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posted by Fnord666 on Friday December 15 2017, @07:36PM   Printer-friendly
from the automate-that-already dept.

Gotta keep 'em separated:

When unexplained traffic jams happen, says an MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) study, you can probably blame tailgaters. The researchers say that if drivers kept an even distance between cars rather than driving too close to the vehicle in front, traffic flow would remain even. This "bilateral control," could double the speed of the average vehicle on busy highways.
...
This ideal is very different from what is the norm in most thinking about traffic, especially by those stuck in it. Drivers (and, consequently, vehicle control systems) tend to be looking ever forward, responding only to what's ahead and largely ignoring what's behind. Thus, in stop-and-go or slow-and-go situations (traffic jams), each vehicle reacts to the vehicle in front, causing intermittent slowdowns or stops (jams) in wave-like patterns. When vehicles are working to maintain equal distances both from the car in front and the vehicle behind, the MIT paper contends, these wave patterns are minimized and traffic flows more smoothly.

Maintaining even spacing facilitates lane changes and merges as well.


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  • (Score: 5, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 15 2017, @07:51PM (12 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 15 2017, @07:51PM (#610418)

    You drive manual, couple of things you try to avoid is frequent shift and full stop, and you do that by monitoring ahead, modulating speed and the distance to the car ahead. Automatic drivers have no such sense.

    • (Score: 2) by beckett on Friday December 15 2017, @08:50PM

      by beckett (1115) on Friday December 15 2017, @08:50PM (#610451)

      monitoring ahead, modulating speed and the distance to the car ahead.

      One of the things pointed out in TFA is traffic jams are exacerbated by the lack of 'bilateral control'; i.e. monitoring traffic BEHIND you, as well as in front of you.

    • (Score: 4, Insightful) by Grishnakh on Friday December 15 2017, @09:04PM

      by Grishnakh (2831) on Friday December 15 2017, @09:04PM (#610463)

      Not true, at least of all automatic drivers. Avoiding unnecessary speed changes and full stops is good for fuel economy on any car, so if you have that mindset, you're going to drive that way regardless of the transmission.

      But casting herky-jerky driving as being unique to auto drivers is unfair. For every auto driver that drives like that, I can find a proportionate number (as manual drivers are a small fraction of the population) of manual drivers who also drive erratically. It's just that the erratic manual drivers tend to be young men who think they're Speed Racer, and they're sure as hell not driving for efficiency either, and yes, they usually do tailgate a lot too, worse than the auto drivers, plus they usually drive recklessly in many other ways.

    • (Score: 5, Interesting) by bob_super on Friday December 15 2017, @10:32PM (9 children)

      by bob_super (1357) on Friday December 15 2017, @10:32PM (#610513)

      Automatic drivers hit the brakes to modulate their speed, which causes everyone behind them to react excessively (because brake lights are ON/OFF, not telling you how much braking is applied).
      If you downshift/clutch to slow down just a bit, the people three cars behind you don't drop their phones into their coffee to hit the brakes.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 15 2017, @11:12PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 15 2017, @11:12PM (#610537)

        Don't even need to down shift. If you maintain a decent distance in front, just pulling the foot off gas slows down sufficiently due to the engine brake effect.

      • (Score: 4, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 16 2017, @12:16AM

        by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 16 2017, @12:16AM (#610562)

        drop their phones into their coffee

        You say that like it's undesirable. If you had a device that caused that at the push of a button I'd be throwing money at you.

      • (Score: 5, Informative) by TheGratefulNet on Saturday December 16 2017, @02:35AM (1 child)

        by TheGratefulNet (659) on Saturday December 16 2017, @02:35AM (#610600)

        and for the younger players out there, a trick to get people to stop following you closely from behind (during daytime) is to NOT hit your brakes, but instead, put on the headlights! yeah, the rear lights come on, also, and while not as bright as a brake-pedal bright, its a change from total off to non-off. that usually fools the driver behind you and he'll slow down and maybe learn not to drive so closely next time.

        (you're welcome)

        --
        "It is now safe to switch off your computer."
        • (Score: 2) by Mykl on Monday December 18 2017, @02:10AM

          by Mykl (1112) on Monday December 18 2017, @02:10AM (#611216)

          Another thing you can do is to keep your foot on the accelerator, and quickly but firmly tap on the brake with your other foot. It has the effect of lurching you backward a little, but maintaining your speed. Frightens the hell out of tailgaters.

      • (Score: 2) by jdavidb on Saturday December 16 2017, @04:21AM (2 children)

        by jdavidb (5690) on Saturday December 16 2017, @04:21AM (#610614) Homepage Journal

        Automatic drivers hit the brakes to modulate their speed

        I simply take my foot off the accelerator when possible.

        --
        ⓋⒶ☮✝🕊 Secession is the right of all sentient beings
        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 16 2017, @03:00PM (1 child)

          by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 16 2017, @03:00PM (#610701)

          As does anybody else with any sense. Controlling the speed of a car is about both the brake and the accelerator. I'm not sure where people got the idea that they had to always have their foot on one or the other.

          • (Score: 2) by bob_super on Sunday December 17 2017, @08:02AM

            by bob_super (1357) on Sunday December 17 2017, @08:02AM (#610901)

            Auto trans cars do coast a lot when you don't touch the pedals. Manuals slow down.
            A modern 2-ton view-blocking auto-trans monster is also likely driven by someone who doesn't optimize their traffic-jam speed...

      • (Score: 2) by darkfeline on Tuesday December 19 2017, @08:11PM (1 child)

        by darkfeline (1030) on Tuesday December 19 2017, @08:11PM (#611945) Homepage

        If the guy behind wasn't tailgating, they wouldn't need to react excessively, but I'm guessing you're speaking from personal experience as a chronic tailgater?

        When the guy in front of me brakes, I take my foot off the gas and then rest my foot on the brake, slowly depressing it over a period of ~5 seconds as the situation demands. I have that much time available because I'm not tailgating.

        Even if the guy in front slams the brakes, I still have ~3 seconds to brake and/or change lanes as appropriate.

