Driving home commute: In the afternoon, the homebound commuter traffic on I40 westbound to Durham can be so heavy that it's sometimes stop and go. It was annoying until I made up a new routine because of an idea I had for relieving traffic congestion. Traffic can go bumper to bumper at 65 mph until someone brakes and it creates a chain reaction of a WAVE of braking cars.
I wanted to not have to hit the brake pedal so I slowed down enough to avoid it and I discovered the cars behind me were all moving smoothly unlike the other lanes. So I started deliberatly trying to relieve traffic jams. I hadn't worked out the whole thing in my mind esp as it irked me when people would fill in the space in front of me from other lanes...Then I saw this video by a guy who really thought it all out. His experiences were almost identical to mine, but he also saw the efficacy of allowing cars to merge into your lane in front of you because they would have forced their way in and caused an abrupt braking and a traffic wave! He described the feeling of doing these acts as like a "Zen Warrior" and I felt great! Try it and see if you grasp the significance of the removal of traffic waves. Here's the video he made-much better than my explanation. Transform the traffic!-and have something cool(and helpful to others) to do while commuting home. Peace, Brian
cool, i'll have to try that sometime!
I've thought about this same thing! I always thought that everyone needs breathing room, so have left a space between cars that allows people to drive as they need to, without effecting me. I always thought it had to do with resistance, and people going slower to push back on the person behind them who was resisting their slow driving. (Think about what happens when you tailgate a slow vehicle, or when you're tailgated... chances are the car in front will slow down, not speed up.) I also always figured that allowing someone in with a smile was so much better for the collective energy of the group of drivers than trying to budge them out (which never really works to do anything but create frustration).
Cool video, Brian!
k
Hi Brian,
This video is really neat. I loved this guy's easy to understand explanations and logical common sense. Sometimes the fastest way to get somewhere is to just slow down. Not quite so easy to remember when caught up in the “morphic field” of the road filled with anxious,angry and stressed drivers, though. Thanks for sharing this.
With Love,
Mary