Yesterday afternoon, I had to get to Seattle from my job in Redmond. I had to be there at 4:30, so I left at about 3:30. I wasn't looking forward to the traffic, but I wanted to use it as an opportunity to use my zen skills.I made an amazing accomplishment: I did not come to a full stop the entire time I was on SR-520!
The way that I accomplished this was by leaving a ton of room in from of me, and maintaining a constant (slow!) speed as much as possible. The car in front of me kept speeding up and jerking to a stop, over and over again. When they were stopped, I slowly crept toward them. When they started moving I let them pull away and kept creeping at the same speed or I accelerated a little.
The car behind me didn't have to stop either. And neither did the car behind her. When I got on the bridge, I could see pretty far back because it's straight, and I watched a whole line of cars (hundreds of them) that were all flowing together in one continuous motion.
The car directly behing me didn't leave me much room at first, but by the time we got to the bridge, she realized what was going on and started staying pretty far back from me. So cars behind her were getting a double buffer of fluid traffic.
I hear from people quite a bit "if you leave a lot of room, other cars will just fill it." The reality is that it doesn't happen as much as you'd think. A few cars will zoom in and get in front of you, but it really doesn't affect you when you're further back. And chances are they would have changed lanes at some point anyway, so this way at least they have the room they need and don't cause a backup while they change lanes.
Please start leaving room in front of your car when you're in congestion. Not only will your stress be reduced (it gives you a challenge too, which is fun) but the cars behind you will thank you too.
