Don't submit to playing the stop-and-go traffic jamming game. http://trafficwaves.org/ Even in rush hour I make a goal to press the brake as little as possible which simply means finding the average speed of the cars in front of me and going slower than it. It's a much less stressful way to drive and since I have a manual also requires less work.
I actually do my best to maintain a constant speed, though because of the large window in front of me, it often doesn't last long before someone merges in and sends me back to stop-and-go. I'm just glad I have transit options available.
A former roommate had a similar complaint. My response was "Your large window in front of you wasn't large enough." But I've also had a mile in front of me thinking the way ahead was clear only to turn a bend and brake really hard at the sight of yet another traffic jam. So it's not a perfect solution unfortunately. I want to see a startup that tracks people's phone and car GPSes (or other means of locating them since you don't need a GPS to get a cell phone's location) and offers a screen to put in the car or a tablet/phone app that shows you the locations and speeds of everyone in your vicinity it can and offers advice like "See this traffic jam 3 miles ahead? That's why you should slow down to 40 now like the new sign says you should do." (Eventually the app can control the car's speed itself.)
Transit is a good solution as well if time isn't important to you or you have a good transit system that doesn't take an hour to go a mere several miles. I've been up to BC's Vancouver a few times and I'm jealous of their skytrain.
