Is this the right freeway driving strategy?

Oh hobbit... I quote you:

"...and your speed doesn't need to change."

Either I change my speed or when the "passer" brakes, I also must brake. Frequently, he/she pulls into a space "not quite big enough for safe clearance" at the prevailing speed, not giving me reasonable safe clearance.

 

anywhere from 50 to 75mph, the prius will travel nicely about 4 to 6 car lenghts behind the traffic in front of you with soft accelleration and without braking. Do that in either the right or middle lane and you're doing the right thing.

If you're following 25 car lenghts back in any heavy traffic situation, you're an idiot. People rightfully will one day run you over.

If you're traveling in the left lane at center lane speeds and there is a large gap in front of you and a pile of people trying to get around you, you're a bigger idiot. Someone will definatly run you over for this one, so you are not really a problem... well, not for long.

SLOWER TRAFFIC KEEP RIGHT

Or, is it only the speed limit signs that you see, and the rest of the posted signs and laws don't apply to you?

Please drive with some common sense.

 

So why was the space not big enough in the first place, hmmm?
Or are you talking about when they cut in way too early, even though
there's plenty of room out front? That's when *I* start leaning
on the high beams, hoping to give them some clue that they just did
something wrong.
.
_H*

 

That is what I find... If I leave the gap, what they do is fly around me only to wind up stopping in front of me 1/4 - 1/2 mile ahead. But hey, they smugly look in their rearview mirror, I'm ahead of YOU.

 

have anyone ever heard of the "phantom traffic jam?" its when on a freeway that is near capacity, all of a sudden traffic slows to a near stop. it goes like that for 5-10 minutes, then the pace quickens suddenly and back to normal with no apparent slowdown.

well in most cases, a jelly donut is to blame. on a freeway that is near capacity, everyone reduces their safe following distances to near nothing. suppose a guy driving down the road on the jammed morning commute is eating a jelly donut and takes a bite and a glob of goo falls on his pants. first thing he does is sveres to try to avoid the gob. the driver 5 feet behind him, thinks the guy is either sleeping or drunk, but either way, wants no part of him and hits his brakes. now all down his lane, everyone hits their brakes because they are following too close to take any chances, and slowly on down the line each person has to slow down because there is no room to absorb any disruptiion in the flow of traffic. eventually, if the freeway is jammed enough, the result is a rolling traffic jam that slowly moves backwards as the compounded reaction times of a hundred drivers grows from a tap on the brake lights to nearly a complete stop.

so you see, driving packed together on the freeway does not allow for any small disruption in the flow of traffic. so what would seem like the best way to get as many people done the road as possible, actually slows traffic flow. having cars properly spaced on the freeway will increase the amount of traffic past a certain point over a given time period.

i know most will find this hard to believe, but this is a proven fact

 

I ignore the way others drive and if I followed all the bad driving advice I see on this site to drive as bad as they do, I'd be dead right now.

 

Once again: go read the "traffic waves" articles. It's been a
couple of years since I did, and I just went back and refreshed.
http://amasci.com/amateur/traffic/traffic1.html
Well enough worth reading I added it to my prius link-nest.
http://techno-fandom.org/~hobbit/cars/prius-linkfarm.html
This really should end any further need to argue it here.
.
_H*

 

For the type of roadway Tony described, non highway with turning lane, driving in the left lane is entirely appropriate, whether you're car or truck, slow or fast. The "slower traffic keep right" rule is only applicable on controlled access highways, not local roads.

 

All these plans on how to drive in traffic sound good. However, it reminds me of the old saying "No plan of battle ever survives contact with the enemy." :mellow:

 

In retrospect it did, but not while I was crawling on the freeway on a Saturday afternoon.

I accelerated just enough to close the gap between me and the car in front of me, keeping in mind the conditions ahead, so that I'd minimize the use of the brakes. I coasted for most of that distance.

 

Wow, that was interesting. Thanks for the link !

 

I think that if you are in the right hand lane and going near or at the speed limit that the technique you describe is a good one. I have try to practice that. Yes I have to stop from time to time but not as often as everone else and people pull in front of me and change lanes. I usually end up in about the same position relative to them as we had when we got in to heavy traffic. I think as long as you are not going well under the speed limit this is reasonable. I do not agree with the go with the flow. Sometimes that would mean going 10-20 mph over the speed limit. I don’t need a ticket.

 

I am far more concerned with safety than a ticket. I'll gladly pay the fine if driving 20 over the limit means I meld with traffic flow. A 20 mph delta between me and others is an accident waiting to happen. My priorities are safety, legality, and economy, in that order.

 

I'm quite curious about this "invitation to others to drive stupid" if there is more than one car length between me and the car ahead of me. What happens when I keep that gap filled, and somebody NEEDs to occupy that spot (merge onto or off of the freeway)? Is that not more easily and safely accomplished if there is already room for another vehicle there?