        --
        Join the SDF Public Access UNIX System today!
        • (Score: 2) by bob_super on Tuesday December 19 2017, @11:39PM

          by bob_super (1357) on Tuesday December 19 2017, @11:39PM (#612057)

          That was a stupid comment, and you should earn a downmod.
          If you spent a bit of time in traffic jams, you would notice that people overreact and slam their brakes. It's exacerbated by cars blocking the view in front, and drivers being distracted (kids, phone, food)...

          In fact, if people didn't overreact, you wouldn't have to stop, because nobody would reach a speed of 0 absent an actual obstacle. I've voiced multiple times my desire to heavily fine the first car to hit a complete stop, for they are the problem.
          I've managed, courtesy of a clutch, many miles crawling through LA jams without hitting the brakes nor ever coming to a complete stop. You can only do that if you pay attention to all other drivers' behaviors, and definitely not if you tailgate.

          But thanks for posting a dumb remark on a 4 day-old thread, dumbass. I'm glad your area's traffic allows you three or five seconds actions without getting cut off. Around here, I just get honked at, until the tailgater sometimes realizes I'm going as fast as traffic will allow, on average.

  • (Score: 4, Insightful) by Thexalon on Friday December 15 2017, @08:08PM (5 children)

    by Thexalon (636) on Friday December 15 2017, @08:08PM (#610425)

    This is why I'm definitely a proponent of software-controlled cars. They won't be perfect, but they will be better than human drivers by the time they'll be allowed in the "wild". The next best thing available now, adaptive cruise control, would also be an immense help for preventing this sort of thing.

    Of course, that won't help the guy in a souped up pickup who is mad as hell that there are people not getting out of his way so he can exercise his $DEITY-given right to drive 90mph.

    --
    The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
    • (Score: 3, Informative) by frojack on Saturday December 16 2017, @05:09AM

      by frojack (1554) on Saturday December 16 2017, @05:09AM (#610622) Journal

      This is why I'm definitely a proponent of software-controlled cars.

      I have a software controlled car, in fact they are becoming rather common. Not full autonomous yet.

      Its called adaptive cruise control (along with several other marketing names) which uses (variously depending on make/model) ) cameras, lidar, 25ghz radar, to maintain a distance behind the car you are following. Newer adaptive cruise control cars will follow the lead car all the way down to zero mph, and resume again as the lead car moves off. (stop and go traffic), always trying to maintain a speed adjusted distance from the car ahead.

      My model uses 25ghz radar, and it even notices cars ahead of the one you are following are slowing down, and will start slowing early even before the one right in front of you reacts.

      There are still some problems with this, which will have to be worked out for fully autonomous cars.

      First, is when some impatient jackass decides to jump into that gap between your car and the lead car, (for what ever insane reason). This causes your car to slow down (sometimes significantly) and illuminate it's brake lights, whether or not it actually using the brakes to slow down, to warn the driver behind you. That driver in turn slows down, and you end up with a counter-flow slow-spot, all induced by the lane-darter.

      A human might have noticed the lane dart about to happen and chosen to temporarily sacrificed a little bit of that following distance to prevent having to brake and thereby induce the counter-flow. Of course the lane-darter is totally unaware of the shit they cause behind them.

      I suspect autonomous vehicles to actually make this worse*, either in their braking or their darting. It will take generations of software refinement to get rid of this.

      * Don't think for a minute automakers will do the right thing and prevent their autonomous cars from lane darting. I'll bet they will just do so more precisely, having the advantage of precise calculations. Any automaker that would cheat on Diesel emissions would would built a "traffic expediter option" into their self drive software. Maybe it will come with Peril Sensitive Sunglasses for the passengers.
       

      --
      No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
    • (Score: 2) by captain normal on Saturday December 16 2017, @06:09AM (3 children)

      by captain normal (2205) on Saturday December 16 2017, @06:09AM (#610630)

      With all the millions of cars on the road that are not autonomous I think it will be quite a while before that happens. Then there all of us who love our classic sports and muscle cars and antique cars from before WW II. Then there are all the folks into ratrods. Are you going to force all of us off the roads? Who is going to enforce that?

      --
      When life isn't going right, go left.
      • (Score: 3, Interesting) by lentilla on Saturday December 16 2017, @07:19AM (2 children)

        by lentilla (1770) on Saturday December 16 2017, @07:19AM (#610644)

        Who is going to enforce that?

        The insurance premiums.

        • (Score: 2) by deimtee on Saturday December 16 2017, @10:59AM (1 child)

          by deimtee (3272) on Saturday December 16 2017, @10:59AM (#610675) Journal

          What is this "insurance premiums" of which you speak?

          --
          If you cough while drinking cheap red wine it really cleans out your sinuses.
          • (Score: 3, Insightful) by lentilla on Sunday December 17 2017, @09:09AM

            by lentilla (1770) on Sunday December 17 2017, @09:09AM (#610927)

            There are two basic components of an insurance policy: the "premium" and the "excess" (at least that's what they are called in my neck of the woods). The premium is the amount you pay on a regular basis. The excess is the extra amount you pay when you make a claim on the policy.

            I was originally suggesting that government bodies won't need to force self-driven cars off the road. The insurance premiums for everything but autonomous vehicles will head into the stratosphere (and likely the excesses as well). Suffice to say that when autonomous vehicles hit prime-time the cost of insurance for self-driven cars will rapidly rise until very few will be able to afford the cost.

            Insurance companies are going to love automated cars. It removes the one defining element of insurance (chance) from the equation and allows them to write their own cheques. Pity help the rest of us when the insurance industry discovers that Ford has 12% more accidents that Toyota (for instance). All Ford owners will immediately pay 24% more (and Toyota owners will pay no less).

  • (Score: 4, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 15 2017, @08:13PM (3 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 15 2017, @08:13PM (#610427)

    My gas pedal only has 2 positions, idle and full throttle.
    Signed, the Stig.

