Traffic Waves
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- Опубликовано: 29 авг 2024
- Main site: trafficwaves.org/ Watch at 0:01 to see the fight between "cheaters" versus the "blockers" which causes this exit-lane backup. (The backup shown at 0:01 isn't the worst I've seen at this spot.) ALSO TRY HITTING 0:01 OVER AND OVER REALLY FAST.
The Backpackers' rule: if we leave trash on the trail, then so does everyone else, and the whole environment immediately fills with garbage. But if we pick up our own trash, the garbage piles don't vanish. They just build up more slowly from the many OTHER people who always leave a trail of stuff behind them as they go.
So, if we don't like it, we have to pick up other people's trash as well as our own.
But sometimes, rarely, a little cleanup goes a long way, and one single person can make a huge difference.
During evening rush hour on Seattle I-5, this clogged left lane usually has a 1/2-mile backup. This EXIT-ONLY LANE leads down into the high speed "Express Lanes" under the city. If do you manage to exit here, there's rarely any congestion ahead in the Express Lanes. You might gain 5min! But the exit into those lanes is jammed. And whenever it's jammed, you might lose more time in the jam than you'll gain from getting on to the express lanes.
Also, if you miss getting into the left lane early, then you're screwed, since nobody in the row of ~200 cars will let you in. There is no "zipper merge." Also, merging drivers coming in from righthand ramps are not "cheaters." They never had a chance to get to the back of the line. Yet they're still aggressively blocked by those already in the jam. It's impossible for anyone to tell who is cheating and who is legit, but that doesn't stop people from closing up all gaps. Far down at the downstream end of the jam, just a few aggressive drivers occasionally force their way in (because of the unfair treatment?), yet this nearly halts the exit-lane flow.
BUT ...if I myself refuse to be a tailgater, and instead let ten cars merge ahead of me as I approach the jam, like magic the whole thing evaporates, and everyone takes off at high speed. SOMETIMES! It doesn't work every time. Maybe once a week. Maybe less. But when I don't try this trick, I never see it unjam spontaneously. And when I try this trick on other Seattle jams, it doesn't work. Only certain jams are "sensitive" like this one.
Unfortunately this video can't show you the view from above. Also, you can't see behind me, so you can't see that my "hole" is the only one in a very long row of cars. You can't see that nobody is pulling out and passing me, instead all those merging cars are coming in at high speed from a distance. Also you can't see the size of the reliable daily jam that was there on other days, or the jam ahead of me before I arrived and started draining it down by letting people merge.
Note that letting some cars get ahead of you is NOTHING, it doesn't slow you down, or slow anyone behind you. On a 30min congested commute at 65MPH, 2sec between cars, if you were a slowpoke going 5MPH slower than the rest, how many other cars would pass you? Seventy five! And a gap of 2.5 MILES would open up ahead of you! In other words, slowpokes don't have 10-car gaps like I do, instead their gaps are miles long. Either that or stunningly huge numbers of cars are pulling out to pass, rather than one or two per week like I see. Letting a few (10) cars merge will slow me down *insignificantly*: by 10 to 20sec out of 30min, or less than 1MPH average slowing (64.5MPH, not 65MPH.) Ten cars one way or another is NOTHING, it's way too small to matter. Ten cars is not a real delay, it's a psychological illusion which appears whenever you believe that you're in a race. In a race, a few seconds can mean the difference between winning and losing. But on your commute, a few seconds are irrelevant to your arrival time. If a few seconds genuinely bothers you, then why not change your alarm clock ...and get out of bed TWENTY SECONDS EARLIER! Or if set for five minutes earlier, you'll be able to let a couple hundred cars merge ahead of you without being late to work. :)
Conversely, if you want to drive significantly faster than everyone else, then you need to pass 50-100 other drivers to shorten your commute by just a minute or two. If you only managed to pass a few cars, that's called FAILURE, and your speed wasn't increased enough to matter. Basically, your place in line is meaningless because speed is everything, and unless you're passing hundreds of other cars, your speed is the same as everyone else in the jam.
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Note: Trolls & spammers blocked immediately. Zero tolerance.
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Big rigs have been doing this since the beginning of time.
Yes, the great secret of the Truckers is now in the hands of 4-wheelers! Also see ruclips.net/video/MtwY9xKfaYo/видео.html
Not these new age truckers that pass at 1mph faster
Hey I wanted to let you know this video might have saved someone’s life last Thursday. This happened on I-90 East, coincidentally outside Seattle pretty close to where this was shot. That day, traffic was moving fast however the cars were packed. Everyone was riding each other trying to get home 10 seconds sooner, you know the story. The space in front of my car was getting pretty big so I might’ve closed it up a little bit but happened to be thinking about THIS VIDEO and thought, “well, let’s leave a huge space why not”. At that moment the motorcycle in front me lost control and the rider fell off onto the road. Everyone was driving so close, this biker won the lottery wiping out in front of me. I’ll remember the fear in her eyes when she looked up towards oncoming traffic. But no brakes were slammed, no other accidents happened, the lane came to a lazy stop and a few people got out to make sure the biker was ok. The guy who was riding me even made a space of his own when we got going again :). Leaving a decent space is so important, and it goes beyond traffic flow. Let’s all be zen warriors, thank you!!!!
> this video might have saved someone’s life last Thursday.
Very cool!
Of course all the other drivers are doing it wrong, because to get home ten seconds earlier is easy: everyone just maintain a minimum 80ft gap, since 80ft or more is the optimum spacing for peak-flow on the traffic engineer's graph. "Pushing ahead" and closing up gaps makes everyone late. Eighty feet or more; OH NO, that's enough for two entire cars to jump into your gap! Yet it speeds up traffic.
On the other hand, the traffic engineers say that good habits don't directly speed up the flow all that much. Instead the wide spaces cause THE ACCIDENT RATE TO FALL by an enormous amount. The really huge jams are caused by collisions and the tow trucks. Open up big gaps, then no rush-hour delays caused by car wrecks.
Coincidentally, my wide-space habits probably kept me from dying a couple weeks ago.
I was southbound at night on I-5 just before the Rainier Beer sign. When I came over the rise, there was a chain of cars ahead in my lane, dead stopped. The lane to my left was empty, so while braking hard I just touched the wheel and easily escaped certain collision. Plenty of time for decision, no problem. Then, about one second later I hear that sound like "BOMMB!", as someone far behind me hit the chain of stopped cars. That would have been me, if I was like everyone else with their 1sec following distance.
Sometimes the car ahead of us, it really does stop instantly with no warning ...because it hit the car ahead!
Beautiful
This is classic You Tube. This video needs to be in the RUclips museum, if such a thing exists. Great content, thank you.
It made it into the Wall Street Journal. But putting youtube links in these comments is not allowed.
@@wbeaty wow, you still reply to comments more than a decade after the vid!
I came to a similar conclusion (surprisingly after getting a sports car) and my 45 minute commute is far more relaxing than it was when I was fighting through traffic. This video should be required education for new drivers!
Bill, this is so freaking awesome. I work for your highway safety office, The Washington Traffic Safety Commission, in Olympia and this driving skill and situational awareness needs to be touted more clearly by us as part of our Target Zero plan. Thank you for taking the time to document this technique and for sharing it so generously. I just tweeted this video, fyi.
