[MetroMPG]

Occasionally, I'll be coasting toward a red traffic light and notice a driver in the lane beside me is clearly also off the accelerator earlier than you'd expect from a typical driver. Usually I find they're just trying to "out decelerate" me in order to tuck into my lane behind me to make a turn or something.

That's what I thought was happening yesterday as I coasted along in Vancouver, many hundreds of meters before the intersection (nobody behind me at the time). But the driver of the silver Corolla next to me never tucked in behind. We paced each other right up to the group of cars stopped at the light as it changed to green, and then carried on down the road to the next intersection, facing yet another red light.

Again I backed off very early, and to my surprise, so did the Corolla driver, who was now a little ahead of me.

He even changed into my lane in front of me as we approached the knot of cars moving away at the green light, because my lane happened to have the best flow.

I think that's the first time I've met another driver (other than truck drivers, who do it regularly) timing the lights to that extent in urban traffic. (Outside of an economy rally!)