Anti-Traffic
Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 16,310
Likes: 18
From: In the ether.
Joined: Jun 2004
Posts: 2,472
Likes: 0
From: Potomac Falls, VA
Ok, so I tried this Anti-Traffic theory on Wednesday, the busiest traffic day of the year. What better time to try it than on a crazy super busy day right?
So I'm on 495 North in bumper to bumper traffic and I start the gap ...
The thing is, it works pretty well! You can maintain your speed about 5-10mph below what everyone in front of you is doing and not hit your brakes at all for awhile ... However, the website does nothing to address what happens when the people in front of you come to a dead stop. There's not much you can really do except catch up and stop ... So this is not the end-all to traffic.
Amazingly enough, the gap stayed for quite a long time too ... Sure every once in awhile someone would move over in front of me. But it wasn't like so many people moved over in front of me that they closed the gap I had created ...
The weird thing is, a lot of people didn't know how to react to what I was doing ... One girl, who could have easily went in front of me, decided she needed to tell me that I had too much space in front of me. So she pulled up beside me and started honking .. then she got behind me and tailgated me and flashed her high beams and honked her horn ... then she pulled up next to me again and honked me until she finally got frustrated and went in front of me. Not sure what that was all about ... but maybe she wanted to convince me to drive faster.
Anyways, it probably did take me longer to get home, because I wasn't moving as fast as possible -- I was doing a constant 25mph ... but I don't think I lost a lot of time, and one thing I noticed was it was a lot less stressful than doing the stop-and-go thing ... Don't know if I'll keep doing it, but it was definitely interesting.
So I'm on 495 North in bumper to bumper traffic and I start the gap ...
The thing is, it works pretty well! You can maintain your speed about 5-10mph below what everyone in front of you is doing and not hit your brakes at all for awhile ... However, the website does nothing to address what happens when the people in front of you come to a dead stop. There's not much you can really do except catch up and stop ... So this is not the end-all to traffic.
Amazingly enough, the gap stayed for quite a long time too ... Sure every once in awhile someone would move over in front of me. But it wasn't like so many people moved over in front of me that they closed the gap I had created ...
The weird thing is, a lot of people didn't know how to react to what I was doing ... One girl, who could have easily went in front of me, decided she needed to tell me that I had too much space in front of me. So she pulled up beside me and started honking .. then she got behind me and tailgated me and flashed her high beams and honked her horn ... then she pulled up next to me again and honked me until she finally got frustrated and went in front of me. Not sure what that was all about ... but maybe she wanted to convince me to drive faster.
Anyways, it probably did take me longer to get home, because I wasn't moving as fast as possible -- I was doing a constant 25mph ... but I don't think I lost a lot of time, and one thing I noticed was it was a lot less stressful than doing the stop-and-go thing ... Don't know if I'll keep doing it, but it was definitely interesting.
I'd love me a ham sandwich right about now!
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