There is a great YouTube channel called CGP Grey. The creator makes entertainingly informative videos on a wide range of subjects and one of those videos changed the way I think about driving in heavy traffic. I’d like to talk about it in this post since I think it has the potential to do a lot of good if more people learned about and adopted this strategy.
In short, the idea is to keep the same amount of space between the vehicle ahead of you and the vehicle behind you. This will give you enough time to react as needed and prevent you or the car behind you from having to brake suddenly. I try to keep this in mind whenever I’m on the road, especially during congested periods. When I’m in stop-and-go traffic, I’d rather slowly move forward at a steady pace than continually alternate between speeding up and slowing down. This means resisting the urge to mimic the other drivers around me and instead follow a better approach.
This strategy is also effective at red lights. Giving the car ahead of you some space will allow you to accelerate sooner and more quickly once the light turns green, making you more likely to get through the intersection before the next red light. Just as with heavy traffic on normal roads, this means that I have to be more patient and refrain from getting as close as possible to the car that’s in front of me. This was difficult for a while but it’s become almost second nature at this point since I’ve practiced it so much.
At the very least, this strategy makes me feel calmer when I’m in heavy traffic. It helps me to keep in mind that driving quickly and staying close to the car ahead of me will just keep me stuck there longer, so why intentionally frustrate and detain myself? In times of heavy traffic, as in many other times in life, doing the opposite of what is common and intuitive works much better and gets me closer to where I want to be. I hope that this has been useful and reduces the time you spend in heavy traffic if you decide to test this strategy for yourself.