Local outsiders refer to the driving art as the Baltimore Washington shuffle.
Whoever's survey has crowned us as number one in the US for worst traffic. LA folks like to claim the honor, but they don't have a clue. During studies of ecomonies and the bubbles that can break, B/W economy is supposed to be 100% garunteed ression proof. Suddenly the issue of traffic came up, it gets worse every day. If it contiues to worsen at its present pace, it could collapse our economy because of the neverending gridlock.
The area where Smitty lives is the worse of the worst, and you would have to witness it firsthand to understand.
This is why DC drivers suck. I was a "DC" driver before I recently swiched jobs and did most of my work in DC. I'm a polite driver, and I would even let other drivers in when driving the DC area.
Maintaining my polite driving skills, I still must be an assertive driver, and honed my skills to a rezor sharp technique. This the way to allow someone to change lanes--someone who needs to change lanes, not one of those @$$holes that has to be in front of you. What happens is that the cars behind the one you let in perceive you to be pansy driver, something that will be ran off of the road. You let the car in. As you let the car in, you veer slightly to the right. That way, the rest of the cars cannot weasel in a bumper between you and the one your cutting a breake to.
To change lanes: It doesn't work with the mean and smart driver, but it works well with the mean and stupid drivers, a signinfigant amount of the drivers. They race up to the car in front, but if they don't stay to the slight right of the car in front of them (people have a tendency to a little to the left, so that they can survey traffic ahead.) This little to the left is all it takes to squeeze a bumper into even a half inch space.
I like some following room. I would like to abide by the 2 second rule, but you have to drive with about 3/3 of a second max. Regardless to the speed, you cannot allow a car's length. If you allow a car's lenght, the traffic will continue to fill the space. As a result, you have to continue to slow down in order to maintain the car's lenght. I'm not crying about loosing a couple of seconds. If you allow a car lenght, you will be moving quite a bit slower than the natural flow of the traffic.
The thing I find amazing is that the traffic, during the times it moves, is that there aren't more accidents than there are. It's not uncommon to drive 85 to 90 mph, with the traffic with less than a car lenght, even the little ol ladies with siver hair.
