Drive smart: Don't brake.
Look, everyone makes a mistake now and then. Who hasn't cut someone else off, be it deliberate or accidental? These mistakes are generally forgivable- even the aggressive ones. Nope, the problems are the people that brake.
Sure, there are lots of reasons to brake- an animal approaching the road, an upcoming stoplight, or a patch of ice are all great reasons to brake. However, braking is far too common, and braking leads to jammed traffic.
The braking epidemic stems from this: drivers today cannot respect adequate following distances. Driving courses today teach two or three second following distances, and those distances are pretty ludicrous given the congestion in today's urban traffic. There are simply too many cars on the road today to respect those guidelines. An alert driver in a capable vehicle probably doesn't need to be so conservative for safety's sake. However, short following distances lead to traffic jams, and that is a problem drivers should not ignore. Packing more cars onto a highway doesn't help its capacity if traffic slows down!
The scenario plays out like this: driver A is driving with the flow of traffic, maintaining his or her speed. Driver B is doing the same, keeping just a few car-length's behind Driver A. However, neither are using cruise control, and so there speeds vary a small amount. Driver B finds him or herself needing to slow down, and since they have such a small following distance, they need do it immediately. So what happens? That person brakes, suddenly. Perhaps they only slow themselves down 1mph, or perhaps they slow themselves down 10mph. Driver C, following driver B, doesn't know how much the car in front is braking, and that person has to brake at least as much to avoid the chance of a rear-end collision. This chain reaction continues until a driver with a sufficient following distance is able to watch the driver preceeding them vary their speed without requiring any significant variation to his or her own speed. If the road is too crowded with non-existant following distances, the chain reaction will continue until a car ends up stopped.
The other cause of traffic comes when a driver has too large of a following distance: they're not going fast enough. This causes road rage, irrational thinking, and competition for the passing lane. When drivers get too aggressive in the passing lane, we get the same problem as in the first situation.
So while both overly aggressive and under-aggressive drivers can be blamed, the common element is this: braking is bad. Braking on a freeway is almost always the result of driver error, be it your error a person ahead of you. Braking is an admission of failure. When you're brake lights illuminate, it's a waving flag to the driver's behind you reading, "Look at me, I'm part of the problem!"
Braking not only causes traffic congestion, but it's purely wasted energy. Your brakes convert your vehicles energy into heat that will never be recovered. For every little bit you brake, that's work your engine did for nothing. Wasting energy seems pretty silly with gas prices being such a popular topic nowadays, doesn't it? Learning to drive for good gas mileage means learning to drive without braking. To that extent, I do find it quite inconsiderate to the drivers behind you to brake going downhill- regardless of the posted speed limit (residential/unsafe areas excluded). You're essentially forcing them to waste gas too.
Traffic only moves as fast as the very slowest car in that lane. By respecting a reasonable following distance, you will find yourself better able to maintain a constant speed. If you do need to slow, you will be able to do so more gradually so that the drivers following you will not need to react in panic and overcompensate. The reality is that you won't get where you're going any faster (since you can't control the car in front of you), but you'll be doing your part to help all the frustrated drivers behind you.
Drive smart. Look ahead and plan ahead when driving. Don't brake.
Sure, there are lots of reasons to brake- an animal approaching the road, an upcoming stoplight, or a patch of ice are all great reasons to brake. However, braking is far too common, and braking leads to jammed traffic.
The braking epidemic stems from this: drivers today cannot respect adequate following distances. Driving courses today teach two or three second following distances, and those distances are pretty ludicrous given the congestion in today's urban traffic. There are simply too many cars on the road today to respect those guidelines. An alert driver in a capable vehicle probably doesn't need to be so conservative for safety's sake. However, short following distances lead to traffic jams, and that is a problem drivers should not ignore. Packing more cars onto a highway doesn't help its capacity if traffic slows down!
The scenario plays out like this: driver A is driving with the flow of traffic, maintaining his or her speed. Driver B is doing the same, keeping just a few car-length's behind Driver A. However, neither are using cruise control, and so there speeds vary a small amount. Driver B finds him or herself needing to slow down, and since they have such a small following distance, they need do it immediately. So what happens? That person brakes, suddenly. Perhaps they only slow themselves down 1mph, or perhaps they slow themselves down 10mph. Driver C, following driver B, doesn't know how much the car in front is braking, and that person has to brake at least as much to avoid the chance of a rear-end collision. This chain reaction continues until a driver with a sufficient following distance is able to watch the driver preceeding them vary their speed without requiring any significant variation to his or her own speed. If the road is too crowded with non-existant following distances, the chain reaction will continue until a car ends up stopped.
The other cause of traffic comes when a driver has too large of a following distance: they're not going fast enough. This causes road rage, irrational thinking, and competition for the passing lane. When drivers get too aggressive in the passing lane, we get the same problem as in the first situation.
So while both overly aggressive and under-aggressive drivers can be blamed, the common element is this: braking is bad. Braking on a freeway is almost always the result of driver error, be it your error a person ahead of you. Braking is an admission of failure. When you're brake lights illuminate, it's a waving flag to the driver's behind you reading, "Look at me, I'm part of the problem!"
Braking not only causes traffic congestion, but it's purely wasted energy. Your brakes convert your vehicles energy into heat that will never be recovered. For every little bit you brake, that's work your engine did for nothing. Wasting energy seems pretty silly with gas prices being such a popular topic nowadays, doesn't it? Learning to drive for good gas mileage means learning to drive without braking. To that extent, I do find it quite inconsiderate to the drivers behind you to brake going downhill- regardless of the posted speed limit (residential/unsafe areas excluded). You're essentially forcing them to waste gas too.
Traffic only moves as fast as the very slowest car in that lane. By respecting a reasonable following distance, you will find yourself better able to maintain a constant speed. If you do need to slow, you will be able to do so more gradually so that the drivers following you will not need to react in panic and overcompensate. The reality is that you won't get where you're going any faster (since you can't control the car in front of you), but you'll be doing your part to help all the frustrated drivers behind you.
Drive smart. Look ahead and plan ahead when driving. Don't brake.
posted by Steve at
1:47 AM
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