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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

#141

Post by axod »

dgallagher wrote: post #128
axod wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

What if a car is in the passing lane doing the speed limit? Asking them to move out of the lane so another driver could pass by speeding, breaking the law, doesn't make much sense either.

It's a grey area, although usually accepted that 90% of drivers drive faster than the speed limit anyway.

If it's a 70 limit, and someone is in the passing lane doing 70, you'd still flash them.

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

#142

Post by bvanevery »

I completely agree with the moving wave! I have pondered this very same pattern myself. I'm excited to see it documented and shared on the web.

Taking this "zen" driving a step further and imagining an ideal world of cars that never break down on the highway and where the process of merging onto and exiting from a highway could be scientifically mastered such that the speed of the nearby cars is at most nominally affected, it is not inconceivable that cars could travel at speeds far beyond what is considered safe today.

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

#143

Post by spyrosk »

itistoday wrote: post #73
bouncingsoul wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I'm constantly surprised by how few people have heard of the "3 second rule". The rule is simple and works for any traveling speed: pick any arbitrary mark on the road, watch as the car in front of you passes it, and count 3 seconds. You want at the very minimum, 3 seconds to pass before you pass that same mark. This not only has the advantages described by the OP (he's definitely following it, if not calling it by n…

I use this rule too with a slight modification. I always try to keep an older vehicle in front of me and a newer behind me, without overtaking anyone if possible, in order to take advantage of the different braking distances of each.

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

#144

Post by netsp »

eru wrote: post #130
netsp wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not only does a manual transmission help, but it kind of pushes everyone into that kind of driving. Maybe it's just because you don't need brakes as much. When I drive an auto (usually rental), I find I'm a lot more aggressive. I also fond that places with a higher percentage of auto drivers are heavier on the heavy traffic scooch-and-brake.

In Germany manual transmissions are the norm. I heard people drive more aggressively than in the US. Might be a cultural thing, though.

It's not a straight conversion to aggression. Germans, I believe, drive fast. Maybe aggressively too. But, if you put them in an auto, they also pick up the behaviour of building speed fast for 1-2 seconds then braking hard. It happens a lot in dense, halting traffic. It's not the only way of being aggressive, but it's another way

People don't do that in a manual because it's not fun.

*In Italy people drive mostly manuals. They also drive like suicidal grandmas in fast forward.

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

#145

Post by apotheon »

kashif wrote: post #109
apotheon wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's not "zen" -- it's artificial regularity. Zen would be driving at what feels like a natural speed, only adjusting that when circumstances dictate, and "letting go" of your attachment to forward progress when something stands in your way. Instead, you're driving at an artificially limited speed to try to regularize your driving experience. You're tricking yourself into feeling less frustrated by consciously elim…

who is to say what zen is?

It is much easier to identify what it is not than what it is. One could even cheat by claiming that anything is "not zen".

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

#146

Post by apotheon »

charliepark wrote: post #82
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…

This is almost exactly my approach. For a while, I was working on a web page to share the heuristic I'd worked out for it, but I ultimately figured it wasn't worth the time. Since it's relevant to this thread, here's my heuristic: 1. Are you driving faster than the speed limit? Coast. If not … 2. Can you see more brake lights (that is, cars with brake lights on) ahead of you than the number of lanes traveling in your…

You must not drive much in places where the effective speed limit is higher than the posted speed limit -- which, in my experience, is almost everywhere. If you drive the speed limit or less in other than heavy, slower than usual traffic, you get tailgated and cut off regularly, and actually contribute to traffic snarls by introducing additional variances in the flow of traffic.

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

#148

Post by Dove »

devin wrote: post #116
steamer25 wrote: post #81

Nice, patient guy but there's a better way yet if you can afford to gamble with your time a bit (don't try this if you can't afford to lose a little time). When confronted with a single backed up lane, use the uncontended lanes to zip to the front of the wave and merge in _at speed_. Maintaining speed is important. If you don't find an opening, you'll have to abort and find another route to your destination. The up-s…

I take issue with your theories. The "payoffs" you allude to do not exist. Your "zipper-merge" costs you gas money, and if you took the time to watch the video, you'd realize that you are considered a "cheater". Cheaters feel better about having gotten in front, but what they don't realize is that the "sleeper" is providing a way for cars to merge, thus alleviating the jam in the first place. All you're doing is typi…

Actually, this study (http://ops.fhwa.dot.gov/wz/workshops/accessible/McCoy.htm) lends credence to the claim. Late merges have better throughput than early merges when encouraged by traffic signs and uniformly adopted.

The study does not directly address the effect of "cheating" late merges which can create waves, but did note that traffic signs which strongly encouraged early merging by everyone increased overall transit time through construction. That suggests that the default case is better.

That makes a little sense to me: a single lane can bear less traffic, so extending the amount of distance everyone has to spend in a single lane might result in higher latency overall, if not necessarily lower throughput.

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

#149

Post by poltergeist »

My friend and I have designed, in our 6th semesters, a 8085 microprocessor based, congestion-aware traffic control for crossroads.

The system uses switches on the roads ( replaced using RFID or other sensors placed on the ground or at the sides of the roads ), that detect the load on each path and route traffic accordingly.

Not much, but it worked like a charm !!

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