Angie Ward Hi Angie! Note that this video is a "diagram" for my main site trafficwaves.org/ Long history: I started the article in 1998, based on those animated GIFs, and achieved brief online celebrity status about ten years ago. Over a decade I watched the slow rise of "gap-leaving drivers" in Seattle I-5, and this particular above "sensitive jam" even stopped occurring for some years (but now it seems to have returned.)
Interviewed on NPR and many radio stations' rush-hour radio shows, etc. The only official interest was from city of Atlanta ten years ago, who almost started an education campaign based on it, but the economy changed and funding fizzled.
Note that this "Zen driving" and traffiwaves.org have become a sort of commuter religion. [Preacher Voice] YES you too can MAKE THE BREAKTHROUGH and change your whole life, learn some simple intuitive nonlinear mechanics. Traffic is a hurricane, and you will transform yourself into the SINGLE BUTTERFLY who makes it evaporate as you watch. No longer be just another of the many sheep trapped in the daily highway jams, no longer even one of the false "wolves" who are really just sheep with delusions, instead you can become ...THE SHEPHERD!
:)
Don't miss my FAQ, trafficwaves.org/tfaq.html
The depth of this observation can be applied to so much of life.
Merging traffic is supposed to mesh like gear teeth. Problem: each gear tooth says "EVERY TIME I OPEN UP A SPACE, SOME OTHER GEAR TOOTH JUMPS INTO IT!!!" So they close up the space and prevent all merges.
When the whole gear jams up and grinds to a halt, they angrily blame all the other gear teeth for trying to steal "their" space. So...
Open up big spaces. (You do need to compensate for all the other drivers who fanatically tailgate.)
Encourage merging. Be disappointed if drivers DON'T suddenly leap into the space you're made for them.
:)
Brilliant. Thank you!
I'm always fascinated when i visit the US, you'd think a country that can put people on the moon, and have a robot the size of a hatchback land itself on Mars would be able to understand how merging works. Don't get me wrong, there are plenty of terrible drivers in every country in the world. But you guys seems to hate the idea of giving you fellow road user any space.
In Germany if you use you're blinkers general the person behind you in the lane you want to go to will make some space (all within reason ofcourse, he's not going to slam him brakes to let you in). In american doing that will make the person nearly crash into the car infront of them just to make sure you won't get in.
At that point i usually remember i drive a rental car, and stop bothering with blinker and just start cutting off people (When in Rome and all that jazz).
As friendly as you americans are face to face, a lot of you turn into assholes when you step into a car.
Thank you for this. Spreading it far and wide as I can.
JCGver
Fellow German here. There are a lot of stupid people here too that don't understand merging either. Most of them think they are better than you (especially the ones in expensive cars) and won't leave you in until you slowly move in their direction when they suddenly are afraid of getting a dent in their car. Usually you are greeted with a nice honk then.
JCGver
They think to themselves: "when I merge ahead of you, it's because I'm changing lanes. But when you merge ahead of me, YOU CUT ME OFF AND NEED TO BE PUNISHED." There's no such thing as "cutting you off." It's called merging.
Glad to see I'm not the only one to drive like this. I discovered this many years ago. Works a charm!
I drive like this because I have a standard. people who drive a stick would much rather drive well so they don't have to break and use the clutch every two seconds.
This is fabulous, I completely applaud your self awareness and the power you have to change the world by conscious action. I wish you continued peace, love and harmony
Wow! The zen traffic warrior. So neat. Makes me think: what if we had self-driving cars that were robot zen traffic warriors, fixing these problems as they were forming. I cannot be the first one to have thought of this. Then, after we get those cars on the road, the foot will be in the door. Eventually, the rest of the cars will be self-driving.
They are already planning on doing this in China. I'm sure it's going to be tested and applied in China long before it gets to the US. They say that it's mostly due to bad driving in China.
I used to be one of those drivers who try to be "smart and clever" by changing lanes to get ahead. It made my commute more stressful, burned more gas, and wore off the brakes faster. I eventually found out that leaving a bit of space allowed me to coast through traffic with much less stress. Sure you have some drivers use the empty space, but I often see them stuck in the other lane up ahead. I occasionally drive behind other drivers who apply this relaxed technique making commuting in traffic more pleasant.
Excellent video. I have been doing this for years. I am so annoyed with people who won't let other drives merge into their lanes because they're "cheaters." Also, I wish it were common sense for people to know that if you create enough of a buffer between yourself and the car in front of you, you won't have to brake so often and neither will the people behind you.
Even if people in front of me are braking, I usually hold off braking myself if I can help it because chances are I don't need to brake at all. People treat their gas and brake pedals like on/off switches and it's annoying.
god this is so bloody interesting. And I love your conclusion about having made the transition from angry backstabbing competitor to zen driver. So true! Well done mate.
> tailgating is a surefire sign of mental
But tailgating is good, if lots of traffic lights are present! We need "situational awareness," and realize that tailgating is harmful if we enter highways with no stoplights, where jams may trigger. (On city streets, the only jam is the one called "gridlock." On congested highways there are several different types of jam.)
Watch out: tailgaters think they aren't tailgating. Instead they're trying to "block thieves" who will steal their space and make them late for work! But there are no evil greedy thieves. Instead they are really called "merging drivers." And, if my forward space is large, a merging driver steals nothing, all the problem comes from maintaining a tiny space. And, since cars in congestion are spaced about 1sec apart, only I would be slightly late for work if HUNDREDS OF CARS cut in line ahead of me. One merging car is nothing. Ten is nothing. At the store cash register, if one person jumps ahead and steals my place in line, that's 2-3min delay, same as hundreds of cars cutting in line. Ten cars? That's like one kid who wants to buy a stick of gum. Sure, let them cut in line, since they don't cause any noticeable delay. (But maybe don't let ten kids cut ahead, or encourage fifty merging cars!)
I remember watching this video just before I moved to a big city to work and commuted one of the worst roads there. Giving lots, and lots of space to the car infront and never stop is the best thing you can do. But also the most provocative apparently. People get pissed when you do it, people get pissed when you talk about doing it and no one believes it is working - even though it clearly does. And while others are wasting their clutch and consuming lots of unnecessary gas, I was slowly strolling alone listening to my favorite songs, knowing this will all be over in an hour or two - just like the day before, and the day before that.
the best thing about this technique is that the impatient jerks usually whip around in front of me and then they're riding someone else's bumper instead of mine
Everyone should be forced to own a manual car for their first car so they can learn this. When you drive a manual you learn this naturally because when you hit a traffic jam you try to not stop and go as much as possible and end up doing this naturally. I don't really believe that everyone should be forced to own a manual, but I do think that we would have much better traffic if more people have driven manuals, it just teaches you to drive better.
What an incredible way to handle the stresses of traffic. You are an inspiration!
Play this on Detroit public access on repeat. Please! For the good of humanity!