    • (Score: 4, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 15 2017, @09:03PM (2 children)

      by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 15 2017, @09:03PM (#610461)

      Imposter! Real race drivers use the throttle control very precisely. I've seen the data...

      • (Score: 5, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 16 2017, @03:24AM

        by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 16 2017, @03:24AM (#610604)

        He's not a race driver. He's a California driver.

      • (Score: 4, Interesting) by deimtee on Saturday December 16 2017, @11:07AM

        by deimtee (3272) on Saturday December 16 2017, @11:07AM (#610677) Journal

        I read an article featuring a rally driver who said (possibly paraphrasing because I don't remember the exact wording) :
          "If you aren't either accelerating at max or braking at max then you are wasting time coasting. That wasted time will cost you the race."

        Of course, whether you apply that to your daily commute is another matter.

        --
        If you cough while drinking cheap red wine it really cleans out your sinuses.
  • (Score: 5, Interesting) by All Your Lawn Are Belong To Us on Friday December 15 2017, @08:18PM (14 children)

    by All Your Lawn Are Belong To Us (6553) on Friday December 15 2017, @08:18PM (#610430) Journal

    .... I think I understand the concept and can agree with it, but maintaining the even distance is something one would do for courtesy for those behind you. Likewise, if all drivers would obey turn signal requests to take a lane there would be less need to tailgate (put oneself in the best position to maneuver). It's almost a prisoner's dilemma - if everyone cooperates everyone collectively gets the best system possible. But in too many individual situations maintaining one's self-interest above everything else gets a person more perceived value.

    Then again, if we were capable of cooperative action for the betterment of all then we'd all use public transit.

    --
    This sig for rent.
    • (Score: 5, Informative) by Phoenix666 on Friday December 15 2017, @09:14PM (5 children)

      by Phoenix666 (552) on Friday December 15 2017, @09:14PM (#610471) Journal

      It's true that you cannot control the distance between you and the car behind you. If the guy behind you wants to tailgate, there's nothing you can do without sacrificing the safe following distance you're maintaining between you and the guy ahead of you. If you speed up to recover equidistance between the one in front and the one behind, the one behind will simply catch up and resume tailgating.

      However, it's not necessary to pay attention to how much distance there is between you and the car behind you. You only have to keep safe distance in front of you and refuse to close it even if speeds on the road slow to single digits. If somebody wants to be a dick and jump into the space you've kept open, fine, let them. Re-establish your margin and keep it. When you come to a merge or somebody wants to or needs to change lanes to the spot ahead of you, they can without breaking your stride or jamming up the entire road, as they would with inadequate spacing. Everyone moves faster. Furthermore, it's contagious because it works.

      There's always gonna be the guy who wants to weave in and out of traffic like a dick, but if everyone else is keeping proper spacing at least that behavior is less likely to cause an accident and jam up the whole road for hours. Also, peer pressure is real and can damp down on bad behavior, because it then becomes obvious to everyone, including the lane-hopper, that he's being a colossal asshole.

      --
      Washington DC delenda est.
      • (Score: 3, Informative) by MostCynical on Friday December 15 2017, @10:34PM

        by MostCynical (2589) on Friday December 15 2017, @10:34PM (#610515) Journal

        Sharing? Calm driving? Are you some sort of socialist?!

        I happen to agree with you. Driving like the only thing matters is arriving, safely, eventually, is far betterthan getting there two minutes (or seconds) sooner.

        While the plural of anecdote is not data, we have all experienced the maniac over/undertaking/cutting off/etc, only to pull up behind/next to them a few sets of lights later.
        Suppose someone has to ensure the profit of sellers of hypertension medications!

        --
        "I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
      • (Score: 3, Insightful) by All Your Lawn Are Belong To Us on Friday December 15 2017, @10:50PM

        by All Your Lawn Are Belong To Us (6553) on Friday December 15 2017, @10:50PM (#610522) Journal

        I think what TFA was suggesting exactly that - you try and cushion yourself between the car in front and the car behind. If the car behind closes in on you, close the distance with the car in front. If it gives you space, take a little more space from the car in front. If everyone averages their distances this way slowdowns have far less impact than if you have an unequal cushion between what's ahead of you and what's behind you. Too little space in front leads to you tapping your breaks and causing a wave. Too little space behind you and that driver will do the same.

        You can only push that so far and keep safety with what's ahead of you, obviously. The car behind can't go faster than the car in front, nor can you. But the suggestion is to manage the cushion around your car.

        --
        This sig for rent.
      • (Score: 5, Interesting) by frojack on Saturday December 16 2017, @05:33AM (2 children)

        by frojack (1554) on Saturday December 16 2017, @05:33AM (#610623) Journal

        However, it's not necessary to pay attention to how much distance there is between you and the car behind you. You only have to keep safe distance in front of you and refuse to close it even if speeds on the road slow to single digits.

        Exactly. And this study is absolutely nothing new.

        An electrical engineer published his method of single-handedly erasing traffic-waves (standing slow spots) by doing exactly as you said.

        http://trafficwaves.org/trafexp.html [trafficwaves.org]

        He published it on the web way back in 98, and it caught the eye of quite a few people, some were outraged one guy would do this, and wrote letters and even tried to get him arrested. This study just proves he was right all along.

        Turns out the Highway patrol adopted his methods to clear standing jams:

        Rolling barriers made of State Troopers
        OK, so here's how to dissolve a major interstate traffic jam. Start many miles upstream from the jam. Put a row of State Trooper vehicles across the road and have them drive towards the jam. They drive perhaps at 55 rather than 70 as everyone else had been driving. Nobody can get by them, and so all the traffic behind the State Troopers is moving at 55 or so. In front of them a vast open space appears. After many minutes, the traffic which had been feeding into the city traffic jams simply stops arriving. There's little new traffic for many minutes. The huge jam trickles away. Just as the last of it is gone, the row of State troopers and the 55-mph traffic arrives, and the jam has been transformed into miles and miles of slightly slow traffic upstream from the old location of the jam.

