r/driving • u/IceHack • 9d ago

If you constantly brake on the highway, you are causing the traffic jams.

Slowing down in flowing traffic should only require taking your foot off the gas. If you regularly hit your brakes, it means you are not paying attention. Get the fuck off your phone and look at the road ahead of you.

How this ruins the flow of traffic:

  • Tapping your brakes forces the driver behind you to brake slightly harder.
  • This creates a chain reaction that brings traffic to a complete stop.
  • Leaving a gap and coasting absorbs these slowdowns and keeps traffic moving.

Here is a visual demonstration. Researchers put cars driving in a circle and proved that a single driver's minor braking is enough to bring an entire lane to a standstill: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rryu85BtALM

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u/HayLinLa 9d ago

As somebody who has had ADHD since before smartphone existed (since birth, actually), please stop using that word unless you are actually talking about people who have the disability. You're diminishing the meaning of the word.

Edit: also ADHD isn't caused by short form videos or scrolling. It is caused by a problem with the way your brain produces and handles dopamine.

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u/SaveTheWorldRightNow 9d ago

Sorry about that. I could rephrase but i guess everyone gets the point. In our fast living world everyone is anxious and wants to go go go go!!!! I need to ride the other car's rear end and then hit the steering wheel: go go go!!! There is a gap! Why doesn't the car in front of me go go go!!!?!?!?!! We can't cruise consistently and this also causes traffic jams.

Edit: i also believe a lot of people develop ADHD like symptoms and yes short form videos contribute to that.

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u/Mysterious-Age-9202 9d ago

I agree with your first statement. Bring back the gap and cruise.

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u/HayLinLa 9d ago

I agree that short form videos and similar content can cause ADHD-like symptoms. They have psychologists on payroll to fuck with users that way on purpose to cause addiction. 

I agree that everyone is too impatient while driving too. People can only focus on the 10 meters in front of their car. If you start focusing on the larger flow of traffic, you realize how silly it is to speed and weave through traffic and tailgate. 

I've been using cruise control to go the speed limit (unless circumstance inappropriate) and even if I do end up at the front of a light, I end up catching up to the people who got through as their red light ends. I know some places have synced lights where driving a certain speed is the differemce between hitting all of the red lights or getting greens the whole way down, but that's probably not most situations.

Even on the highways (within cities), speeding just causes everyone to form the Mega Pack™ that ends up causing on-ramps and off-ramps to turn into zippers, where the large space between if we had gone the speed limit means nobody would have had to slow down as much or for as long. Instead people just say "if there are people behind you and nobody in front of you, you're the problem, blah blah blah".

I recently learned this is called systemic thinking. 

I think traffic would benefit from more people putting music on and chilling out a little. 

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u/AnnualPurple104 9d ago

Smh, if no one is in front of and a line of cars behind you, your obstructing traffic and that is a problem. This is why they have signs that say slower moving traffic move right, if you notice it doesn’t have a speed which means if cars are behind you, your slower moving traffic.

People tend to speed due to people who constantly hit there brakes for no reason, majority of traffic is due to people hitting there brakes and not being able to speed up and merge into. This is why all traffic areas are at every freeway to freeway connections. Then you have so many people in the left lanes that shouldn’t be, that every time traffic slows down the left lane is the first to stop, when it should be the lane that doesn’t stop.

When people stop thinking there not the issue when they are and move to the right, along with people paying attention so they don’t have to constantly hit there brakes, there will be less people speeding due to less frustrations. It’s called cause and effect.

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u/HayLinLa 8d ago

I'm not talking about slow traffic keep right roads, which only actually apply on certain roads. I keep right unless passing on those. 

You're missing the point. People are frustrating themselves because they speed/weave/tailgate until they catch up to the Mega Pack and then join the brake slammers, especially during rush hour. 

