The ability to anticipate future events in the traffic environment is an important competence in driving. This paper extends our prior work: 1) to show potential benefits resulting from anticipatory competence in driving, and 2) to collate characteristics of anticipatory competence from a theoretical point of view. The reviewed literature is foundational to our understanding of anticipation as a highlevel cognitive competence, allowing for the prediction of future traffic situations on a tactical level. We conceptualize anticipation as relying on the identification of stereotypical traffic situations based on indicative cues, and stress that the impacts of this competence are dependent on the driver's individual goals. Thus, anticipation enables a number of potential benefits, such as safety and fuel-efficiency, but the realization of these potential benefits depends on the goals of the driver. Further, we argue that the superior anticipatory competence of experienced drivers observed in an earlier simulator study can be explained via their heightened ability both to identify indicative cues, and interpret those cues relative to similar, memorized situations. We then capture anticipatory driving in a model inspired by the classical theory of information processing to describe the various steps necessary to process indicative cues from the environment, anticipate a future traffic situation, and take appropriate action or achieve a state of cognitive readiness.