Man, this has been an enlightening discussion that I'm not sure I even wanted to read! Everybody knows best, and everybody is a better driver than everybody else.

When I hear safety being used to justify high speed driving, my mouth just falls open and my eyes roll up into my head. I have yet to see a single statistic where a higher speed was responsible for FEWER or less severe accidents.

 

"Everybody knows best, and everybody is a better driver than everybody else."

Yeah, and we all live in Lake Wobegon, "where all the women are strong, all the men are good-looking, and all the children are above average. ."
;-)

 

... and all the sheep are nervous...
.
_H*

 

Hi Burrito,

I disagree with your method. At 1/2 mile following distance, there is no way to judge your closing/opening rate (at least without a laser rangefinder). Thus, traffic may run away from you, which means cars in your lane would and could move right, then come back around in front. One can see the people moving around are trying to maximising the road resource but it does at the expense of the center lane resource. Of course I see this on regular basis in Chicagoland. I move around too, about once a month. On the road I drive, the people going slow in the left lane are the ones that are staying on the road for 20 miles, and are timing an average to a delay down at the end of that 20 miles. This is faulty logic, as their actions and the actions of others in response are changing the amount of time they will be in the delay. They may think that more cars are getting through the delay while they proceed slowly to it, but more cars are also filling into the delay ahead of them too. In the end, they are in stop ang go the for more time, I hazard to guess. Not only due cars moving ahead of them already on the road, but also from cars entering the highway ahead of them and holding back cars that would leave the highway sooner. The road network is a system, not just a pipe.

In my drive, behind the slow left lane drivers, 1/2 the traffic is getting off at 5 or 10 miles (including me), before the delay at 20 miles. I have seen see a 3/4 mile stretch of empty left lane pavement, and no way for the lead car in that lane to judge the average to the next exit, and nobody moving left into it. They are judging not the present situation, only remembering the past. Now, that is fine, if there were nobody else on the road, but delaying somebody based on ones personal imperative shows a lack of empathy (and may be percieved as saddism by the one being delayed). The road I exit off too has a remarkable consistent evening loading characteristic. If I am not on it by 4:59 pm, the ten miles I drive on it will take nearly double the time. There have been many times I have seen it flowing at 65 from the top of the 1/2 mile long ramp at 4:59, only to be in dead stopped traffic at the bottom at 5:01 !

Additionally, I believe your method is fuel consumption inefficient for your car, which has an Otto cycle engine (not an Atkinson with good partial throttle efficiency). Otto Engine efficiency peaks at about 40 % power and 75 % torque. Not accellerating when there is room (1/4 mile or more following distance) wastes gas. The trick then is to accellerate only enough and at the right time to come coasting up the cars that are braking, just as they begin to accellerate again. One way to do this is to not accellerate, until the the cars ahead of you are just short of their peak speed. As you accellerate, you can judge if the peak is true to the cycle or different, and modulate the acceleration time appropriately. Its typical that the accelleration then is only 5 to 10 seconds. It also takes a few cycles of the start and stop to gauge the cycle period. Once in anti-phase, braking is rare - your goal. This anti-phase technigue I found much more effective in my SL2. With which routinely got 30 mpg or more even during days when it was below freezing in the morning, and above in the afternoon and the traffic was 0 to 70 mph in the waves. If one does not follow close enough to make the judgements for this anti-phase pulse and glide, one will waste the public resource and end up with 1/2 mile or more empty lane , or dangerous traffic.


I think the rolling road block effect is the biggest problem with the technique esposed on http://amasci.com/amateur/traffic/traffic1.html, which is apparently close to your driving style. The examples given of the method rely on a long range sightline to the delay, which is not the norm around here. A line of cars all at the same speed is fine on a one-lane road that will eventually come to a traffic interferance that one can see off down the side of a mountain is fine. This just does not describe a modern super highway in the midwest or most metro areas with a belt-way layout. Mr Beatty apparently agrees with this too - on the website his comments: "On the other hand, the situation is not so simple if lots of extra traffic is entering from numerous on-ramps. The "rolling barrier" can't affect these extra inputs, and if nearly all of the traffic is from on-ramps, then the "rolling barrier" idea would be worthless. In that case it can only control the main highway and not all the on-ramps".

 

wow... this thread is amazing... darreldd gotta agree with ya... i cant believe im reading this.

who said that driving and coasting was dangerous....someone says that driving at greatly varying speeds cause accidents?? ya, well not having time to stop forces much greater than normal braking. that is what causes accidents, large variations in speed over short periods of time. i have never seen an accident behind someone who was coasting... i have seen several behind someone who brakes suddenly because they were speeding and following too close.

why do you think we have so many accidents now??? must be from all those coasters right?? hmmm from what im reading, dont sound like there are very many coasters out there.

sounds more like, "i hope everyone drives 20 mph over, that way i can blend in and reduce my chances of a ticket"

say that. i can agree with that, but dont even try to tell me you will drive 20 mph because you are safety conscious