        I've heard Washington State Troopers on the scanner calling in enough patrol cars (or sheriffs or what ever is handy, to put up a rolling slowdown to clear standing jams that might otherwise last for hours and stretch for 10 or 20 miles back along the highway with absolutely nothing blocking the roadway. They roll along side by side behind the jam at a steady but slower speed, never catching the jam, never stopping, and in one pass through the jam it is cleared completely.

        In Colorado they call it "Rolling Speed Harmonization". [slate.com]

        --
        No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
        • (Score: 1) by ElizabethGreene on Saturday December 16 2017, @09:44PM (1 child)

          by ElizabethGreene (6748) Subscriber Badge on Saturday December 16 2017, @09:44PM (#610797) Journal

          If you drive like this, in such a way as to remove standing waves, never tell anyone. People have a bucket they store road rage, and when you mention driving slower than the cars in front of you a portion of those people lose their minds and dump that rage bucket all over you.

          • (Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Sunday December 17 2017, @02:47PM

            by Phoenix666 (552) on Sunday December 17 2017, @02:47PM (#610981) Journal

            That is true, but it's interesting to persist in maintaining safe distance, smoothing out jams, and watch it spread to the cars around you. Initially there are a couple hotheads who want to weave through the lanes, but they quickly get stuck and notice everyone else around them is moving better with less stress. You can almost see the lightbulbs going on in their heads.

            It's a fun little experiment I recommend to others here. Its power to lower your own traffic stress makes it worth doing, regardless.

            --
            Washington DC delenda est.
    • (Score: 3, Interesting) by edIII on Friday December 15 2017, @09:37PM (6 children)

      by edIII (791) on Friday December 15 2017, @09:37PM (#610484)

      It's the people and culture. I was stunned at the level of cooperation and near hive-like activity by the Chinese in one city I visited. Average distance between cars seem to be 2ft or less, and they made as many lanes as they could ignoring the markers. The amazing part was that average speed was about 60. My driver was in the far left lane and need to exit. The jaw dropping part was when he put on his turn signal, and somehow went diagonally as the cars opened up space.

      These people in that city made it work, so it possible for large amounts of humans to work cooperatively for the betterment of all. I've seen it.

      --
      Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.
      • (Score: 2) by MostCynical on Friday December 15 2017, @09:48PM (4 children)

        by MostCynical (2589) on Friday December 15 2017, @09:48PM (#610492) Journal

        In Italy, cars will move over to let an overtaking car rough - both the car being overtaken, *and* the cars going the other way.
        In Australia, the car being overtaken speeds up, and the cars on the other side drive *towards* the car overtaking, in some weird, almost suicidal game of chicken.

        Culture?

        --
        "I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 15 2017, @10:18PM (1 child)

          by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 15 2017, @10:18PM (#610503)

          You're mistaken. In Italy, they're moving over onto the sidewalk to overtake the guy in front of *them*.

          • (Score: 2) by MostCynical on Friday December 15 2017, @10:39PM

            by MostCynical (2589) on Friday December 15 2017, @10:39PM (#610518) Journal

            And the pedestrians, and everyone else, moves over, lets them back in, and keeps doing what they were doing.

            --
            "I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
        • (Score: 2) by legont on Friday December 15 2017, @10:18PM

          by legont (4179) on Friday December 15 2017, @10:18PM (#610504)

          Culture it is.

          In Russia it is customary to say thank you to a car that slowed or moved over by blinking emergency stop lights one or two times.

          In Boston it is customary to play drunk to change lines in traffic.

          --
          "Wealth is the relentless enemy of understanding" - John Kenneth Galbraith.
        • (Score: 2) by captain normal on Saturday December 16 2017, @06:15AM

          by captain normal (2205) on Saturday December 16 2017, @06:15AM (#610631)

          Are you sure it's not Australia, but California where people drive like that?

          --
          When life isn't going right, go left.
      • (Score: 2) by crafoo on Saturday December 16 2017, @08:50PM

        by crafoo (6639) on Saturday December 16 2017, @08:50PM (#610789)

        Yeah, I agree it's a culture thing. I was impressed with the skill and cooperation I saw in Italy the first time I visited. They also handle massive amounts of scooters and motorcycles, no problem. While back here in the states, murdering motorcyclists is practically a sport.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 16 2017, @03:02PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 16 2017, @03:02PM (#610702)

      This is idiotic. If you need to change lanes and they won't let you in, tailgating the guy ahead of you just makes matters worse as now you're more likely to hit the car ahead of you while you look to your side to see if you're clear for the lane change.

      People tailgate because they want to prevent people from changing into their lane or they're morons that don't understand the relationship between time, speed, braking distance and how long it takes to notice that the driver ahead has put on their brakes.

  • (Score: 5, Insightful) by Uncle_Al on Friday December 15 2017, @08:23PM (3 children)

    by Uncle_Al (1108) on Friday December 15 2017, @08:23PM (#610431)

    because they get sick of asshats cutting them off if you open a gap wide enough to fit a car (BMW, or Prius) into.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 15 2017, @08:28PM (1 child)

      by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 15 2017, @08:28PM (#610435)

      It's those phucking Prius owners causing bottlenecks.

    • (Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 15 2017, @09:45PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 15 2017, @09:45PM (#610490)

      Assholes vs assholes, eh?

  • (Score: 5, Insightful) by srobert on Friday December 15 2017, @08:25PM (17 children)

    by srobert (4803) on Friday December 15 2017, @08:25PM (#610432)

    I try to maintain at least 3 seconds between my car and the one in front of me. But as for the car behind me I can't do much. In fact if he gets too close I start slowing down. The closer he gets, the slower I go.

    • (Score: 2) by Immerman on Friday December 15 2017, @08:47PM (16 children)

      by Immerman (3985) on Friday December 15 2017, @08:47PM (#610449)

      As I recall, the theoretically optimal solution is to attempt to always remain equidistant between the person in front of you and the one behind.

      I hear you about slowing down for tailgaters though. I've been keeping an eye out for a nice "I brake for tailgaters (safety first)" bumper sticker. With a lot of luck it'd start to educate them to stay off other people's bumper. With a little luck it'd at least encourage them to get off mine.