My dad taught me about traffic waves when I first got my learners, being aware of them makes a manual a lot less of a pita
This philosophy was taught to me via the USPS driving school around 1996 or 97. The instructor actually showed a illustration of exactly what you are talking about in this video. I wish I could remember the instructors name as he had a lot more great ideas regarding traffic flows. The point of the lecture was about not following too close (for us budding USPS drivers) and trying not to have to hit your brakes all the time which causes the people following behind to hit their brakes and cause a chain reaction. I commute into Seattle a few times a week for work and I always practice this method. With the rise of mobile phones I have noticed most of the time when there is a big gap in another lane it is usually a driver focusing on their phone rather then trying to help the flow of traffic. Great video and I sure hope more folks employ this method of ironing out traffic waves.
iN FACT you are helping everyone, Flow is SAFETY and stopped vehicles do cause death ..... It is that simple ..... Keep up the good work
"Shockwave traffic jam elimination ninja" we bow to you sir.
I learned how to drive much later than most people and approached it like you describe from the start. I love driving like this, without any distractions like music, a phone, a passenger, etc., focusing all my attention on looking ahead and attempting to make things as smooth as possible (least acceleration). Avoiding unnecessary braking is a big part of this, and naturally leads to plenty of space in front and thoughtful management of this buffer, "using it up" when it helps.
Good video! I've been driving that way for years (in Atlanta), but never analyzed it like you have. I'm sure eventually we'll all have cars that drive themselves, and traffic jams should be a thing of the past.
Not all of us. I prefer operating my vehicle myself, three pedals, six speeds, and power, thank you very much.
Samniss Arandeen i bet you love DUI too
Just wanted to let you know that I saw this video 10 years ago, and it completely changed the way I drive...as I brought a much more zen approach to traffic. Helps me, helps others. Thanks....
This is exactly what I’ve noticed as well. I do exactly what this guy does for exactly the same reason. I’ve been telling people that I can change traffic by my own behavior for a while now. I claim that if a single law was well enforced, most of our traffic jams would go away: enforce a large space between all cars on the freeway. Start giving out tickets for following closer than 5 car lengths for more than 5 seconds.
I discovered breaking up traffic waves as you put it about a year ago. I am glad to see that there are other drivers out there that understand this technique and who are willing to leave space for other drivers to merge ahead. It is very courteous of you and in effect prevents the stop and go. Also your video is the same drive as my commute from school to home in Seattle each day. Good to know I'm sharing it with like minded individuals. Don't fight traffic, allow it to breath.
Good examples and totally agree.Have been doing similar for years .One section of our hi way has chevrons spaced out on one lane to indicate that 4 chevrons gap is ideal for 100km speed limit.It works ,just ego's take over after a while and bunch ups still occur.
Where I live, I try to leave a large open space in front of my car at a consistently clogged merging area of the interstate. The problem here is that the "cheaters" don't see that as a good place to merge in. They will still speed up to the end of the merge lane and jam themselves into traffic (causing a slowdown) and avoid my open invitation to get in line. I attribute that to the "I'm-more-important-than-you" attitude of so many drivers. It really grinds my gears. I have tried your methods though in other non-merge areas, and have noticed improved flow. Driving the average speed helps. I wish everyone would do it.
With the "cheaters" ignoring your gap, the problem might be that your open space is too short. Me, when I get trapped in an empty lane like that, with all cars packed together and tailgating in the adjacent lane, I can't drift along at 20mph looking for an opening (there'd be a big backup behind me.) I have to go fast, and so I approach too fast and can't merge into a tiny space. I'd get rear-ended, if I suddenly jammed on my brakes when I arrived at a small gap in the line.
So, when I'm in the jammed exit, I know that the empty space I leave must be large. It has to be a deceleration zone for incoming fast drivers. Early on, I started doing it this way when someone coming in at high speed tried to merge into my tiny forward space, squealing their tires and sliding. Near crash.
Small empty spaces, they're dangerous, they tempt high-speed drivers to suddenly merge and rear-end the car ahead of you. Problem solved: keep a 1-second space for 40MPH speed, even when moving far slower than 40.
Hopefully this means there are 881,000 better drivers out there now.
+Rusty H I keep seeing "traffic holes" all the time on I-5!
Back in the 1990s I never saw any. Well, only in front of long-haul truckers. Back then, only truckers knew the secret trick.
+Rusty H Probably only 8,500 since they actually liked the video.
This is perfect. Most of the people merged early when they could because it was their first chance after missing the early queue. I drive a manual and leave a gap so I can maintain the average speed with a moderate gap, and everyone behind me gets to relax and avoid stop and go too. This, simply paying attention when driving to avoid causing accidents, and keeping right except to pass while passing as quickly as possible when needed would save so much time for everyone.
The ultimate solution will be fully autonomous vehicles being mandatory. The only way this will happen quickly is if there's a law that requires it to occur by, for example the year 2035. I love to drive, but don't love other people driving because as a whole groups of people on the road contain a significant proportion of those drivers who are inefficient, greedy, inconsiderate, and inattentive and are therefore dangerous.
This is what truck drivers do. you almost never see them use their breaks in traffic by doing what you do. The traffic jams usually occur from people speeding up to the car in front of them or people trying to keep other cars from entering their lane.
Sir, this video changed my life years ago. My adolescent child just questioned why I drive like such a little old lady. Sending him this video... soon, this video will have affected 2 generations. Thanks!
Actually you're driving like a pro trucker, who uses secret knowledge, shattering the traffic jams as you approach them.
Also see me explaining the technique on the WSJ news channel: One Driver Prevents Jams... ruclips.net/video/MtwY9xKfaYo/видео.html
With great power comes great responsibility, and the jam-canceling technique is no joke. Instead it's a powerful tool, and the same tricks can be greatly misused, even "weaponized." So, we must all become Jedi master commuters, staying with the light! Do not explore the Dark side of traffic-manipulation strategies! (Heh.)
Another way to look at it if you're doing this is that you're teaching people how to drive. A lot of the times when I did this, someone would stay behind me for a long time because it's comfortable for them, and I thought to myself that hopefully that person is seeing how convenient it is to keep such a great distance.
And now i feel better about my constant habit of keeping a 2-3 car length ahead of me. Instead of being upset about people getting in front, i feel good about others being able to drive safely.
+Tyler Duncan Also, if we think that merge-zones are gear teeth, then our goal should be to encourage many merges. If nobody jumps in ahead of us, feel sad. On the road, I see the professional truckers trying to do this all the time. (Research shows that Zipper-merges actually work, but only if we have enough truckers in the mix.)
The opposite happens if we all think that commuting is a race. In a race, we must do everything we can to prevent even one single car from getting ahead of us. They'll steal first place away from us! Turn us into losers! On the road, I see all the non-truckers behaving as if they're trapped in an illusory road race. But it need not be that way, since we don't do this when sitting on the subway, or riding the bus. We don't all rush to the front of the bus and then during the whole trip, claw others out of the way, all in an attempt to get and maintain a quarter-second lead.
+Tyler Duncan Even just for yourself you need to keep a few car lengths clear in front of you. How I was taught was 2 seconds of space at 50mph, and add another second of space for every 10mph over 50. That's because if the car in front of you does anything, you need that time to be able to react.
YOU might be able to react and turn the wheel or slam the brakes, but the car, going that fast, will not be able to respond fast enough. So you'll turn the wheel but the car will keep going forward and you plow into them.
