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On Thu, 03 Dec 2015 10:37:18 -0500,
wrote:

On Thu, 03 Dec 2015 07:28:12 -0500, John H.
wrote:

On I-95, between here and Richmond, it's also the speeders. The traffic can be moving
nicely at 70mph until some asshole (not you Wayne) comes zipping and cutting through
lanes. The folks he cuts off hit their brakes, and many rear end collisions happen
just that way.

Of course, following too close has much to do with it. The 'two second rule' should
be law!

===

Some of that results from people who aren't used to driving in heavy
traffic. After years of commuting in the NY/NJ area it doesn't faze
me at all to drive 60 or 70 mph with only a few car lengths of
spacing. If you allow more space to develop in rush hour, someone
will cut if front of you to close things up. If that happens to me I
just shrug it off and say to myself that I gave him too much room.
Others however will get bent out of shape and start slowing down in an
attempt to recreate their gap.

The secret to driving safely with minimal gaps is to look down the
road past the car in front of you. Sometimes you can actually see
through the car in front, other times you have to move slightly to one
side. You can prove mathematically using queuing theory that
excessive spacing between cars slows down the amount of traffic that a
road can deliver (throughput). Many people realize this instinctively
without doing the math but others are totally oblivious.

The beltway has a lot of NASCAR spacing going on too. If you have 6
car lengths between you and the car in front of you, 2 more cars will
squeeze in there.

Worst case is that guy from the midwest who freaks every time a car
infringes on that space and slams on his brakes.