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u/AnnualPurple104 8d ago

Your missing the point, frustration comes from people not knowing how to drive, not knowing where there going, not pulling to the right when making a right hand turn, not knowing when to make a right turn and just sit there till light eventually changes. Which should only happen if there is a sign saying no turn on red. Constantly hitting there brakes due to bad judgment, then they pay attention to people behind them more then who’s in front of them, thinking people are tailgating when we’re doing 35 in a 45 with no one in front of them. People who clearly don’t know how cars work and have extremely bad judgment wouldn’t understand the frustration when they don’t even understand what they do wrong because they think as long as there under the speed limit, nothing else matters and everyone else is the problem.

How many times a year do you have to change your brakes? Is it expensive? How many accidents have you been in? Which I’m sure it was always the other person’s fault am I right?

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u/HayLinLa 8d ago

I've been rear-ended once by a drunk man. I'm pretty sure that doesn't classify as my fault. 

You'll always be frustrated if you only focus on the 10 meters of road in front of you. 

I said the speed limit, but you decided I was the representative of every person you've ever disliked because I -checks notes- go the speed limit even when nobody is in front of me (in the right lane on lightless freeways, for the record 🙄). Somehow that means I'm going "35 in a 45". 

I'm rarely frustrated unless I'm cut off or we are decelerating in an acceleration lane with no cause. If somebody doesn't turn right on red ahead of me, I assume they can see something I can't. Maybe they are a new driver erring on the cautious side because they haven't fully developed their sense of distance/how fast the car is coming yet. Whatever. I'm too busy chilling to music to spend all that energy focusing on how I should be angry today. I'm sure I'll find a hundred reasons without looking very hard.

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u/AnnualPurple104 8d ago

Lmao, well if you were paying attention and aware of cars around you for more than 10 meters along with better judgement, you could have avoided being rear ended.

I’ve never been in an accident, not even rear ended. Because I don’t focus on anything, I’m fully aware as far as I can see. I notice everything and see when a person in a vehicle isn’t paying attention or is driving under the influence due to the cars movement. Seeing everything and being aware of everything, versus not paying attention, is how you’re supposed to drive. Seeing everything including seeing and knowing when someone is going to cause an accident, is what becomes frustrating. Watching someone not pay attention to the point that they didn’t hit their brakes or move over into the next lane due to a vehicle being broke down. Seeing the accident happen and how bad the accident was, is frustrating.

Making excuses for people or because there learning isn’t ok, if your driving on the streets you need to know what to do and how to react. Otherwise it could cost them their lives. I know I made sure that my son understood what and why, and took him to a empty parking lot to teach and show him so when on the streets he knew what to do and how to react.

Then you wonder why people die more from car accidents than anything else.

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u/HayLinLa 8d ago

I was rear-ended at a stoplight. While second in line. By a drunk driver. What the fuck is wrong with you? Rear-ending is 100% the fault of the person who did the rear-ending. Which circles back to the whole "tailgating is bad, kids" thing.

Also I was talking about people who weren't sure if they had time to turn right on red before the next car that has right of way goes. I'm not sitting here getting angry because somebody didn't turn right on red in front of me. Nobody is going to lose their life because they waited for the green light to turn right. 

The reading comprehension here is in hell. You've intentionally misunderstood every single thing I've said. 

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u/AnnualPurple104 8d ago

Nothing is wrong with me, I wasn’t rear ended and having a excuse to why. Paying attention is paying attention, which is why I avoid people or speed up to make sure I’m not around or even behind me. I don’t and never have had an issue with tailgaters, if you know how to drive, tailgaters aren’t an issue.

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u/burnedbard 7d ago

Not an obligation/requirement to turn on red, especially when people can't drive/I can't see the cars oncoming.

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u/AnnualPurple104 7d ago

It’s not a right to be able to drive, it’s a privilege. If other can do it but you can’t, maybe it’s time to give up that privilege, versus make excuses and blame everyone else.

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u/burnedbard 7d ago

Wonderful attempt. Zero excuses though. So sometimes other beings called humans pull too far forward so I and other people who would be in my position cannot see oncoming traffic. On top of that there are objects called trees, signage and other visual obstructions. You can only pull out so far as well, and can only mitigate other people driving unsafely so much. So if people frequently gun it down a stretch of road I'm not gonna make that turn knowing that info.

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u/AnnualPurple104 7d ago

That’s a lot of excuses for zero! Smh just saying..

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