Counting seconds and leaving that space in front instead of car lengths works much better and accounts for speed differences. As an exaggerated example, if you're both going 100mph with only 3 car lengths in front of you, if they suddenly swerve or wheel pops, you're instantly running into them, you're going too fast for the car to react. At 30mph 3 car lengths works, you have enough time but not at 100mph. If you counted seconds, at 30mph you might be at 3 car lengths with 3 seconds but 3 seconds at 100mph might turn out to be 10 car lengths which would be better space.
Sir, I love this! When I was growing up in Los Angeles in the late sixties, I wrote a little pamphlet called, "Spaced Out Driving", unfortunately, it wasn't a hit!! ;) BUT, it was an attempt to get people to do exactly what you are suggesting. IT WORKS! Absolutely without a doubt! I was doing this then and I still drive this way. Two things: It is very relaxing, removes two or three layers of attentiveness, #2, sometimes people behind you get frustrated, that can't stand to see space in front of your car! THEY didn't read my book or listen to you. Keep up the good work, it also saves tons of carbon and brake pads!
The worst problem I see on the interstates, everywhere I go is that people don't use proper following distance. It widespread and dangerous. It's what causes those "near misses." Ask most people what proper following distance is, and most get it wrong. It isn't "two car lengths." It is 2 seconds. And 2 seconds is in perfect driving conditions, between passenger cars & light trucks. More is needed when it's snowing, raining, DARK, foggy, driving a big truck, etc.
EXACTLY. And as I mention below, if yours is the only gap in a solid-packed lane, you need to make the gap fairly large. If it can't act as a decel lane for merging drivers, someone might try to merge into your tiny gap at high speed. When I first started driving with proper following distance (heh, the only one doing this in rush hour,) someone almost had a fender-bender by trying to merge into my small gap at high speed. So from then on I started leaving much larger gaps.
Imagine being in that situation, driving fast while looking for a spot in a packed lane, and then you suddenly come upon a gap. It's tempting to jam on the brakes. But if the gap is fairly large, then you can see it from a larger distance, and the gap itself provides some space for decelerating.
Since watching thisvideo a good while back I have adopted your "leave a gap" mantra and you're completely right, I now feel like a much more Zen driver! Also, I get many more "thank you" waves from cars in front, who appreiate the fact that I let them in. And I notice that they in turn are more likely to leave a gap because someone did it for them. I now find driving on motorways much less stressful. Thank you!
Its not cheating to go all the way to the end, there is a reason the road is that long, to allow people to go all the way to the end. It is the INTENDED purpose to go all the way to the end. People who change lanes way too early are the ones causing the jams.
Exactly right. To avoid creating a traffic jam, where cars are merging, maintain one or two seconds gap ahead (rule of thumb: THREE cars should be able to merge ahead of you, barely.) If nobody else in the nearly-stopped through-lane is maintaining a gap, it means that you're the only one doing it right.
In many US states, in order to put a stop to incorrect early-merge behavior, they now use these signs: "STAY IN LANE TO MERGE POINT" Several of those. Then, at the last minute where the lane is ending: "MERGE HERE, TAKE TURNS."
That puts a stop to all the tailgaters and vigilantes who create miles-long tailbacks in their desperate efforts to punish the innocent.
This reminds me of how my friend told me that braking is the number one cause for traffic waves. Therefore I did this naturally by trying to avoid braking and I noticed the effects also. This video is an excellent explanation for what's happening
You are a good driver. I feel sorry for you having to explain yourself repeatedly to some drivers who are too dense to understand your video and explanation.
This video should get more views.
I have been doing this since the early 80's! I used to weave and pass, and one day I passed a bus, and then miles later got off at the exit and that same bus pulled right in behind me. And I realized while I was a long way in front of that bus, it actually made no difference at all because that bus had not changed a single line the whole trip. So then like you, I started playing games as to how much space I should leave to prevent too many cheaters that then caused a new jam, vs kept everyone moving. Plus I found I didn't have to replace my brakes on my car as often because I rarely used them!
I love the "Zen warrior" attitude. I also think that the other driver is "rushing to their dying daughter's bedside and who am I to block that?" Also by driving predictably they weave around me safely and all of us arrive at our destination without a wreck.
This is the thing. If everybody slightly "disadvantages" themselves by being generous - it actually gets faster for everyone. It's the "selfish" trap that's actually bringing average speeds down.
I'd find the extra time less annoying than constant starting and stopping, especially in a car with manual transmission like most people have in England. It's the "Jesus" way of thinking that is usually unnatural to the average human. It's nice if you can find a gear where the idle speed is the right speed. I suppose if you have cruise control that works at 10mph that would be useful too.
Brilliant!
48 hours ago, I was on this exact line toward the express lanes (and not sure it saved me any time in the end due to the problems you described). The circumstances of my being on that road at that time was that I was moving back to Vancouver BC from a 10 year stay in LA ... partly to escape the maddening traffic. Walking, cycling and using a well connected transit grid with trains going every 3 minutes ... ahhhh
A lot of knee jerk negative reactions here. I wonder if anyone actually gave this some SERIOUS thought.
I actually did this yesterday going to south towards San Francisco and by god I think it worked. There was an accident that was about cleaned up but still causing huge traffic, and that normally takes me 40-50 minutes from my start with regular traffic. I started going at a slower but consistent pace, let people merge between me, kept my foot off the breaks in general and it only took me about 31 minutes on a nice smooth drive. Thanks beaty this great
And at the end, the Acura here was tamed by Road Zen Master wbeaty using canadian techniques
The "zipper merge" is by far the most efficient way to merge, alternating merging from each lane at the END of the merge lane in a L-R-L-R-L-... manner. The best way to promote that sort of behavior is to actively position yourself in such a way towards the END of the merge lane that you can allow a single car to merge into the lane in front of you, the car behind you can do the same thing, and so on. I agree completely that people have an obnoxious tendency to tailgate the car in front of them at the end of the merge lane, seemingly to prevent even a single car from successfully merging. This is the root of almost all merge-based gridlock. I've found that being persistent in "enforcing" the R-L-R-L tends to lead to those anti-"cheaters" as you call them eventually allowing you in, hopefully without too much damage to their fragile egos. I agree with your diagnosis of the "gear teeth" analogy, and that people don't seem to want to submit to it, but I must respectfully disagree with your solution. I'm realizing that this could turn into a long-winded debate so I'll just stop here.
Unfortunately this video doesn't show the daily jam breaking up entirely. I haven't captured that on video, since I don't drive this section of I-5 anymore. What's the point of this video? It shows a "sensitive jam" in Seattle, a jam that just one driver can vaporize. One driver can have an enormous impact on traffic jams ...sometimes. But most jams aren't exquisitely sensitive like this one, and then it would take far more than just one driver to have a large effect.
So the point of the video is to attack the idea that jams behave in linear proportional manner where one driver only has vanishingly small effect. No, instead jams are highly nonlinear, with "tipping points" that can be triggered by just a few smart drivers with different behavior.
Or put more simply: "zipper merges" persist once they form, and sometimes a single driver can trigger the zipper process.
