Traffic Wave Experiments: "You cannot dissolve the slowdown by accelerating out at the end, since you're still blocked by the driver ahead of you. The solution: bring a huge space in as you approach it. This temporarily cuts off the flow of incoming cars which feeds it and keeps it alive." This article that Matt found is very interesting if you deal with big traffic like me. The premise is: keep space in front of you, and you'll ease traffic. But if there's any space in front of you, someone will probably merge into your lane -- killing the space. hmm...getting zen about traffic is not easy.