      • (Score: 4, Funny) by Kromagv0 on Friday December 15 2017, @09:17PM

        by Kromagv0 (1825) on Friday December 15 2017, @09:17PM (#610474) Homepage

        Drive a POS high clearance vehicle with a garbage hitch on it. They learn real fast when the ball and mount goes through their radiator.

        --
        T-Shirts and bumper stickers [zazzle.com] to offend someone
      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 15 2017, @09:25PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 15 2017, @09:25PM (#610478)

        Meh. I've stopped using the rear-view mirror in my car. I hate tailgaters, but for whatever reason this year has been especially bad.

        Every time I'd look into the rear-view mirror, all I'd see would be the blinding headlights of the Ford F-Teen Fifty tailgating me. Sort of defeats that purpose of having a mirror there. When I'm not backing up, I simply twist it up so that instead of seeing me being worried about a 5 ton vehicle looming less than a foot off my bumper when they look into my mirror, they just see their own blinding headlights.

        After I started doing that, I noticed that people stopped tailgating me. If I notice somebody has started tailgating me again, chances are I forgot to turn the mirror up again after backing out of somewhere.

        I have two side mirrors that work perfectly fine.

        ...Well, I guess some people do still tailgate me. But at least I don't have to look at their front grill and blinding headlights.

      • (Score: 1, Flamebait) by edIII on Friday December 15 2017, @10:04PM (9 children)

        by edIII (791) on Friday December 15 2017, @10:04PM (#610498)

        As long as you are doing at least the speed limit, you would get no problems from me. If you are doing under, can't get the fucking hint when I come up on you, and you slow down, it will be fucking on that day. I don't believe people have a right to the fast lane (which for some is the passing lane only), to do 5-10 mph under the speed limit. Texas at least will ticket you for going 10 or more *under*.

        I've gone nuclear fucking mad at those people, *especially* when they're being fucking idiots and matching pace with the next car deliberately to block all the traffic behind them. It's not cute, but extremely fucking discourteous to the dozens of drivers that start backing up behind two fucking idiots that are trying to educate everyone behind them. Except, they're not, but being fucking assholes instead. Nobody cares, and then you have road rage while car after car after car after car starts piling up behind Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dumbass.

        If you want to take it nice and easy, the slow lane is for you. Not the fast lane.

        --
        Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.
        • (Score: 2) by Immerman on Saturday December 16 2017, @09:32AM (4 children)

          by Immerman (3985) on Saturday December 16 2017, @09:32AM (#610666)

          I agree - there's no excuse for going slow in the passing lane - it's there for *passing* - either pass or get over. Well, actually, I suppose there is one excuse - if you're driving as fast as you're comfortable with, and the assholes in the slow lane won't let you over. I've run into that problem a few times, especially with truckers that pull into the passing lane to let an onramp merge, and then have the people keep passing on the right instead of letting them get back out of the way. You can build a nasty slow snarl in no time that way.

          As for speed and tailgating - I normally stay close to the limit, and if I notice traffic accumulating behind me I will speed up a bit and/or try to make it easy to pass - e.g. slow down when there's a passing zone with no oncoming traffic, or even pull over and let folks pass if I'm obviously going a lot slower than they are . That's just basic road courtesy.

          But if some asshole starts riding my bumper too hard I'm inclined to slow down to a safe speed for their following distance. Especially if it's a big heavy vehicle - where momentum dictates that in any accident I'll be the one who ends up paying the price.

          • (Score: 2) by ancientt on Monday December 18 2017, @12:29AM (1 child)

            by ancientt (40) <ancientt@yahoo.com> on Monday December 18 2017, @12:29AM (#611180) Homepage Journal

            Okay, but what about mandatory mergers?

            I mean, my driving strategy is to Drive Zen™. I try to let people merge in front of me when I can. I signal when I'm changing lanes. I focus on remembering that we're all in this together. When there's a backup, I try to drive at a pace that will let me slow down without needing brakes. It happens a fair amount, but I try to let the jerks do what they do and be a driver that helps everyone get where they need to to be.

            All that said, sometimes I'm that asshole. Three or four days a week, I drive a route that has two lanes merge into one. Many, maybe most days, the traffic backs up in a way that clogs up and slows everybody down. Some jerks try to bypass the wait of merging. They drive in the lane that's ending, as far as they can. They're basically trying to cut in line. Most days, I move into the lane that continues and I wait. I get in line and I wait. I wait for traffic to move along, as it does... eventually. Occasionally, however, I'll stay in the lane that is ending, being forced to merge, but drive at the same speed as the cars in the lane that continues. This means the people who would otherwise be cutting in line are forced to drive at the same speed as the rest of the cars waiting in line. Results seem to indicate that everyone moves at the pace which moves traffic as efficiently as possible. I'm torn though. I know from what I've read that giving a buffer in front helps everyone in the whole.

            Now we come to the reason I'm asking you what you think. You've given an opinion I can respect, one I can identify with. That's why I want to know what you think. What I don't know is whether refusing to jump the line improves traffic flow overall or whether it hurts. My sense of fairness gets a boost when I help everyone trying to be fair get their rightful place, but does it really help traffic flow overall?

            --
            This post brought to you by Database Barbie
            • (Score: 2) by Immerman on Monday December 18 2017, @03:17AM

              by Immerman (3985) on Monday December 18 2017, @03:17AM (#611255)

              Drive Zen. I like it. I tend to think of it more in terms of Tao - on the road or otherwise I try to contribute to "psoitive flow. Or a phrase from some novel that I really liked: an easing of the way.

              I don't know that I'm qualified to have an opinion on efficient merging - seems like the sort of thing that you'd need to to rigorous experiments on to be able to talk about anything but your own preconceptions.

              That said - you sound like my kind of asshole. When efficiency is dubious (even when it isn't, really), fairness seems like a good goal to pursue. One of my own favorite examples of benevolent assholery is one of those truck snarls. Waited patiently in line until it was my turn to start passing the truck on the right - and then just didn't. Hung out at his rear bumper as traffic piled up behind me feeling all those glares trying to burn a hole in the back of my head until everyone in front of me cleared the truck, and then fell back just enough so he could get over and flashed my lights to let him know it was clear.