From playing with this particular jam, my conclusion is: if everyone in the jam was leaving space, it would "zipper" and drain out ...and there'd be no long backup for me to play with. But if everyone is tailgating, so the daily backup has grown to 3000ft, JUST ONE DRIVER can often evaporate the entire jam by leaving one large space. In this particular jam, one large space has about the same effect as a lot of little ones. It's an exit-lane hysterisis effect, a switch than can be flipped between "jammed" and "unjammed." But for this to happen, EVERYONE has to be tailgating like a maniac. Just a few large spaces will wipe out this jam.
But it does mean that, if the exit lane was unjammed and flowing, and two asshats get into a pissing contest and come to a near halt, they can switch the exit flow into "jammed" again, and it will stay that way.
What one fool can un-do, another fool can re-do!
One car can also cause a huge traffic jam, usually by going slower than the flow of traffic.
This is great. I have discovered this in the UK too. I was a driving instructor and will share this with others. Many thanks.
Thanks for a great video. I can tell by other comments you've received that many people's common sense conflicts with reality.
Actually, they did a study on this back in 2004 where they tried to label different kinds of drivers and find an optimal flow rate. In the end, they found that if 1/200 cars does this, it will eliminate 60% of all traffic jams. They even did a simulation where they inserted the proper proportion of "robot cars" in addition to the regular traffic, and even with more cars on the road there was still a better traffic throughput.
This is why we need self driving cars. In a network of self driving cars you can have every single car act like this when needed and avoid any traffic jams
A few years back, someone at the Hawaii State Department of Transportation talked in an interview about driving like a "grasshopper" versus driving like an "ant" and encouraged drivers to be more like grasshoppers because it makes better use of the lanes whereas ant-style driving can back up traffic for blocks. He also pointed out that this works best if each driver lets one car in when it's necessary to merge.
They should show this in driver's ed.
When it comes to techniques for easing traffic, it is funny how many of them basically boil down to "smooth out speed and leave gaps". I've seen in a few places that you should slow down early so you can avoid over-breaking later. CGP Grey's video on traffic specifically mentioned trying to equalize the space in front and behind of you, though that seems to rely more on everyone doing the same thing. I like that this method focuses on the effect even one driver can have!
CGP Grey didn't make the first-hand discovery, never personally erased any jams on a miles-long highway with headlights visible. So, he's not a full-on "Believer."
Also, I first worked all this out in 1998. The start of the craze. I was even Cool Site of the Day!
But I didn't try filming anything until ten years later. Now recently the research community is finally writing papers about the enormous effects produced intentionally by one single driver. Only took 'em twenty years!
See original article:
- web.archive.org/web/19990117011502/www.eskimo.com/~billb/amateur/traffic/traffic1.html
- web.archive.org/web/19990223201905/www.eskimo.com/%7Ebillb/amateur/traffic/seatraf.html
- trafficwaves.org/
But what about the people behind you? Aren't you creating your own jam by going slower than majority of drivers?
He's going maybe 1mph slower than the average speed of the group of cars ahead of him who are continually stopping and going. By going just 1mph slower, hundreds of cars behind him are able to put on their cruise control, matched at his speed, and they don't have to worry about any stop and go traffic.
Nicholas Begnaud But you saw yourself how quickly cars filled up that gap. Even if you leave 4-5 car lengths, people are going to budge in. By leaving more like 10 car lengths, you account for those who will merge ahead of you and still leave enough car lengths to continue rolling when the wave stops in front of you.
I don't think so. He only stopped once in that entire video while the people ahead of him stopped repeatedly. Everyone behind him is slowly rolling, but when people start to roll they "relax" and loosen up the space, allowing traffic to flow much more freely.
No because you are still driving the average speed of everyone else. You lose the lost time of stopping and going, and everyone behind you gains that time... so you are actually making them get to their destination faster.
It takes a bit of intelligence, which is why there are a lot of traffic jams. I drive a lot like this guy, always have. Never been in an accident, never got a moving violation. Insurance costs me $30 a month in FL, and it has absolutely kept me from getting into a number of accidents.
One time I was next to a car cruising at 55, someone came flying up the car next to me, so I backed off to let them cut me off, but they tried to go around in the shoulder(dumb) and lost control, crashing into the car I was next to, causing both to roll 8 times in front of me. All the while I am about 15 feet back just riding the brakes and enjoying the show.
> Aren't you creating your own jam by going slower
I'm not going slower. For example, if I drove just 2MPH slower for my entire 30min commute, it would open up a 5000ft gap ahead of me.
If you're a habitual tailgater and have never maintained any forward gap in your whole life, you might be trapped in the delusion that "tailgating gets me there faster." Nope. Whether your gap is one car or ten, you can't drive faster than the guy ahead of you. In other words, SPEED is everything, and empty gaps are irrelevant. Unfortunately, to shave ten minutes off your commute, you'd have to pass about 600 other cars (that's in heavy congestion, with tailgaters all spaced unsafely at one second apart.) Or, maybe some pro trucker many minutes ahead of you managed to un-trigger a clogged merge-lane, and so removed a many-minutes backup.
I used to live in Houston, TX where you had to have a car to get around. I did this exact same technique on my own. 100% what you say. Tripping me out that I did exactly as you. Great video, thanks for posting!!!
if you let others in, you then running into risk of getting caught behind that 5 minutes traffic light. One car can cost you a traffic light. imagining 10 cars?
You're exactly right. Note that this video APPLIES TO HIGHWAYS ONLY, where no traffic lights exist, and where traffic jams seem to have no cause.
Down in the city-grid, traffic flow is completely different. It's dominated by red lights, and the techniques shown here will not work. Inside cities, the common traffic jam is called "gridlock."
Hey Mr Beaty, I used to visit your fringe page soooo much - your site was a huge part of me getting into science. I remember all your drawings of traffic jam-breaking techniques, awesome to see it in action! Glad to see you're still keeping the gears turning :)
Clone ur brain and give them to every people
As a WSDOT employee I very much appreciate this video and how well it has been received. The state has spent a great deal of money on active traffic management systems (ATMs) for essentially the same thing - speed harmonization. Like you have explained the concept is simple, reduce the speed and increase the capacity of the roadway during rush hours. And being courteous goes a long way.
The people who rush ahead to the merge point aren't called "cheaters" they're called "people who are doing it right". If everyone did it the traffic would improve.
Read up on the zipper merge: www.dot.state.mn.us/zippermerge/
Did you not watch the video and listen to what he was saying? He specifically addressed what you're talking about. The cheaters get stopped by the blockers. The blockers blocking the cheaters cause MORE lanes to get stopped up. That or it causes a lot of people to miss their exit...
Hes giving the cheaters an opportunity to merge into the lane without having ANY EFFECT AT ALL ON THE SPEED OF THAT LANE. This causes the lane they came from to free up more, while giving them their merge that they needed as well. Its a win win. The zipper merge does not solve anything, its only the most efficient method for ALL traffic from two lanes to merge together into a single lane. This is NOT the case with the traffic he is describing, where there are 3 or more lanes.
Merging in at the last minute is only ideal if the through lane that you're in, is ending.
