How to handle very heavy traffic (stop & crawl)
 

Morning all,

Atlanta was hit with a line of very strong thunderstorms this AM - and while we DO need the rain, this brought downed trees and power lines - not to mention traffic lights out of commission. :mad: there were even several trees across I-75. they were backed up for many miles.

As a result, my 12 mile commute turned into 1 dead end (tree across road) and a total of 1 hr 30 minutes drive time. :eek:

The main issue was the impact of the traffic lights i think.
when the lights are out - they are treated as a 4 way stop. and with the volume of cars you cannot really EOC - nor can you actually turn off car at light. ( everyone is moving at stop and go at 5 mph_

Any thoughts as to best handle this - other than pulling over and waiting a few hours for the insanity to clear.

I figured as long as i have to idle - i tried to let the out the clutch a little and let the idle move the car forward ( either in 1st or second). once i did get to decent working lights - then resumed normal driving style.

I kinda wish i had a scangage- this by far was the worst commute time i have had in the 3 years being in Atlanta.

I usually handle traffic like that by taking a Valium.

Those situations are very hard to deal with in an efficient manner. For me, bump starting at less than about 15 mph isn't easy and usually isn't too pretty either. In this case, I just idle unless I can keep speed up on a downgrade. When the car in front of me gets far enough ahead I pulse just enough so I don't have to use my brakes. Its far from ideal, but you do have to deal with it from time to time.

Like Daox, I would prolly just idle and try to keep my stress levels down...you don't want to burn out on ecodriving because you tried to do it in overly difficult conditions.

Dood, I got pissed today when my 20 mins turned into 30 :(

I try to keep it in 1st gear as much as possible. Be exceptionally smooth on the throttle and you should be able to crawl in gear. Although I don't have a SG so I don't know what that does to FE. :rolleyes:

I wish ppl wouldn't take 4 way stops so literally ;) I like to do it the European way, where you start when the other side is passing. Nobody really stops = traffic keeps moving. :thumbup: And if the car next to me jumps it and goes, I go with it.

I have 4 way stops down to a science since every traffic light in the city was off for about a year recently.

this is my world, welcome to it
 

You just described the traffic situation here in wonderful Downtown Tidewater. It is a little lighter toward the western fringes. And lots heavier near the Naval Base in Norfolk. Lord help me I live in the center of Va. Beach.
This is why I work nights. To avoid the mob. Traffic is worst from 6a - 9a, then again from 4p -7p. there is always some fool who was trying to go 75 mph while everyone around him is going 40 mph. Big accident = big backup.
That said, all I do when stuck is open my windows and listen to the music and "Go With the Flow". Keep stress at bay. If I get the opportunity to use intelligent driving I will, but usually it is just stop & roll & stop & roll, etc, ad infinitum.
I've lived near;
NYC = bad traffic
DC = bad traffic
Here = bad traffic
You learn to adjust. Make the best of it.
Abba goo dai,
S.

This is where I love having the automatic. I just creep along at the magic speed that allows me to almost never completely stop or accelerate.

Be predictive, be patient.

Watch for the brake lights way ahead of you and you'll know when to start coasting, even if the car in front of you starts making a big gap...You already know it will be stopping again soon enough. This has an added benefit of stabilizing the flow behind you.

Every second Friday, I have to drive through almost all of Montreal's island. 23 miles in all. At 4pm it usually it takes me an hour, but last Friday it took just over 2 hours. I wished I was driving an EV.

Doof -

Yeah, I find the best thing is to try to move the car without pressing on the accelerator pedal. All movement at a bare minimum. It's the only time I really regret not having a hybrid.

There was one time when my wife was in really bad traffic in Santa Monica. I told her to stop at a Marshalls and stay there until traffic let up. She told me that everyone else in the Marshals was on the cell phone DOING THE SAME THING. They had all given up and were waiting for the traffic to clear up.

CarloSW2

Doofus: you and I must have been stuck in the same muck this morning. I live right off Exit 263 on I-75 and I saw the mess on 75 and took Hwy41 instead and at about 9AM it was bumper to bumper, I think I averaged about 5 mph the whole way. The good thing about 41 though is the rolling hills so on the uphills I just stayed way back from the guy in front and just kept chugging along slowly. Then the downhills were great because I could get all the way down EOCing. Instead of having my engine running for the whole hour I was sitting there on my way to the auto shop, I probably only had my engine on for about 30 minutes, I think that saved me a bunch of gas.

Some great replies in this thread. I like hondaworkshop's line: "be predictive, be patient".