              Swear I had more than a few singed hairs from all the glares, but my reward was watching what had been a rapidly growing traffic snarl dissolve back to smooth flow before the truck vanished in my rear-view mirror.

          • (Score: 2) by edIII on Tuesday December 19 2017, @08:29PM (1 child)

            by edIII (791) on Tuesday December 19 2017, @08:29PM (#611958)

            The one thing I will say is that if somebody puts on their turn signal, I cooperate, whatever that means. If I got to slow down because the slow lane isn't letting people in and the guy in front of me is having trouble getting in, I'll help in what ways I can.

            A turn signal is a polite request, or at least that's how I look at them.

            That's just basic road courtesy.

            You hit the mail on the head. A lot of people don't practice that anymore.

            --
            Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.
            • (Score: 2) by Immerman on Wednesday December 20 2017, @02:34AM

              by Immerman (3985) on Wednesday December 20 2017, @02:34AM (#612118)

              Sadly true.

        • (Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Sunday December 17 2017, @03:02PM (3 children)

          by Phoenix666 (552) on Sunday December 17 2017, @03:02PM (#610985) Journal

          That's strictly true on the autobahn, but not in America. In the US drivers have no compunction about passing on the right. That tendency dilutes the "passing" of the passing lane to near meaninglessness. We can either get mad about slowpokes in the passing lane and drivers who pass on the right, or get mad about neither. But if they don't ticket for driving slow in the fast lane or for passing on the right, then the muddle that is American driving culture will continue.

          Me, I give myself permission to drive in that lane if I'm going 5-10mph faster than the limit, and let the Jehu's stuff it. If somebody tailgates me aggressively I slow down until they pass on the right and explode in a surge that is sure to sweep out any highway patrol down the road. Doesn't always work, but the satisfaction of seeing them pulled over a few minutes later is immense.

          --
          Washington DC delenda est.
          • (Score: 2) by edIII on Thursday December 21 2017, @08:54PM (2 children)

            by edIII (791) on Thursday December 21 2017, @08:54PM (#612949)

            That satisfaction may be misplaced. I've personally been driving to the hospital, after my doctor told me to go to the emergency room NOW, and had somebody start giving me shit the same way. It didn't work out of them at all. In their case, all they were doing is slowing somebody down trying to get somewhere in an emergency.

            Ever since then I consider that with a-holes on my ass in traffic. I just try to get out the way because I don't know what is going on with them.

            --
            Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.
            • (Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Thursday December 21 2017, @09:33PM (1 child)

              by Phoenix666 (552) on Thursday December 21 2017, @09:33PM (#612962) Journal

              Ed, if you're in such dire straits that you need to go to the emergency room NOW, then you should not be driving. What happens if you're speeding in the passing lane and lose consciousness, you take out a shortbus with 12 kids in it?

              Call an ambulance, and let them blaze along in the passing lane with their lights and siren going. I and everyone else will dutifully get out of the way then.

              --
              Washington DC delenda est.
              • (Score: 2) by edIII on Friday December 22 2017, @03:14AM

                by edIII (791) on Friday December 22 2017, @03:14AM (#613094)

                You say that, but without insurance that means yet another $3k-$4k of medical debt sold off to vultures that will pester the fuck out of me and sink my credit even further. I don't need that noise, and ambulance services are unavailable to large swaths of the poor, and even middle class.

                Can you afford a few grand hit to not drive? Got your message loud and clear, but it ain't that simple. Life sucks, but that's where it is.

                If medical was single payer though, I would have no excuse.

                --
                Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.
      • (Score: 2) by captain normal on Saturday December 16 2017, @06:18AM (3 children)

        by captain normal (2205) on Saturday December 16 2017, @06:18AM (#610633)

        My bumper sticker simply says, "I support summary execution of Tailgaters".

        --
        When life isn't going right, go left.
        • (Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Thursday December 21 2017, @09:34PM (2 children)

          by Phoenix666 (552) on Thursday December 21 2017, @09:34PM (#612963) Journal

          Awesome. Did you buy that somewhere or use Cafe Press?

          --
          Washington DC delenda est.
          • (Score: 2) by captain normal on Friday December 22 2017, @05:14AM (1 child)

            by captain normal (2205) on Friday December 22 2017, @05:14AM (#613114)

            I used Open Office, Put the file on a thumb drive and went to Staples where they did an excellent job of printing up a few on sticky back. Costed me around $20.00 for 2 dozen.

            --
            When life isn't going right, go left.
            • (Score: 2) by captain normal on Friday December 22 2017, @05:16AM

              by captain normal (2205) on Friday December 22 2017, @05:16AM (#613115)

              Cost....Guess my mind went blank for a bit.

              --
              When life isn't going right, go left.
  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 15 2017, @08:25PM (8 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 15 2017, @08:25PM (#610434)

    Anyone who has driven for any time in NYC knows this.

    I've driven during rush-hour traffic at close to 60mph, 5 feet behind the car in front. Someone 15 cars ahead taps their break lights, its a ripple all the way down. ALL slow down for whatever caused that initial event, each slowing a little more than the car before it. If it doesn't happen again, traffic slows for a bit, but continues flowing.

    Tailgater hits break lights every (random) interval, everyone reacts to "something bad is happening" and traffic stops.

    • (Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Friday December 15 2017, @09:17PM (6 children)

      by Phoenix666 (552) on Friday December 15 2017, @09:17PM (#610475) Journal

      Take the Northern State instead. Outbound it slows down around the Meadowbrook but it's always much faster than the LIE/BQE/GCP unless you're doing the latter at 4am Christmas morning.

      --
      Washington DC delenda est.
      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 15 2017, @10:14PM (5 children)

        by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 15 2017, @10:14PM (#610501)

        Take the Northern State ^W^W^W^W move out of the sticks to somewhere you don't need a car instead.

        There. FTFY.