If you're merging in at the last minute and there are cars behind you, you're creating a huge amount of space in front of you while you're trying to merge.. So you're creating a traffic jam by merging late. The reason the "zipper" merge works in your example is because there is no lane ahead of the people merging in on the example given.
In every instance other than a lane ending, you should let people merge early.
The reason why you're wrong and also why the zipper move wouldn't work well in the above video is because people trying to merge in are delaying traffic behind them that is trying to get through but is being blocked by the car that's stopped in a through lane when trying to late-merge into a lane that's completely full of cars.... That's why you need to have a space to let people merge in so those cars don't stop in a through lane and create a traffic jam.. Also why the video is 100% correct.
Sidicas
Why would you create a "huge amount of space in front of you"? If people would let you merge instead of blocking you and forcing you to slow down you'd create exactly one car length of space - yours.
It all comes down to this: Leave room and let people get in.
Not a very bright person are ya?
Balu
"If people would let you merge instead of blocking you and forcing you to slow down you'd create exactly one car length of space - yours."
Ideally yes. But in reality, people think you're trying to cheat and won't let you merge into the lane because they've been in the "slow lane" for a while and saw you drive past the line, pull up in the other lane and try to cut in front.... The result is the car that's trying to merge in late then ends up stopped in a through lane and blocks traffic behind them trying to get through while they're trying to merge and nobody is letting them in. That's the reality..
You can't change the public opinion of EVERY driver, it's not going to happen.. So you can expect that people that late merge are going to create a huge amount of space in front of them due to the fact that people aren't letting them merge. Which creates a traffic jam.. The whole video is about how 1 driver can make a huge difference in preventing a traffic jam by letting people merge into the lane early instead of letting them go all the way down to the end and stop and wait for someone to let them merge.
THANK YOU! I commute now and then through the Seattle area and the Bellevue area, and realized that if I did this, especially in merging traffic lanes, I very rarely have to actually stop when moving past the usual jam spots. Often, the only time I really stop is when someone merging into my lane tries to rush ahead of someone else who's merging just ahead of them. I go these ways often enough that I can anticipate the ramps and slow down to make my gap as big as possible as soon as possible.
Had to stop watching like 3 minutes in after seeing countless cars pass you and get lost from sight in the distance. Yeah, stopping yourself from stop and go if you stayed stopped would do it too... You also don't have a rear camera to show how many people you're pissing off and holding up. What did you prove? All I could see is that you have the ability to travel from point a to b much slower than anyone else. Neat...
So, you didn't watch long enough, and never found out that this video is about a JAMMED LEFT-HAND EXIT? Those fast cars, they're not exiting, so they don't have to sit in this big backup. They're all in the exit-only lane for Seneca Ave.
Didn't listen, didn't watch, didn't read comments, then posts mistaken comments based on ignorance.
Again, and again: all those cars zipping along in the right lane, THEY'RE NOT EXITING HERE. Why should they sit in this long backup?
Yeah, no rear camera. The cars behind me are moving just as fast as me, and just as fast as the cars far ahead. Since I'm not driving slow, why should they do any different?
Ah, maybe you're one of those people who think that, if you tailgate, it means you're driving faster? And if you leave a gap, it means you're driving slow? Guess what. Traffic doesn't work that way. If I close up my gap and become another tailgater, it doesn't speed up the traffic at all. And the opposite happens too ...maintaining a gap wouldn't slow anyone down, as long as I don't need to drive 5MPH slower in order to create the gap. To create such a gap, just drive at 40MPH for awhile rather than 40.5MPH, and a quite large space opens up.
You are exactly the type of selfish, self-centered driver that causes these kinds of backups. He let in 11 cars over 6 minutes, just under one car every half a minute. That's losing what, 50-100 meters? At most that's 1/2 MPH slower than the stop-go-stop-go bumper jockeys like you.
"Countless" my ass, if it's so hard for you to count to 11, take off your shoes and try using your fingers AND your toes to keep track. The problem is people are emotionally immature and don't understand that getting angry at traffic and merging like a maniac gets you nowhere faster. Heaven forbid that we, as a car driving species, begin to use our little brains and *think* things through - we might not be so shocked at Mr. Wbeaty's calm driving patterns!
elfamelia
Also note that little was lost, since those eleven cars are merging. Blocking them is basically impossible. If I closed up any gap, they'll merge anyway, but much further down the row.
I suspect that many drivers think that, if someone merges directly ahead of them, it slows them down or looses them some headway, but if the same car merges further down the lane, there's no loss. Wrong, of course. It's weird psychological stuff that makes us think this way. The effect is the same whether they merge into our empty space, or merge two cars down the line, or ten.
And of course it's much, much worse if everyone blocks them, which gives them the right to slooooooowly bull their way into the lane. (In this video they aren't "cheating," instead many of them came from a right-lane entrance, and my clogged left lane was backed up *past* their entrance.)
more people need to see this. it's fantastic advice. the guy left out one big benefit, and that is safety! you are WAY less likely to get in a wreck if you maintain a healthy gap. it's easier on your brakes and you waste less gas too. i do my best to follow this and it is MUCH better on the mind, and for all the other drivers around you too. it really does help ease traffic, i do it as much as possible and have NEVER had a single reason to regret it.
there have been times i had to jump into someone's douch canoe. i do my best to avoid that, but god bless those people, they prevent a lot of stress.
The technique you are using is for trucks with air brakes. Leaving a space is good but the amount of space you are leaving is creating traffic and road rage for others! What bothers me most is that you are in the fast lane, going slow as fuck! Do this in the far right lane. That's what it's for!
> is for trucks with air brakes
That's a common misconception. Ask truckers, they'll tell you that they're creating empty spaces for jam-busting. Ever watched a big truck crawling along at 1mph in a jam, yet they maintain 500ft of room ahead? That's not for braking distance, not when crawling along at walking speed! Truckers have known about this Empty-Spaces trick for decades, I only discovered it in the 1990s, showing the trick on trafficwaves.org.
Actually, the FHA specifically tells us to maintain wide spaces, the widest we possibly can. Their three-point advice for congested highways is: "1. slower is actually faster, 2. maintain wide spaces, 3. don't merge early, merge like a zipper, at the last minute." And, for over fifty years the traffic engineers have been telling us that tailgating is terrible for highway traffic. The closer we follow, the slower the flow. The opposite is also true: huge spaces are good for traffic, they actually get everyone closer to their destination. (Yes, traffic is counterintuitive. Speed is everything, so opening up a space will shorten your trip.) In my video, I seem to be the only one who's driving correctly. Everyone else is tailgating like a maniac, and creating this 10-20mph clog.
Road-ragers, yes their ignorance of the basic highway driving is a major problem.
Most road-ragers are incompetent. A genuine expert driver might get angry about tailgaters, since habitual close-following is the source of enormous jams. Instead, those road-raging tailgaters, they get mad about the empty spaces! They're totally delusional. Also, often the fanatic tailgating is the only reason that a highway acts like a parking lot. Remove all the close-following aggressive drivers, and the traffic speeds up enormously.
