"Sometimes a single driver can vastly improve traffic." - AJ Batac (/-_-) from Bookmarklet

I always leave a large gap in front of me. - Michelle M

I think I'll do this from now on - AJ Batac (/-_-)

I had heard about something like this a while back. I try to do it as much as I can but jackalopes are always cutting in the space. Oh well. - caj

Continue what you are doing Curtis. Don't mind those jackalopeseses - AJ Batac (/-_-)

This philosophy collapses when you have real gridlock though; if all the lanes are clogged with stopped (or very slow moving) traffic and you try to employ this technique, you just end up pissing off the cars trapped behind you because you are going 5mph while everyone else is going 10. - Phil Glockner

It's simply courteous and defensive driving. There should be space between cars for safety. And there's no reason to close ranks to not allow others in. We're all going in the same direction with the same goal. If you'd like others to be courteous, always be courteous yourself. - ·[▪_▪]·

Living in LA has totally colored how I drive now. I remember going back home to SD to see my folks and I was agog at how much more aggressive I'd become. :( - Derrick

It's not cheating, it's just optimal timing :-) - Todd Hoff

It's the rocket scientist like this that causes wrecks behind him and road rage. Slower traffic keep right is the law (for good reason). He demonstrates why he should stay in the far right lane, go about his business, and stop trying to "fix all of the traffic around him". What an ego. - Robert Kenney

the most important part is really the end, where he says how this style of driving is actually calming and altruistic instead of infuriating and selfish.... geez, if everything felt that way we'd have less problems once people got out of their car, all frustrated and pissy. - Nicķ

Simple math. - Mike Reynolds

This is absolutely brilliant. I think I just found a pick of the week and it's only Tuesday. - Josh Haley

This is the dude who did the zero cost steadycam using a tripod. Good stuff. - Rodfather

I gotta check that out, Rodfather. I could put a steadycam to work. http://www.wonderhowto.com/how-to... - Josh Haley

I received a 404 error. There seems to be a traffic jam on the server as well. - Louis Trapani from iPhone

It's kind of obvious.. stop and go causes problems (and wrecks), even if it does take you longer, it doesn't FEEL longer because you aren't gas/break/gas/break, so less stressful drive. On the flip side, you think this guy driving slow (and not keeping the traffic pace) will cause someone else to slam him in the rear? - Tim Hoeck

It might cause more disruption with cars behind him moving into the other lane to pass him. Honestly, I can't stand drivers who leave a huge gap in front during a traffic jam. Josh, it's basically just extending a tripod and holding it in the middle :) http://www.youtube.com/watch... - Rodfather

Interesting: "Governor Bush vetoed 2005 SB732, which would have reserved the left lane for passing, saying that drivers blocking the left lane are 'cautious and careful.'" - from "State keep right laws" http://www.mit.edu/~jfc... - Micah

So, his basic tactic, albeit in a single lane, is similar to what I see highway patrol officers do when they want to SLOW DOWN traffic -- the highway patrol car swerves back and forth from fast to left to right lane and back and forth, lights ablazing, effectively doing two things -- creating a BIG GAP between the cop car and the rest of the traffic in front of him, and second SLOWS DOWN the cars behind him. That's all this guy is doing, really. Slowing down people behind him. Seems awfully presumptuous to me. - Pete D

A few people already mentioned it above, but let me also say that this technique will not work in heavily trafficked roads. I've spent time in cities like Kuala Lumpur, Jakarta, Bangkok and you just can't leave a large gap between you and the car in front of you. First they will get filled by other cars really really quickly, and second you will just piss off the cars behind you. - Andre P. Siregar

My wife and I debate this, because I sometimes do this myself. Stop and go traffic seems silly, when throughput would be higher if people left enough space between cars to absorb some of the braking. The website at http://trafficwaves.org/ is interesting, especially the link to http://www.ur.umich.edu/0304... that claims single-lane jams would be radically reduced if >=20% of cars had adaptive cruise control. - Matt Cutts

Meh. I just do whatever gets me to my destination fastest #aggressivedriver - LANjackal

kinda like why people are requested to exit in an orderly fashion during a fire. The only hindrance to this is getting over the feeling of being taken advantage of by the jackasses who ignore the order. But no pain no gain and you have to live with that for the greater good. - vijay

I practice a type-A version of this in non-stop-and-go traffic, I'd call "driving Parkour", basically, I tend to drive over the speed limit, but I leave large gaps, and when I need to slow down, I avoid hitting my brakes and try to led friction/drag slow my car down before I have to hit my breaks. I look far ahead and try to plot out if I need to switch lanes in order to maintain speed or avoid braking. Basically, hitting brakes in causes a cascading effect in dense traffic that is far worse at night it seems. I'm one of those 'cheaters' in merge lanes. When people are merging, I follow a 'even-odd' rule, where I let one car in, but expect the next driver to go behind me. However, when I'm the one merging, I get irritated when a number of other people purposely speed up from near standstill just to close a large gap and block me merging, so I race to the end of the line and force me way in. Bastards! - Ray Cromwell

Clarkson eluded to this in his unique crass manner, don't brake and drive clever. Save everyone money. - Toby Graham

the biggest cause of traffic jams are the idiots who don't get in lane and bimble along in the middle lane without any plan to actually overtake anyone. I've seen people when there has been nothing on the inside lane and yet they won't pull into it as they should. This is even more obvious when you consider that articulated lorries aren't allowed to drive in the outside lane, meaning the middle lane is their overtaking lane. The moment they encounter a slow, ignorant driver hogging the middle lane, they can't overtake and end up slowing all of the traffic up behind them. - alphaxion

( ++ alphaxion for 'bimble'. Loving that :D ) - vijay

The roads imho would be better if more drove this way. I was, however, waiting for some kind of shocking thing to happen in the video. - Rob Schieber

I wish iPhone supported flash or other flash based video websites especially if I want to watch videos on website other than YouTube. - Ashish from iPhone

I agree ashish. I "liked" this just so I could watch it later on my laptop. shouldn't have to do that. - Jen (SquirrelGirl)

This is actually an impressive use of game theory/backward induction to determine an optimal strategy. If this guy isn't a mathematician or work for the highway department, he should be. - Mark Trapp

i do the same here in Rome/Italy since 1998 - FullSite

Great to see this taken up again - I've been doing this since I first read his site years ago... - Kevin Marks

I always keep lot of room in front of my car for my safety but I think it takes lot of room and creates longer line. - Ashish

While the line may be longer the actual distance you travel isn't any greater; you use less gas; your breaks will last longer; you're less likely to be involved in a crash and in fact it has an almost negligible affect on your travel time. Yes it is "slower" but on my 50 mile commute the difference is maybe a couple of minutes. - Eoghann Irving

I agree Eoghann Irving. Wish everybody thought like this. - Ashish

+1 Pete Delucchi. I do agree it's probably better for your mental health to drive this way. Assuming you don't mind the "insult" of everybody cutting into to your lane. - Matsis

Drivers behind me may get annoyed but there is always room at the front ;) - Ashish

I used to drive like this, until my commute changed to one that had more traffic lights. Then I realized that letting cars in front of me didn't make 1 second per car difference, it could make 10's of minutes, because I'd often miss traffic light cycles. I wish it wasn't the case - I guess it's going to depends on your commute. - Nick Lothian

for the most part this will work; unless you're in the NYC area or such. - clarke thomas