Do you get to work faster by driving faster or slow and steady.

[irBosOtter]

you sound like the weakest link in the team

What team?

 

[thestaggy]

I stick to the speed limits and maintain my following distances. Driving faster just frustrates you as you WILL get stuck behind someone sticking to the speed limit or going slightly slower than the limit. It is also stupid to thump along in peak hour traffic where impatient and irritated people are prone to do silly things.

 

[Gaz{M}]

I drive pretty fast to work, but try to do so safely and without doing any wild moves. I find that if I leave early I will arrive at work only 10 to 15 minutes earlier than if I leave home and hour later. So it is more about when you leave rather than how fast you drive. Why must I idle in traffic and get angry? Companies really need to think about flexi morning times. It could reduce congestion drastically if everyone didn't want to leave between 6 and 8. Also school times need to be flexible too.

I do find that the rare times I decide to drive slowly, I arrive calmer and more relaxed and the journey feels more pleasant. But it's more fun to drive quickly. Wakes me up from my morning slumber.

 

[skeptic_SA]

I drive pretty fast to work, but try to do so safely and without doing any wild moves. I find that if I leave early I will arrive at work only 10 to 15 minutes earlier than if I leave home and hour later. So it is more about when you leave rather than how fast you drive. Why must I idle in traffic and get angry? Companies really need to think about flexi morning times. It could reduce congestion drastically if everyone didn't want to leave between 6 and 8. Also school times need to be flexible too.

I do find that the rare times I decide to drive slowly, I arrive calmer and more relaxed and the journey feels more pleasant. But it's more fun to drive quickly. Wakes me up from my morning slumber.

This !

 

[TheTwo]

Coffee in cup holder , cruise control on 120, radio on 947, Relaxing drive to work. Unless I pick up a GTI or something that wants to play.

Had this the other day, I was in front, GTi behind, i took off, he started closing the gap and then I did my most skillful racing tactic

tapped the brakes whilst still accelating. my little 1.4 pulled at least 3 car lengths till the next traffic light

whodaboss? I am

 

[Electron1]

Mythbusters tested this:

Now Tory, Kari and Grant are out on the road testing which will get you to your destination quicker, weaving into speedier and more promising lanes or sticking it out in a single lane?

In the first test, the crew measures the time it takes for two cars to make it from their workshop, M5 Industries in San Francisco, to the San Jose Tech Museum, a 46 mile commute. Kari and Grant spend the first test weaving in and out of lanes to find the one with the best flow. Tory on the other hand picks one lane and sticks to it.

It takes Kari and Grant an hour and 11 minutes of stress-filed lane swapping to make the 46 mile trek. It takes Tory the lane-sticker a breezy two minutes extra to reach the same location.

The initial test is never comprehensive enough for the Mythbusters team, of course. For the second test, they use four cars with the numbers 1,2,3 and 4 taped on their roofs to indicate which lane of traffic they'll be sticking to on the trip. A fifth car with an X on top weaves in and out of traffic. Kari spends this test in a helicopter keeping an eye on the action below.

In the second test, the car that weaves in and out of traffic makes it to his location in one hour and 16 minutes, again beating the cars that stick to a lane. The next car, which drove the whole commute in the fast lane, arrives only three minutes afterwards -- only four percent slower than the lane-changing car. The time-savings really begin to add up as the other cars arrive. The final car, which drove in the lane used for entering and exiting the freeway, made it in one hour 33 minutes, 25 percent slower than the lane weaving car.

It seems the lane-changer will usually beat the steady drivers, but not by much if you're wise about which lane to drive in. As with all Mythbuster's experiments, do not try these moves on your own roads at home. Lane changes are actually dangerous maneuvers. Lane change collisions account for four to ten percent of all crashes, according to a study from the Department of Transportation. The problem is so bad that some of the first active safety features on cars involved blind-side alert and lane assist, which warn unwary drivers of dangerous lane changes. Weaving in and out of traffic erratically also raises the chance of a driver being a victim of road rage. In the end, the time savings isn't worth the multiple risks.
http://www.autoblog.com/2014/08/28/is-it-faster-to-weave-in-and-out-of-traffic-or-stay-in-one-lane/

 

[Suspect99]

Law of averages.

You might go faster for any peak moment, but for that very reason you might get stuck at every single robot and lose time stopped there while the other person is maintaining a slower peak speed but a higher average and missing the robots for instance.

All of that being said...with traffic in the way it's utterly pointless having this conversation as most of your trip is completely beyond your control.

If you are going slower and miss a robot. That means the guy going faster arrived at the robot before you, waited and left before you got to the green robot. There's no way you can end up earlier by driving slower. At best it will be the same time. If each and every robot catches the faster guy.

But he just has to go through one robot that catches you then it's over

 

[Jet-Fighter7700]

In traffic really no point in going fast;
So many times I've been overtaken by a moron only to catch him at the next light......

So much so I call it my entertainment, and burst out laughing, overtaking him in my 1,1 litre toy.....

I get it though; you have to pyscoligically prove that buying that thirsty big v8 lumina was a great desicion!

Problem is the tortise always wins, by going slow and steady.......

 

[Spliffcat]

And holding up all the traffic behind him.

 

[Russell S]

If you are going slower and miss a robot. That means the guy going faster arrived at the robot before you, waited and left before you got to the green robot. There's no way you can end up earlier by driving slower. At best it will be the same time. If each and every robot catches the faster guy.

But he just has to go through one robot that catches you then it's over

Actually the one situation I can think of where driving slower will help you is at a traffic light :

If the fast car gets to a traffic light first and has to stop. Then the slower car sees that it's red and slows down so that they arrive there as it changes green. They then have an effective running start on the "faster car" that needs to accelerate from stopped to catch up. So the "slower car" effectively has a higher average speed.

 

[Suspect99]

Actually the one situation I can think of where driving slower will help you is at a traffic light :

If the fast car gets to a traffic light first and has to stop. Then the slower car sees that it's red and slows down so that they arrive there as it changes green. They then have an effective running start on the "faster car" that needs to accelerate from stopped to catch up. So the "slower car" effectively has a higher average speed.

Yep I agree. But the other guy is going accelerate like a jack rabbit anyway so he'll catch up. And this will have to happen at every robot for it to have any effect