horrific wreck or something when you reach the point where traffic is clearing and there's...nothing. Traffic just magically clears. No tow trucks. No cops. No bumpers lying on the roadway. There's just this magic point in the road where the congestion clears.

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This this and this. Mostly, the vast majority of drivers are just horribly incompetent. Here's an incomplete list for you:

--90% of drivers view the brakes as their only tool for dealing with driving situations. I would argue that tactically prudent use of the accelerator is crucial to not being a shitbag of incompetence on the road.

--People like to cite tailgating as a problem, but I think the inverse is way more of a problem: leaving 10+ car lengths in front of you. Nothing fries me more than when I am languishing in the left lane, and when I eventually work my way forward, I find it's but one shitbag just cruisin' that's causing the whole thing.

--A nearly complete refusal by the average driver to comply with the most simple guiding rule/principle which should always be in the background of their mind, governing their next move: STAY YOUR arse TO THE frickING RIGHT, YOU SHITBAG! Countless times I see people in the left lane who are AT LEAST two lanes too far to the left. This isn't rocket science.

--Not accelerating fast enough. People are too worried about perceived wear and tear on their precious GenericMobile to get down to business. Newsflash: this isn't 1977 and your car doesn't have a carburetor for you to treat with kid gloves.

--People don't consider the driving task to be an actively engaging enterprise. Instead, they drift along, wreaking shitbak havoc wherever they go.

--People don't dedicate enough effort to keeping a constant, top speed. Pay attention whenever you're forced to be a passenger with a shitbag...they put their foot on and off the gas, constantly shifting speed. I personally use cruise control for 90% of all driving that I do (which is a lot.)

--Shitbags are over-sensitive to even polite and appropriate notifications of their shitbag activities. A shitbag going 10 below in the left lane will react as if you took a shite in his Maw Maw's mouth if you but lightly tap the horn or blink your lights to alert him to his offense. This will many times lead to "retaliation", which can further gum shite up.

--Shitbags believe themselves to be above society - they put zero value on the time of others that they are mercilessly squandering with their shitbaggery. This isn't just some new millennial thing. With old timers, it takes the form of armchair policing.


etc. etc.

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nope, zipper merge is bull shite. fight me.

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I'll be at the Sonic, as soon as this traffic clears.

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This this and this. Mostly, the vast majority of drivers are just horribly incompetent. Here's an incomplete list for you:

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All of what followed 100%

I've had to honk three times this week because people aren't fricking paying attention to the lights and are looking on their phones. It's been a good week.

My record is 17 times in a week. And I'm not talking honking the moment the light turns...but giving them a few seconds benefit of the doubt and STILL having to do it.

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Improving Traffic - by tailgating less

Only thing that can help us is autonomous cars. Retarded humans cannot not tailgate.

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I don't think it's that simple. For me, tailgating is just a tool I use to get someone to move over when they are clearly going too slow...and it usually works. This is just another way of saying tailgating is a symptom, not a cause. If people drove appropriately, there wouldn't be a need for tactical tailgating. (I'm obviously not dismissing the notion that some people are just idiotic tailgaters.)

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It is amazing to think that someone with a twenty minute drive things they can get there in ten minutes by driving fast and tailgating everyone.

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I have a 20 mile drive to and from work every day. I save at least 4-5 minutes per day (each way) by simply being competent and assertive behind the wheel. Doesn't sound like much of a delta, but 8-10 minutes per day, 5 days per week to have extra at work and with my family is extremely valuable time no longer being squandered by shitbags who value their own time at zero (or negatively).

Zipper merge is the most efficient method to move traffic through a choke point when traffic is not flowing at normal speed, i.e. congestion. About 15% more efficient in the multiple studies that have been doen. However, when traffic is flowing at normal speed (near the speed limit), early merging is more efficient.

Some states have electronic signage to tell drivers which method is more appropriate in real time based on traffic conditions at the choke point.

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I have a 35 minute commute. I did a test to see which way worked best. Driving like a shitbag tailgater speeder or setting my cruise and just letting everyone pass me.

On average my mpg increased 10% using the cruise and taking it easy and it actually cost me little to no time. On a 35 minute commute it is nearly impossible to save 5 minutes every single day. Just do the math on MPH and how much faster you will have to go to save that much time.

Many times when I was a tailgater like you, I was only speeding up just to slow down (red light or traffic).
When I would cruise along many times I would end up catching up later with some a-hole that rode my arse or passed me flying.

Now I don't know your details, but for my commute taking it easy is far superior than riding tailgates and speeding and I proved it out. It is safer, less of an a-hole, less worry about police, and no real time saved.

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I understand your post in spirit, but my commute features nearly all interstate - most of it 3 and 4 lanes wide. There are long stretches were some lanes are completely stopped, while others go for half a mile or longer moving fairly quickly. I have learned the patterns and nearly completely avoid full stops.

So, yes, it is harder to create a delta than one might assume. But the best way to do it is to get a half mile head start 3 different times.

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Then you suck as a driver. You probably cruise in the left lane too.

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Sometimes the drivers are so bad, they slavishly stick to coventional driving wisdom points that usually make sense such as "the left lane is the fast lane". So you end up with a crowded left lane. However, as anyone who pays attention knows, many times the right lane is relatively empty due to exiting cars. Quite often the value play is simply to move right.

How is this thread 5 pages when the guy with the lane disruption GIF answered the question in the 3rd post?

and everybody is going to cede all control to self-driving cars as they sort out these decisions among cars - that is delusional

and self-driving cars are only 8 years away! (10 years - 2 years ago when it was first said)