If the big spaces in my video anger you, this strongly suggests that you don't understand traffic, and have been driving wrong your whole life. Instead, drive like a trucker. When long-haul highway truckers see you maintaining large spaces in a jam, often they'll wave and give you the thumbs-up. They see that you know the same "pro tricks" that they do.
>What bothers me most is that you are in the fast lane,
Ah, an inobservant driver! No situational awareness, eh? Watch the video, I'm in the exit-only lane. Really, that's the whole point of this video: it's about jams at exit-lanes and how to shatter them. The lane to my right is another exit-only lane. The "fast lane" is two lanes over!
Your attitude towards handling traffic is the way I try to live my life. Thanks for this I will drive like this from now on.
Lol probably 10 miles of cars behind this guy doing 50 in a 60. Which is why every person is passing him. At that point he is just being an obstacle and should not be in the fast lane slowing the people down behind him which is obviously why they are passing him up.
> Lol probably 10 miles of cars behind this guy +twlkr91 Of course not. This is an exit lane. So is the next lane.
This is a famous traffic jam. Very important: you have to actually WATCH THE VIDEO before commenting, otherwise you'll be totally clueless about what's happening here. To avoid displaying embarrassing ignorance, watch the whole video first. Also it's a good idea to read the "SHOW MORE" caption, and perhaps read some of the comments below. And you might want to take a look at the website, trafficwaves.org/
> Which is why every person is passing him.
No, they aren't. Those fast cars passing me are in AN EXIT-ONLY LANE going to city-center, to Seneca ave. Either they're exiting at Seneca, or they're trapped in the empty lane because they want to merge left, but everyone else in my lane is tailgating. No, *nobody* pulls out from behind me. After all, I'm going at the same speed as the cars ahead. Those cars passing me are mostly from the W. Seattle bridge, and they had zero chance to get into this clogged exit lane.
Have you ever seen truckers going 3mph in traffic jams while maintaining 500ft of empty space? Why do they do that? It's a jam-busting technique. This video reveals the trick.
Maintaining large space and encouraging merges, that's the opposite of being slow. It's actually a form of fast-driving where you try to wipe out the traffic jam ahead of you, making it vaporize before you arrive. "Merge-zone jam-busting."
But even without knowing any "secret tricks of the long-haul truckers," a driver has to have situational awareness in order to commute on highways.
For example, you're aware that I'm in an exit lane, right?
That's sorta the whole point of this entire video.
The lane to my right ...is another exit-only lane. And the actual "fast lane" is two lanes over to my right.
> being an obstacle and should not be in the fast lane
Yep, I guessed right. No situational awareness. I'm not in the fast lane. I'm in "EXIT ONLY TO EXPRESS LANES."
Whenever the left lane is not the "fast lane," you're probably going to cause trouble for everyone on the highway. And, if empty spaces on the highway drive you crazy, it just means that you're a habitual tailgater.
Tailgaters are the major cause of large backups at merge zones. If you drove this stretch of I-5, would you miss all the big EXIT ONLY signs going by overhead, as in this video? And then, wrongly assume that the left is the fast lane? If so, then when you got trapped here in the far left, you'd have to merge right *twice*, at perhaps 5MPH, to get over to the actual through-lane, and you'd block two entire lanes of traffic. You might even die when rear-ended by the 60MPH traffic in those adjacent lanes.
You know, a lot of problems (traffic and otherwise) could be resolved by people just having the ability or wherewithal to put themselves in the "shoes" and minds of their fellow humans... not necessarily to agree with them, but to understand them: how they think, why they act the way they do and make the decisions that they do. What you've essentially done here is just taken the time to think about why people behave badly in traffic and figured out how to mitigate that in a really effective way. I love it. 14 years later hope you are doing well.
Yep, I got into WSJ newspaper, also triggered off an enormous explosion of traffic-waves animations and experiments. In Seattle, in the highway section in the above video, the state installed variable-speed lane control towers, the first in the country. (Coincidence?) Also, they added a thousand feet of "double line" road stripes, and big signs saying "illegal to cross white double line" This moves the "fight" back by a thousand feet, and interferes with the jam-production.
But long before that, for many years this daily jam was GONE, because everyone in 2006 now knew exactly how to "bust" it. No fun for me anymore, wah.
But I've been at that same spot several times recently, and the jam is back! My video is too old, and a whole decade of new drivers are clueless. "Jam busting" was a brief internet fad back ten years ago. (There were LOTS of complaints online, about all the people who suddenly drive with great huge empty spaces, just like truckers always do. It was a sudden new thing. Obviously caused by my website trafficwaves.org/ , and the above video. )
For REAL weirdness ...I wondered how the traffic experts were going to explain the sudden change in traffic behavior, when tens of thousands of people learned about jam-busting. (The truckers knew about it since the 1940s. But internet let 4-wheel drivers learn the secret.) Only a very small number of gap-leaving drivers are needed, before the rush-hour jams become totally different.
What actually happened was that, all throughout the entire USA, the traffic fatality-rate plummeted! There were all sorts of headlines like "NYC traffic deaths lowest since 1904!" or "Traffic deaths plummet, but WHY?" and similar. It swept the whole country in roughly 2007. But now the fatality rate has crept up again, it's almost back to normal.
Maybe it was just coincidence, or maybe there was some other explanation. But it's possible that this one guy in seattle, caused tens of thousands of drivers to suddenly not die, by telling them about a simple truckers' secret for highway driving.
Me, I found that if I maintain a few-hundred feet gap during highway driving, then all my "near miss" accidents will vanish completely! Sometimes there are close calls, but they happen ahead of me while I watch, happening to people three hundred feet ahead. Sometimes there are actual accidents ...and I just change lanes, rather than panic-braking or rear-ending a stopped car. So yes, it's possible that driving with a huge gap will keep you from dying in flaming wreckage.
PS
Yep, I have a weird religion involving removal of the "false self." When you do that, you can nearly read minds of everyone around you, get inside their heads, watch how they function. That, plus being able to see through the delusions which tend to trap everyone else. False ideas such as, if we let one driver in ahead of us, it will set us back by five or ten minutes, as if each car was a shopping cart ahead of us at the cash register. Everyone thinks that the main rule for driving is "never let anyone cut in line." In reality, there is no line. It's a delusion. Instead it's a flow, and the main rule then becomes, NEVER TOUCH THE BRAKE PEDAL. If we have to touch the brake pedal during highway driving, we're doing it wrong.
This is fantastic! Thank you for showing everyone how a little bit of calm politeness goes a long way to help a lot of people.
Seriously. YOU. YOU. YOU ARE THE MAN.
Sensible superhero who saves so much collective time. I have no idea how much you must be adding to GDP with this time saving.
If you got on Oprah I suspect there'd be a significant global reduction in traffic queues.
I do both and omg THANK YOU FOR THE 2ND POINT! People assume I'm "being nice" when that behavior, if rippled onto other drivers, would have tremendous positive effects on traffic.
My personal record was being able to drive nearly 200mi across 3 major highways in my area without braking once by leveraging the 1st thing mentioned in this video. I kept seeing brake lights in front of me, but I never hit the brakes. The good thing with the first tip is that you eventually, unknowingly, transition into the art of engine braking: if you keep enough of a gap between your car and the car in front of you, you allow your engine to accelerate and decelerate more smoothly, which means you don't need to slow down as drastically; thus, you can slow down by simply adjusting how you're pressing the throttle.
