Twelve Hundred and Twenty-Three Straight Days with the Top Down.
150. At the Sunoco Station on Livernois and I-94.
Pulled over to take a phone call. Safety first!
Braking, I said. I am obsessive about not braking Have been ever since I started learning to drive. I don't even know where that came from, but I've always felt that braking was an indication of failing to think ahead. So I hardly ever brake; I get off the gas when I predict I need to slow down, and by the time I get back on the gas I'm in the place and going the speed I had in mind.
Example: a big semi was on the I-275 connecting ramp to I-94 W, with four cars behind it. I was doing 60 mph, of course, and decided to start coasting - in gear. By the time the fourth car merged in front of me, I was doing 43 mph and two seconds behind. In front of me, everyone was braking furiously and on one another's bumper.
I did a little experiment on my way home last night. I noted that I got onto the expressway and got off twenty-five miles later and, through some heavy, stop-and-go traffic, never touched the brakes. I counted that during the slowest ten miles the car in front of me, not always the same car, of course, braked a total number of 70 times. That's a ratio of 70:0! Away from the expressway the ratio changes, as I do have to brake for traffic lights, some turns, and the occasional traffic slowdown. Everyone else still outbraked me at a rate of something like 5:1 to 8:1.
It's obvious I'm obsessive about it, but I do know that most people brake unnecessarily in traffic at speeds of 30 - 50 mph. It's one of those things that lead to bunching up; so I really, really try hard not to brake when I'm doing those speeds. I found it's true; most of the time when you think you have to brake, you don't. It's some sort of comfort thing, braking in those situations.
I wonder if this driving habit extends the life of my brakes. The "S" has almost 70,000 miles behind it (and last week it was three years old), but I don't know what's normal.