Rush Hour, how do you handle it?
 

Well I recently moved to the land of congested traffic and insane rush hour traffic. Needless to say traffic is at a standstill. I am not a professional driver yet, but I am curious how you deal with driving in these conditions? Do you just take the opportunity to get something to eat and take a break until the worst of it clears? Or do you keep rowing the gears in the bumper to bumer grind?

I have dealt with congested traffic before, but this mess here in CA takes the cake. Thoughts?

Longsnowsm

live south of atlanta and our traffic can be downright nasty sometimes,
i always like to say it is like living on the ocean be aware of the tide and how it flows, usually try to go through major cities at non peak hours or in the opposite direction of the flow, outbound in the morning and inbound in the evening, if you do get caught in it just make the best of it and people watch can be quite entertaining

I would rather drive in L.A. traffic than Seattle traffic. It does not bother me, I have an Ultrashift two pedal in my truck.

Cities are a piece of cake once you know the Layout of their freeway systems. I always just went the speed limit when all the other idiots were bobbing and weaving.

That is pretty much what I do. The other thing, if caught in heavy but moving traffic, try to leave as much space between you and the car(s) ahead of you. Most of the time cars in heavy traffic seem to travel in packs that race along from backup to backup. If you postition yourself in between two of these packs, often times by the time you reach the backup it has cleared and you can keep going.

I don't know if others do this, but I always took the straight shot through a city and never took a loop or bypass unless my drop required it. I was tripping along headed through Houston once, and another driver and I were in contact on 19, so he was going around...said he wouldn't dream of going through, like there were demons on the road. I was at the truck stop at Katy Texas a full hour before he was.

joasis...I do likewise...but depends on the City of course. Some are not laid out like a big fat circle....and some have tunnels, bridges, and various tolls that both cost or require you to inch in a backup.

I try to also time my attack for non-peak hours....but as any Trucker knows...that only works part of the time. When I am in heavy commuter traffic...I just take a deep breath and resolve myself to go with the flow, and take what comes. I quite often maintain one steady slow pace..even letting the lane jumpers hop in and out in front of me...like that is some crafty genius maneuver. When I see the flow speed up...I grab gears...but I always maintain reserve of emotions...because I know from experience...you can do this the easy way...or you can do this the hard way.

For example on LA-Instead of running I-10 going west of Ontario I ALWAYS took the Diamond Bar. I-10 in the morning is one disaster waiting to happen and NORMALLY on the Diamond Bar it's usually pretty clear Sailing.
St. Louis I'll take the By Pass any day-The run through town is rough as a Cob.

yoopr...what is the Diamond Bar route? :)

Rush hour traffic? Smash em... Bash em.. Intimidate em....Abuse them...
I use every trick in the book; but, those grannies always gang up on me and grab the last seat on the bus :cry: :cry: