Driving with the fiancee earlier, a hot rodder shot into the other lane & roared past us, whipping back in front of us before the light. Of course, when that happens, I'll usually say "hurry, hurry - you'll be late to that red light up there!!", and the fiancee has taken to saying "maybe he's gotta go to the bathroom!!!"
So we're going along like that, making wise-ass remarks to each other about this guy's fuel-wasting, and then it dawned on me - - there was a red light up ahead, and I could use him as a "rabbit".
Now, I should explain - I have no trouble getting off the gas early & coasting. The trouble, especially in the fiancee's car, (a '97 Buick Riviera with the supercharged 3800 V-6) is it will coast FOREVER!!! I don't know what makes it roll so well, but it does. So what usually happens is I'll start coasting "early" all right (as soon as I notice I may need to), but then this car will only slow down a couple mph after a quarter mile or more (even if I pop it into neutral - doesn't matter).
So I was reading somewhere - on Wayne Gerdes site, I think - how you might want to apply the brakes EARLY so you'll slow down enough to give the light time to change & be able to carry a higher speed through the intersection. My problem is I always try to avoid the brakes like the plague, so it's very difficult for me to to kill momentum by hitting them early in cases like this. (Which often results in my having to hit them hard at the last minute, often coming to a complete stop moments before traffic starts moving again.) But I forced myself to brake early this time, and did, the light turned green, the "rabbit" got out of the way, and - well - I actually misjudged and was going slower than I needed to. Fortunately, with a little gas, we got through the intersection before the light turned yellow again, so maybe I'm learning.