        • (Score: 2, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 15 2017, @11:05PM (3 children)

          by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 15 2017, @11:05PM (#610531)

          You take your pokey little apartment, polluted air, and feeling of righteousness, and I'll take my 10 hectares of combined gardens and stock paddocks, with my own water and dare I say food supplies, within 40 minutes drive of a city center (or 1.5 hours if I felt like suffering the ever so efficient public transport system).

          I must admit, it is difficult - I am a good solid 6 minutes drive to the nearest supermarket, and a reasonable mall is a few minutes further, but I can nearly manage that suffering.

          It is difficult sleeping at night, with all that damn silence, and the temptation to go outside and look at the clear stars and moon can be annoying, I guess.
          Mind you, in the summer with the windows open, we can hear a few animal noises, and the occasional distant vehicle, sometimes.

          it is a bit annoying during summer, what with all the excess fresh fruit on the trees.

          Thinking about it, I am *so* jealous of your nirvana, can I please come and join the rat-race? please?

          • (Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 16 2017, @01:40AM (1 child)

            by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 16 2017, @01:40AM (#610585)

            can I please come and join the rat-race? please?

            I did see a rat tonight, even in the cold and snow. And I thought to myself, "shouldn't those kind, caring PETA folks take this poor rat in to their homes so it isn't harmed? In fact, perhaps that's where *all* the rats should go."

            • (Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 16 2017, @04:13AM

              by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 16 2017, @04:13AM (#610612)

              I think you should do some real research on what PETA is exactly about! In fact I'm 100% convinced that PETA was just set up as an experiment to test what has become the current liberal platform. See PETA believes that Humans owning animals is WRONG. They also believe that animals who were tamed by people should be KILLED to end their suffering because they can never return to the natural state of being an animal.

          • (Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Monday December 18 2017, @05:57PM

            by Phoenix666 (552) on Monday December 18 2017, @05:57PM (#611499) Journal

            Your place sounds nice. I hope your yield is plentiful enough that the parcel serves you, rather than you serving the parcel. Where I grew up farmers did well, but over the divide they struggled and had to live very close to the bone.

            It is good, too, to have solitude if you don't care for crowds and don't crave the intellectual foment of cultural exchange.

            Having grown up in the country, in the Rockies, and now having lived in NYC and other cities for 20 years, I'd say some of what you wrote is somewhat true, but not to the degree you think. A couple things are not really true at all.

            Apartments can be small if you live alone. If you have a family you're going to have more or less the same space that most people in the country have. You will likely not have a yard, which can be a drawback, but then you also don't have to mow the lawn, trim the hedges, rake the leaves, or shovel snow. If the roof develops a leak, or the heat doesn't go on, it's someone else's job to fix it.

            Air quality in the age of the internal combustion engine is not great. ICEs, however, are ubiquitous now. You really have to go out of your way to escape exhaust. Then, if you do go far enough to get away from exhaust you might have gone into woodland that gets nice and smokey during forest fire season.

            Light pollution is similar, too. Even in the inter-mountain West it can be almost impossible to get a pristine sky. A few years ago we went camping in the Yogo and you could still see the orange glow coming from the direction of Choteau (I think it was).

            You drive 6 minutes to the supermarket. You have to get in your car, scrape the windshield free of ice and snow, dig out the driveway, deal with idiots on the road, negotiate a parking lot full of people who seem to love taking their sweet time when you're waiting for their spot, then walk the endless aisles of Walmart, wait in line at the register, make fake small talk, then haul everything out to the car, load up, do the drive back, then unload everything and put it away before the shopping is done. All the time to do that must be reckoned part of your shopping experience. I can go online, hit "buy" if they're items I've bought before, and it gets delivered to my apartment by a guy who carries it all up the stairs to my front door. If I actually want to go to the store, I can walk 3 minutes in any direction to a regular grocery store, an Asian market, a Middle-Eastern market, or walk an extra 2 minutes to get to a fancy supermarket like Whole Foods or Fairway. Those will deliver to my door, too. As such, the sum of hassle for me is less than for you, plus I have a great deal more selection.

            I can go to malls, too, if I want to, but there's not much reason to. Boutiques with every variety of store malls have are around the corner from my apartment, plus many more that have never been in malls. I also have bulk material suppliers for leather, shoe repair supplies, glassware, metal shops, second-hand furniture, fabric, and anything you can imagine within walking distance. If I want to pick fresh fruit from a tree, in the sense you mean it, I can drive one and a half hours up the Hudson valley or out to New Jersey to pick apples, pears, pumpkins, strawberries, or any kind of produce you can imagine. If I don't mind walking 5 minutes up the hill to Prospect Park and braving the perplexed looks from New Yorkers I can pick fresh mulberries, cherries, raspberries, salmon berries, hawthorne berries, or walnuts off the trees and bushes there.

            All that said, I wouldn't call it nirvana. It's a kind of place that has advantages, and drawbacks. Rural places also have advantages, and drawbacks. Righteousness is not the province of one or the other necessarily, either. Some people who live in the city look down their nose at those who don't, and some, like you, who live in the country, look down their nose at those who live in the city.

            --
            Washington DC delenda est.
        • (Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Monday December 18 2017, @05:23PM

          by Phoenix666 (552) on Monday December 18 2017, @05:23PM (#611477) Journal

          ? The Northern State Parkway is one of three major east-west axes that run the length of Long Island. The Southern State Parkway people take to JFK International Airport is another that serves the South Shore, and the Long Island Expressway mentioned by the parent is another.

          There was nothing in what I wrote that insults rural places or exalts cities.

          --
          Washington DC delenda est.
    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 16 2017, @02:07AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 16 2017, @02:07AM (#610591)

      Gawd, I hat it when dis happ'ns!

      Someone 15 cars ahead taps their break lights,

      I mean, bad enufs that there broke, but they have to lite up ever one else?

      Tailgater hits break lights every (random) interval,

      Talegators that gate the tale to cloose that they break your lights every random, that's just bad driving, y'all!