Even better is, your car will _tell_ you when there's traffic miles down the road by how long it will take to downshift and re-accelerate, which gives you even more time/opportunity to adjust and avoid traffic as much as possible.
Someone once called this "Gravel Pit Etiquette," where huge haulers dance like ballerinas, because they all know the secret trick: "pushing ahead" brings everything to a standstill. Try that gap-closing stuff in the gravel pit, see if you're not dragged out of your vehicle and stomped by angry truckers.
This may sound insignificant but I found that the "Zen Warrior" phrase brought a whole new meaning to the concept in this video. Kudos on the vid btw!
What is this? Level-headed thinking, calm demeanor, logic, good manners... how am I supposed to road rage now?
Just pretend that you're in a race, and if you pass just one other driver, you're now In First Place. It passes the time.
Or, you could discover the One Weird Secret used by long haul truckers all over the country.
Make that two weird secrets. Well, I think I've discovered four or five more since I made this video. Some are totally evil: methods where one driver can, in theory, bring an entire city traffic network to its knees. The Satan Butterfly flaps its wings to produce a weaponized version of sensitive chaos. Then go online and watch the slow-spreading wave as the entire Seattle Traffic Map turns from green to red.
Coming up on 3 years later and you still answer all the questions? I will accept this method, and I will take on the wbeaty zen warrior method of stopping jams. You are a modern day hero.
In driving school, I was taught to always leave a gap in front of me big enough to stop if the car ahead of me were to instantly come to a complete stop at highway speeds. Wether or not you were going the speed limit. Always leave room for everyone else, if everyone would just realize that, instead of worrying about their mochajavabullsh... Getting cold before they get to the office, they would actually get there before it got cold instead of being jammed up for hours.
Thanks for making this, Zen master driver! I have been practicing a similar technique where I let people who tailgate to pass me. If a tailgater presents themselves I will simply pull over to the shoulder and maintain a steady speed. This signals the tailgater that they can attempt to pass. It works for me because I like to travel at calm speed and don't like people to ride my behind. It works for them because they get to go faster. Everyone is happy, everyone "wins"
Oh man I'm so glad to see someone teaching this. I feel stupid for not making the video myself! Great job! I've known these things for quite a few years but I've let myself regress and become frustrated that no one else understands. You made my day. Thank you!
You, sir, are a hero among commuters. I don't hit a lot of traffic jams where I live, but the next time I do I'm going to try this! Very, very cool.
I learned like this before I even started driving. I was taught it though as the slinky effect. If you are too close to someones car while they are at a stop, than you have to wait for them to move before you move and so on so forth. It is said to always keep a car length from you and the car in front of you. So everyone can move at once with an even space with no wait, and you can merge in a zipper like fashion, so on so forth. Same thing when you are at a red light.
I drive like this too! I became zen after I got my trucking licence and realized there is no race and I'm huge and need lotsa space ahead to stop. I drive like this in my car, too, and my life improved greatly. Thanks for the vid.
The 10 seconds of comments should be at the very beginning:
"How to become a calm Zen Master in heavy traffic jams."
Enlightenment is aimed at the Worthy, meaning, people who watch entire videos to the end. No longer do we publish everything in Latin; no longer do we triage the hoards of acolytes over several years, to only allow the select few into the inner circle! What did Wesley say? THE HIGHER, THE FEWWWERRRRR!!!!
But seriously, this stuff is real ...which means that it can be weaponized. I saw somebody accidentally bring the entire Eastside traffic-network to a standstill, like a fluidic flipflop hidden in a particular location. Remember what Peter Parker's uncle Ben said.
I've been trying to explain this concept to my friends! My passengers love that I go a steady speed through congestion instead of constantly hitting the brakes, too.
Been doing this for years now thanks to you. I've noticed the best drivers around me never (have to) use the brakes.
I live in that area. I too have experienced this phenomena, Your tactics are true and well thought out. Everyone in the sound should watch this
you make me think different, thanks Mr.
Just watching you go that slow on a highway is making me so anxious and I don't have anxiety problems. If I did this someone would be on my ass the whole journey.
Excellent advice, I had been doing something kind of similar subconsciously but now I will continue doing it consciously whilst on the roads.
Very cool. I commute in the Seattle area as well. I will give this a try. Thanks!
That's awesome. I was explaining the cause of stop and go traffic jams to one of my friends a while ago talking about how someone braking enough to affect the driver behind them is enough to cause a jam that people later will come to the end of and be really mad once they see that there is seemingly no reason for it. It's cool to know that there's a way to sort of cancel it out that revolves around not being impatient.
The two second rule and one car length rule pretty much sum this up. I see more and more people tail gating as my city grows larger.
This is terrific. I saw it a couple of years ago and then forgot all about the lessons of the video. I have a long commute, and have started to drive less aggressively, and it has a huge effect on my mood, if nothing else. I hope it helps the traffic situation ahead too.
I do exactly what you're doing every day on my commute to and from Milwaukee. I thought I was alone. Good job!
I am gonna start to learn my self how to drive in the spring or summer and I'd like to thank you for sharing this useful information, now I don't have to worry about traffic jams anymore!
Great video. I'm reminded of a merge here we have for carpoolers on the left hand side of the interstate. If a couple people that leave ample space for merging, traffic keeps moving just fine in the wake.
I try to drive the same way. Leaving enough space for someone to get in while being aware of what is happening a few hundred yards ahead so I can adjust my speed slowly instead of braking. Biggest challenge is massive commuter buses since they obstruct my view on straight/flat roads.
Good insights! I used to do something like this when I lived in cities. Then I moved to Iowa and didn't need the skill. Falling back and chilling out is definitely the way to go (as well as maintaining proper spacing).
Agreed. I would argue additionally that the biggest problem lies in drivers' reaction times. Drivers tend to like to sit stopped once they've stopped, and the cumulative stopping time adds up. By creating the space in front of you by driving more slowly and still reaching a point ahead at the same time you would have had you been tailgating (since you would have been stopped at that point), you're reacting with a negative reaction time.The less you accelerate/brake, the smoother traffic flows.
As a fellow Seattle dweller, I just wanted to tell you that you're my hero for this. I wish they'd play this video, on a loop, on all those stupid monitors they put up along 520.
This works! Bonus: when there's a string of "high-speed bumper-cars prepping for tow trucks" you won't be trading info with them. Far more pleasant -- and safer -- to drive where there's nobody around than being packed like 75 MPH sardines. The sardines will get to that eventual red light nearly 8 seconds earlier, so they're obviously smarter. ;-) That empty space in front of you is *YOUR* room to maneuver quickly and avoid collisions and slow traffic.
Wow, this is incredible. I'm definitely going to try this next time I'm on the road. Pittsburgh has wicked traffic during rush hour, mostly because the roads are so incredibly confusing (lots of roads that are one-way only at certain times of day, streets that meet at confusing angles, oddly placed traffic lights, baffling signs, etc.). Now that I know how, I'm going to try to do my part to make rush hour less irritating. Thank you! I really hope more people see this video.