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Do the math, on the Hampton Roads Bridge tunnel, in either direction, with two lanes of traffic, 95,000 cars will pass over the same point in 24 hours during peak summer traffic.
There are 84,600 seconds in any 24 hour period. That's less than two seconds average separation for every day, for every one of 95,000 vehicles, when traffic is that high density.
I have posted the local VDOT traffic camera links where you can see how dense that traffic is at any given time. I find that drafting at 70 MPH (speed limit west of my home) gives me the same mileage as 55 MPH on US 60 which runs parallel to I 64 from Richmond to Newport News Va.
Even with that kind of traffic density, I have had other drivers pull over in front of me with less than a single car length of separation.
I employ a technique I call pulse-drafting when traffic is that heavy. On the downhill sides of overpasses, or other lesser downgrades, when I am behind a larger vehicle, I speed up about 5 MPH and then coast in neutral on the downgrade. In the Fiesta I can get over 50 MPG without affecting traffic flow in any way, except to get the impatient Subdivision driver off my rear end. Maybe I should just let them stay there since they are blocking my low pressure wake and improving my mileage even more. Probably could get past 55 MPG in a car rated at 38 and that's at 65 MPH average speed.
regards
Mech
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