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Traffic Hacks: How One Driver Can Vastly Improve Traffic

trafficwaves.org

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Re: Traffic Hacks: How One Driver Can Vastly Improve Traffic

#61

Post by bouncingsoul »

RyanMcGreal wrote: post #29

I changed my driving patterns after first reading this remarkable essay some years ago. Now I follow what I affectionately call the "zen of driving", to wit: leave a huge gap in front of me, drive at a constant speed where possible [1], avoid using the brakes except in case of emergency, and so on. On long driving trips through mixed traffic, I have made several observations, some obvious and some surprising: * Drivi…

I did exactly what you described on a recent 12 hour car trip. I'm never tailgating again.

The main benefit for me, and one you don't mention, is safety. Knowing I have actual time to react in an emergency instead of being stuck with brake hard and pray I think really calms my subconscious.

Re: Traffic Hacks: How One Driver Can Vastly Improve Traffic

#62

Post by rdtsc »

axod wrote: post #14
antdaddy wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Another problem is drivers who insist on driving in the left lane at all times and refuse to move over. IIRC, the left lane used to be referred to as the 'passing' lane...

In the UK it still is, and passing on the left is illegal. I like that system more that all lanes equal.

So if there is a slow car there, what do you do? Does everyone wait behind them until they turn/exit or decide to switch lanes?

Re: Traffic Hacks: How One Driver Can Vastly Improve Traffic

#63

Post by rdtsc »

tptacek wrote: post #55
antdaddy wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Another problem is drivers who insist on driving in the left lane at all times and refuse to move over. IIRC, the left lane used to be referred to as the 'passing' lane...

In Indiana and Michigan, left is a passing lane. One problem here is that people driving the maximum lawful speed are still driving too slow for the prevailing speed of traffic.

So the difference is between "left is a passing lane" and "no passing on the right". In other words, it could be the slow car in the left lane that is breaking the law because it is not passing, just staying there, or it is the other cars that pass on the right that are breaking the law. I am sure the police would rather have both -- ticket those hanging out in the left lane and those passing on the right. Win-win for state/local budget!

Re: Traffic Hacks: How One Driver Can Vastly Improve Traffic

#64

Post by tlrobinson »

kyro wrote: post #48
req2 wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If I say I made a cake 'from scratch' (idiom: 'from nothing'), do you quibble that flour and eggs were indeed used, and that they are clearly not 'nothing'?

Mentioning how you made a cake from scratch and linking to a video of seemingly scientific research claiming an event to happen out of nowhere and for no apparent reason are two completely different things, due to the two completely different contexts.

I think his point was that we all understand that "out of nowhere" doesn't mean "magically", at some level it has to be the drivers' fault.

The video doesn't even say "out of nowhere", it says "for no apparent reason".

Re: Traffic Hacks: How One Driver Can Vastly Improve Traffic

#65

Post by dkarl »

randomwalker wrote: post #32
kyro wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not 'out of nowhere.' It's because we're humans. We're paranoid and reactionary. You wouldn't see that with robots.

Cynical much? How about it's because we have bounded cognitive abilities, limited perceptive accuracy and slow reaction times?

You're forgetting the natural caution and fearfulness that protect us from depending too much on our limited abilities when safety is at stake.

Re: Traffic Hacks: How One Driver Can Vastly Improve Traffic

#66

Post by axod »

rdtsc wrote: post #62
axod wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the UK it still is, and passing on the left is illegal. I like that system more that all lanes equal.

So if there is a slow car there, what do you do? Does everyone wait behind them until they turn/exit or decide to switch lanes?

If there's a slow car in the outside lane, and they're not making any attempt to overtake anything, you generally flash them until they move over. They are, after all, breaking the law.

Re: Traffic Hacks: How One Driver Can Vastly Improve Traffic

#67

Post by dminor »

zngtk4 wrote: post #6

Interesting, my instinct has always been to try to "punish" the cheaters by preventing them from merging in, thinking that this would discourage this behavior. But I can't really stop this, and the article provides a good explanation for why you might as well just let people merge in front of you.

I used to as well, until one of the cheaters got out of his car and yelled at me at the next traffic light for "cutting him off". I decided that this potential outcome wasn't really worth it, especially since they always find a way in anyway. Another upshot is I also don't have to focus as hard on not rear-ending the person in front of me.

Re: Traffic Hacks: How One Driver Can Vastly Improve Traffic

#68

Post by jcl »

tptacek wrote: post #53

Doesn't this imply that cities could alleviate traffic pathologies by hiring people to drive carefully down the highway?

He suggests on one of the later pages that cities should have state troopers drive in a constant-speed band across the lanes. (He also points out that group of citizens doing this independently in Toronto was arrested for it.)

Re: Traffic Hacks: How One Driver Can Vastly Improve Traffic

#69

Post by jimbokun »

"WHY must a bottleneck develop at a merge zone? Well, obviously because there's too many cars on one road. And because everyone must take turns slowly merging together. WRONG! Wrong wrong wrong. Even during extremely low-traffic conditions, everyone still takes turns, yet everyone merges as a high speed flow,like a zipper. A bottleneck never appears."

New York city drivers are really excellent at the zipper merge thing. While living there, I got really used to not having to slow down much at merge points. Everyone just drove at a decent speed using all available lanes then smoothly merged at the point where the lane was closed.

Moving back to Pennsylvania, people start queuing up in one lane a mile before the merge point, and traffic grinds to a stand still. This is insane. Usually, though, if you do the sane thing and use the other lane up to the merge point, you can get in without trouble.

Maybe I was one of the early mergers before I lived in New York, and have just blocked it out of my memory. Now, though, seeing it happen really grates on my nerves. One of many reasons I'm glad I hardly ever drive anymore. :)

Re: Traffic Hacks: How One Driver Can Vastly Improve Traffic

#70

Post by radu_floricica »

RyanMcGreal wrote: post #29

I changed my driving patterns after first reading this remarkable essay some years ago. Now I follow what I affectionately call the "zen of driving", to wit: leave a huge gap in front of me, drive at a constant speed where possible [1], avoid using the brakes except in case of emergency, and so on. On long driving trips through mixed traffic, I have made several observations, some obvious and some surprising: * Drivi…

I accidentally get a similar effect when I try to drive a patch of road with the car in neutral. It's a very non-intuitive experience: from the engine sound I'd think I'm slowing down considerably, but from looking at the numbers I stay at pretty much the same speed for a looong time.

When I do this before stoplights I sometimes catch a green light with road to spare, and I'm able to avoid stopping at all. This helps me somewhat, but as a side effect it helps the traffic behind me a lot more.

I'll try to do this more often. Keeping in neutral is easier then trying to compute an optimum speed, and it'll help a lot with the consumption too.

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