M/T owners -- how do you drive in stop and go traffic
Senior Member
Joined: Jan 2012
Posts: 382
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From: US
Vehicle: 2010/Hyundia/Genesis Coupe 2.0T Track
I like to "play the accordion"
You have a minimum and a maximum allowed distance to the car in front. When the car in front starts to pull away, you do nothing until they exceed your maximum allowed distance. Only then do you start to accelerate and match their speed. When the car in front then starts to brake, you do nothing until they enter your minimum allowed distance. Then you engine brake, then actually brake if they are still stopped.
This works to damp out the tiny, jerky movements of peak hour. It also avoids you riding your brakes and clutch, and just roll along at an average speed. Can't remember where I learnt that trick but it works ridiculously well.
You have a minimum and a maximum allowed distance to the car in front. When the car in front starts to pull away, you do nothing until they exceed your maximum allowed distance. Only then do you start to accelerate and match their speed. When the car in front then starts to brake, you do nothing until they enter your minimum allowed distance. Then you engine brake, then actually brake if they are still stopped.
This works to damp out the tiny, jerky movements of peak hour. It also avoids you riding your brakes and clutch, and just roll along at an average speed. Can't remember where I learnt that trick but it works ridiculously well.
This by far makes the most sense, and it woudl avoid many fendor benders which cause more traffic! But unfortnatley, people are SO impatient. They want to get ahead NOW and think 1-5 car ahead will make any difference in time. So if they see a large gap or you slowly cruising, then floor it, cut in fornt of you and then slam their brakes. That is why when I used tha above mentioned technique, I usually do it in the right (slow) lane.
But I drove a twin disk cintered steel clutch in heavy stop and go traffic before for 30m, it sucked! I prefer to use a combo of the above method, but my distance is gauged off of if I can put in into 1st, and then let the bascially idling engine move me along in first and when traffic gets slower, I clutch in, to N and slowly add only as much brake as nessisary to not hit them, and hope they pick up and I can give it some gas and feather the clutch back up to full out and 1st gear cruise.
Though the clutch (relativvely speaking) wasn't that strong, it had such a rediculously small engagement area to feather, any anything outside that was on/off making it such a pain. Though it didn't seem that hard to push in, getting back into a 'normal' car, I could literaly not even feel the clutch. I looked like such a noob driving it, as I had no clue where the clutch pedal was nor could feel any engagment point. lol