After you have selected your subject, over the course of, say, the next 20 minutes, keep track of where that vehicle is in relation to your own.

If the traffic is really solid, or if you are proceeding along a strip dotted by traffic lights, chances are that other vehicle will not move substantially ahead, and whatever energy that driver has been expending will be for naught.

Somewhere along the line, in the American driving culture, pushing to get ahead became the norm. For some reason, most drivers assume it is better to get ahead and stay behind. The problem is, trying to get ahead in traffic often is a ticket to getting into trouble.

Whatever the motivation, it has become reflexive and irrational -- there is no real thinking behind it.

Related questions:

- Why don't drivers slow down when computerized traffic signs warn of congestion ahead?

- Why do drivers try to slip ahead of other drivers on the way to red lights and stop signs?

- Why do drivers rush up left lanes only to veer across traffic at the last minute to exit?

- Why do drivers accelerate to cut off others who are signaling to enter their lane?

- Why don't drivers slow down when moving through a highway-construction zone, past a pedestrian or cyclist, or approaching an animal crossing the road?

None of these behaviors has to do with rational thought. All are driven, so to speak, by dumb reflex and enculturement. Everything, everything in our vehicular environment encourages speed and competition, inconsideration and rudeness, instead of restraint and cooperation, concern and good manners.

As a result, we have developed two useless collective habits: We speed up to slow down and we rush to stop. In other words, we firmly adhere to the law of diminishing returns -- more and more effort expended for smaller and smaller gains.

Maybe it finally is time to think about another way, time to begin practicing an action that is never mentioned in the advertising campaigns of auto manufacturers, something that has nothing to do with a vehicle engine's horsepower or acceleration potential: When there is no chance of getting ahead, stop trying.

More than that, start practicing easing up on the gas pedal instead of stomping down on it.

Along with slowing down in the first place, easing up is one of the most important actions you can take to make yourself safer on the road. In reference to the aforementioned questions, here is what easing up can produce:

- Coasting gently toward a congested area, where traffic is crawling or stopped anyway.

- Avoiding rushing to stop at a light or a stop sign.

- Properly moving into the proper exit lane well ahead of the exit.

- Politely allowing other drivers to change lanes ahead.

- Giving construction workers, pedestrians, cyclists, state troopers, kids and animals a better margin of safety.

There is another benefit: The less you accelerate or maintain your speed needlessly, the less fuel you will waste, the more money you will save, and the fewer greenhouse gases you will send into the atmosphere.

Not a bad gain for a little self-restraint.

Next: Foiling tailgaters

Phil Berardelli is also the author of "The Driving Challenge: Dare to Be Safer and Happier on the Road." Reader comments and questions are welcome. E-mail: [email protected]

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