Are there ways in which you control the movements of drivers around you?

Turn signals? Brake lights? Swervin’ in my Lane?

I drive the speed limit in my neighborhood which is 25 mph. It seems to piss off nearly every driver behind me but hell I live here and there are lots of dog walkers and kids that could get hurt by the jackasses who drive 35 even 40 mph.

I wave other cars through 4-way stops, preferably with my arm out the window to make my intent obvious. We get the “No, after you!” contests here,where being too polite slows everyone down. It’s better than the overly aggressive people, though.

My favorite is trying to break up stop-and-go waves on the expressway. If you don’t rush up to the next car just to brake, and you allow more following distance, you can create a buffer zone for yourself and drive along at a steady slow pace.

Even better, the cars behind you fall into the pace, so the stop-and-go disappears behind you and everyone is rolling along steadily.

Here’s where I got the idea – the page includes nice animations.
Traffic ‘Experiments’ and a Cure For Waves & Jams

I’ve always had a problem with this but it got drastically worse when I moved to Manhattan:

Tailgating, fucking tailgating. There is no excuse for it. It is the easiest form of treacherous driving to avoid doing.

I’ve found that rapidly tapping the brake pedal with my left foot causing the brakelights to flash works often. If that doesn’t do the trick slaloming in my lane gets the driver behind me off my back almost without fail.

Many years of road cycling has taught me to pay strict attention to the “body language” of motorists.

Driving is a series of rapidly presenting choices. I always prepare for a driver to make the wrong one in any given situation.

@SecondHandStoke another thing you can do is just turn on your headlights, count to two or three and turn them off again. This will activate your rear lights as well as the headlights and the sudden flare of red lights ahead of them will cause them to hit their brakes and slow down but, since all you did was turn on the lights, your momentum will not decrease and you can gain a little ground between the two of you.

How does one go about slaloming in a lane @SecondHandStoke? I agree…I’m always prepared for someone to do something incredibly stupid.

@Call_Me_Jay 4 way stops is a whole other animal. If I see that another car is going to arrive at the same moment, at the speed I’m going, I speed up to be the first one there, stop, then go before they other guy makes it to a full stop. I hate that waving people on shit, especially if they were there first. First one to stop, goes.

First one to stop, goes.

Yes, that should work, but as I mentioned, we have a “who can go last?’ problem here.

It makes the streets less dangerous, so I’m happy to wave my hand and break the spell keeping everyone stationery.

Wouldn’t going instead of waving have the same effect? And what if every body was waving everybody on?

Someone moves on the first wave. Big arm motions, don’t mess around.

If I just go that often leads to simultaneous starts. And then every one stops. And jolts forward. And stops.

When people let me go, I take the opportunity and go.

forcing them into a ditch, or against a tree.