      If only these idjits would use there turn singles and brake lights, we'd all be safer out their, and edIII wood get where he's going in such a galled-awful hurry to get to it.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 15 2017, @08:41PM (3 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 15 2017, @08:41PM (#610443)

    roundabouts. You don't see these traffic issues in Europe.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 15 2017, @09:06PM (1 child)

      by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 15 2017, @09:06PM (#610465)

      Bullocks. One of the longest traffic jams I've ever been in was outside Bristol, England. We shut the engine off while waiting. No accident, no obvious cause, just an extremely full motorway.

      • (Score: 2) by PiMuNu on Friday December 15 2017, @09:37PM

        by PiMuNu (3823) on Friday December 15 2017, @09:37PM (#610485)

        Probably shoppers going into Cribbs Causeway on a Saturday morning - makes huge traffic jam near christmas.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 15 2017, @09:11PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 15 2017, @09:11PM (#610469)

      So you're saying that there are other ways to slow down traffic besides tailgating. I believe you.

  • (Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 15 2017, @09:37PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 15 2017, @09:37PM (#610483)

    Maintaining even spacing facilitates lane changes and merges as well.

    But I don’t want to let those nerfherders in my lane. They might be trying to get ahead of me!

  • (Score: 4, Insightful) by Gaaark on Friday December 15 2017, @10:09PM (6 children)

    by Gaaark (41) on Friday December 15 2017, @10:09PM (#610500) Journal

    This is another reason i think people should have to get their motorcycle license BEFORE they get their auto license: riding a m/c forces you to be aware of EVERYTHING going on around you.. (AND it would keep all the people who REALLY HAVE NO CLUE about driving from getting their license).

    You are constantly doing far checks ahead, local checks, shoulder checks, mirror checks: you KNOW what is going on around you on all sides.

    Someone driving like a maniac? You know and you adjust to them because they are a danger to your health: you slow down, go around or go some other road....

    ....but you KNOW what is happening.

    Plus, when traffic is stalled, you can just use the sidewalk! :)

    --
    --- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
    • (Score: 4, Informative) by nobu_the_bard on Friday December 15 2017, @10:22PM (1 child)

      by nobu_the_bard (6373) on Friday December 15 2017, @10:22PM (#610507)

      Knowing how to drive a motorcycle doesn't make you not a moron.

      Driving on the highway the other day, I saw a fool going up on one wheel with his motorcycle just before a corner where traffic always slows to a crawl abruptly. It's a very accident prone area because it's a long downhill three-lane stretch that suddenly becomes a 2-lane flat highway around a corner. It often smells like burnt plastics and spilled oil, even. I actually recoiled a bit, seeing what was going to happen to the goof a full minute before it happened with no way to stop him. He did drop to two wheels as he neared the corner, but his speed was too high, and when cars slammed their brakes he had to pull off the highway to avoid hitting them.

      I've learned to watch how close I'm being followed. In places like that, I need to follow with not just enough time to avoid hitting the person in front of me, but also give the person behind me enough time to react and slow down. That necessitates following further back the closer the person behind me is.

      • (Score: 2) by Gaaark on Saturday December 16 2017, @01:09AM

        by Gaaark (41) on Saturday December 16 2017, @01:09AM (#610575) Journal

        Yes: then you gotta rely on Darwin to take care of the morons.

        I'm just saying it would take Grandma/pa off the road if they can no longer drive, but the DMV guy feels sorry for them.
        It would take off the road the people who CANNOT for the life of them drive, but pass because the DMV guy feels sorry for them.

        It seems around here, young kids fail their exams the first time always, unless they do exceptionally well, but pass on the second try unless exceptionally poor. Money grab, then pass.

        If they can't drive a motorcycle, they should not be behind the wheel of a killing machine, cell phone in hand texting and FB'ing thinking they are invincible.

        Morons will be morons, i agree. So does Darwin. :)

        --
        --- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
    • (Score: 2) by legont on Friday December 15 2017, @10:27PM (1 child)

      by legont (4179) on Friday December 15 2017, @10:27PM (#610510)

      Yes, and we should require that children arrive to schools on bicycles. Good for the health and everybody's driving skills. No grandmas regulating traffic either.

      --
      "Wealth is the relentless enemy of understanding" - John Kenneth Galbraith.
    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 15 2017, @11:19PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 15 2017, @11:19PM (#610540)

      You didn't mention chick checks. Off road driving/racing experience makes safer on road driving.

    • (Score: 2) by crafoo on Saturday December 16 2017, @08:53PM

      by crafoo (6639) on Saturday December 16 2017, @08:53PM (#610790)

      I'm all for this for the single reason it will be impossible for inexperienced drivers to check their phone without fatal consequences to themselves and minimal effects on the innocents around them.

  • (Score: 2) by bob_super on Friday December 15 2017, @11:21PM (1 child)

    by bob_super (1357) on Friday December 15 2017, @11:21PM (#610542)

    You see, in Nascar, idiots drive circles at 200mph while drafting 4 inches behind another car (I learnt that it makes both cars go faster by removing the tail turbulence for the front car).
    Glorify the bad example, and dumbasses (they do watch NASCAR) start believing they can do shit like that too...

    • (Score: 2) by acid andy on Saturday December 16 2017, @01:33AM

      by acid andy (1683) on Saturday December 16 2017, @01:33AM (#610584) Homepage Journal

      They could if it became mandatory that all cars have full roll cages and harnesses, all drivers wear crash helmets, and all drivers cover the full cost of any damage to their own car or body, regardless of fault.

      --
      If a cat has kittens, does a rat have rittens, a bat bittens and a mat mittens?
  • (Score: 2) by Entropy on Saturday December 16 2017, @12:27AM (1 child)

    by Entropy (4228) on Saturday December 16 2017, @12:27AM (#610566)

    Yeah, the slow car. The one holding EVERYONE up. The one that starts the tailgating. Tailgating is the symptom not the problem. The guy is almost certainly in the fast lane, too.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 16 2017, @04:49AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 16 2017, @04:49AM (#610619)

      No, it's definitely you.

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