The thing to do with your 2 second gap is try to dissipate some of the underresponse/overresponse (e.g. reacting too slowly, responding too much).
I find that under most circumstances, the sudden braking is not caused by some immovable object suddenly materializing in my lane, so anyone in front of me is simply slowing, not stopping. Because I pay attention while driving, rarely do I need to do more than simply lift off the accelerator.
Normally, no braking is needed, and the people behind me don't panic and slam their brake to the floor. The net:net is that I've burned a second of my cushion, the guy behind me 3/4 a second of his, the lady behind him 1/2 a second of hers, and so on.
A few like minded individuals is all it takes to absorb slight perbutations and restore the roadway to full bandwidth.
In the real world, unfortunately, people seem to work more like the cellular automata that model this behavior, and less like the multi-cell organisms that they appear to be.
Slashdot Mirror
The thing to do with your 2 second gap is try to dissipate some of the underresponse/overresponse (e.g. reacting too slowly, responding too much).
I find that under most circumstances, the sudden braking is not caused by some immovable object suddenly materializing in my lane, so anyone in front of me is simply slowing, not stopping. Because I pay attention while driving, rarely do I need to do more than simply lift off the accelerator.
Normally, no braking is needed, and the people behind me don't panic and slam their brake to the floor. The net:net is that I've burned a second of my cushion, the guy behind me 3/4 a second of his, the lady behind him 1/2 a second of hers, and so on.
A few like minded individuals is all it takes to absorb slight perbutations and restore the roadway to full bandwidth.
In the real world, unfortunately, people seem to work more like the cellular automata that model this behavior, and less like the multi-cell organisms that they appear to be.