Everyone wants to be 12 feet in front of me

The metro Washington DC area is hands-down the worst traffic I've ever lived with (and I've lived in Boston and New York, so I have some basis for this claim). On a daily basis I am astounded at the desire of the drivers around me to be in front of me. My car is about 12 feet long. I'm not sure what they think they're gaining. How long does it take a car to travel 12 feet if you're going 35 miles per hour? I'm not sure how to solve this math problem, but I know that the answer is a very short amount of time. Without fail, whether it's on a highway doing 70 or a side street doing 10, if I leave space between my car and the one I'm following, someone will inevitable pull into that space. Even when I only leave a tiny bit of space-- enough so that if the car in front of me were to stop suddenly I might have some mild hope of slamming on my breaks and avoiding rear-ending them-- even when I only leave a little space, someone in the lane next to me will jump into it, or if I'm on a city street, someone will pull out from a side-street into the space. In both cases, I'm forced to slam on my breaks so as not to crash into this knuckle-head. I just don't get it. To me, this behavior is the embodiment of the "rat race" mentality. Maybe we need to repeal the "no-fault" insurance law that says it's your fault if you rear-end someone. Stay tuned for an upcoming rant about the person behind me in the check out line at the grocery store...