My mantra when I'm in this situation: "BE the accordion..."

This topic came up in this thread as well: Traffic experiments: a cure for waves and jams

A side benefit of contracting & expanding the space ahead of you and idling along at a low constant speed while the guy in front stops & starts is that you're also improving the fuel efficiency of a considerable number of cars behind you by smoothing out the flow.

unless of course they are pissed off that there is a huge gap in front of you and they think the extra 100ft will get them there faster so they either zoom around you or constantly run you your back side and then slow down and do it again...I've gotten that around here many times. I actually had someone today pass me in the "no drive" yellow dash lines between merging traffic and the highway today because apparently I wasn't accelerating fast enough for her and her BMW. I just kept telling myself the joke: "What's the difference between a porcupine and BMW".

:D

That's when you need to hit your "insta-tint" 100% black rear window darkener, so the airheads behind you can't see ahead through your windows to the gap you're using to smooth things out.

Except when their Urban Assault Vehicle is twice as tall as your car. Not much help then, except for blocking out their high-beams in your mirror. ;)

MetroMPG -

How about this one :

Bide you time, and hold out hope ...

CarloSW2

I have found that on my electric motorcycle, stop and go traffic is lots of fun.

Instead of idling, the motor just sits there doing nothing when you are stopped, so you aren't wasting gasoling (or electricity).

The motorcycle has great excelleration, so peeling away from a stop isn't a problem either.

Since there is no engine to kill, I can actually ride as slow as I want. It is amazing how slow I can ride and still balance the cycle.

I would imagine that once I am done with the electric Metro, it also should be great in stop n start traffic.

Bennelson just brought up an interesting point. With electric cars and hybrids. When you are stopped, nothing is spinning. However, with a regular gasoline engine it continues to idle when you are at a stop...I wonder how hard it would be to mod a car to do this automatically like those gas powered golf carts do....hm....I think I'll start another thread about this somewhere...

I've seen some very old-school electric 'pushers' people have fabbed up... imagine a small electric motor turning a small rubber wheel that is touching either the ground near the normal rear wheels or touching one of the rear wheels (in a reverse direction). All it does is creep the car along, then a lever disengages it when its time to burn some gas.

It seems like a really fun project, but a lot of to-do for traffic jams.

Where have you seen the electric pushers? Other than Mike D's on his Insight, I haven't seen another.

That sounds just like a trolling motor, only for a car instead of a boat!

People love that trolling motors are small, simple, and quiet. You use them to slowly move the boat, usually while fishing. The main engine is still used for getting the boat quickly around from one place to another.

Maybe we all should have car trolling motors!

O, I like the idea of the car trolling motor...You could use the small motor, like the kit that Insights have, for going around in bumper to bumper traffic so you could keep up with everyone, say under 35mph, but then you could use the gas engine should you go above that for any reason....interesting.

Technically, everyone owns an electric car!
 

For those who want to be hardcore hypermilers, you could probably install an ignition/fuel injector kill switch that still allows you to use your starter. When at a stop, let out the clutch in first and hit the starter to move forward. I've never tried it and it might kill the starter/battery, but it seems feasible.

I also try the accordion method. It doesn't seem to work well on a two+ lane road as impatient people like to zoom in to the vacuum in front of me and slam on their brakes, disrupting my momentum. I notice the same effect on the freeway, where I will have the perfect amount of space in front of me to buffer inconsistent traffic ahead only to be forced to brake by someone taking a golden opportunity to save 0.00056 seconds on their commute. Oh well, the relaxing, slow-paced atmosphere of driving for economy tends to moderate frustration.

- LostCause

NoCO2 -

I think this is might be approaching the definition of a "mild hybrid", yes? I was keeping track of this gizmo for over a year but it never came through :

Retrofit Hybrid-Electric System
http://www.sigmaautomotive.com/elect...trocharger.php

CarloSW2

Yeah to me if the traffic were a one-lane road, the issue would be almost trivial. I'd play with my speeds to see if I could find the one I could constantly maintain, to smooth out the waves. Hopefully the guy behind me isn't an armed road rager.

When it's a multi-lane road, it's almost a losing cause.

Before I started driving for MPG, I used to try to adhere to the rule where you keep a one second gap to the car ahead for every 10MPH of speed. That's also a losing cause, for the same reason.

So IMHO, eco driving in heavy traffic is really a function of the level of impatience (read: a$$holishness) of the people around you.

Meh - almost.... It has worked for me... In Florida and even in LA :thumbup: Just remember than an all or nothing attitude results in the latter ;)