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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

#21

Post by cema »

tjic wrote: post #11

When I accidentally end up on Rt 128 at rush hour, I do this. (I note that I was on a mailing list with a bunch of relatively smart people once, and I mentioned what I did - and even among the smart folks there was a lot of outrage because I was driving "wrong" or "stupidly". That reaction contributed to me leaving the list shortly thereafter. )

How happy I am to live (and work) at the portion of Rt 128 which is separate from I-95!

But every time I go down to Boston, or far away to other urban areas, I can never keep the distance that I want because someone would certainly cut in. So I increase the distance again, to avoid tailgating, then another guy gets in between us, etc, etc. And so we have a peloton of cars moving at 65+ mph a few meters away from each other. Not too pretty.

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

#22

Post by Mintz »

tjic wrote: post #11

When I accidentally end up on Rt 128 at rush hour, I do this. (I note that I was on a mailing list with a bunch of relatively smart people once, and I mentioned what I did - and even among the smart folks there was a lot of outrage because I was driving "wrong" or "stupidly". That reaction contributed to me leaving the list shortly thereafter. )

Unfortunately (and unintuitively), a person's intelligence doesn't directly translate to the type of driver they are. That's a perfect example. Shame.

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

#23

Post by seanc »

krschultz wrote: post #13

It saves a lot of gas too. I've always tried to get through stop and go traffic smoothly without using the brake, but I always did it for my own gas consumption. I never had this macro look at it.

Especially if you drive a standard transmission. Staying off the brake makes a huge difference, and makes for less clutching as well. For bonus points, you can put the car in neutral while coasting, although some don't think that's safe.

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

#24

Post by kyro »

I'm a fast driver, and one thing I will never understand are those who will do anything and everything to box in a fast driver, or to prevent them from cutting into a lane and taking off. I see fast drivers as excited molecules, looking to escape. What often happens when a fast driver is being blocked is they'll switch lanes back and forth, looking for their escape, creating this wave of hesitation, causing this big low speed anchor to form.

Someone driving fast won't suddenly stop the speeding after being blocked. Just let them go!

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

#25

Post by noodle »

i think its interesting that i used to drive like this site describes for the exact reasons it talks about. and now i don't/can't. the difference? i moved to atlanta.

rush hour drivers here operate under a greedy algorithm. they see an opening that will allow them to speed up or gain extra distance immediately, and they'll take it, for no other reason than to be going faster right now, to be farther down the road right now.

and that includes eating up my buffer zone, forcing me to break/stop, killing my flow optimization.

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

#26

Post by aristoxenus »

antdaddy wrote: post #9
mrshoe wrote: post #8

This man is a saint. For years I've wished more people understood these principles. Instead, I get drivers who are angry at me for leaving a big space in front of my car. If only I pulled up right behind the car in front of me, they'd be 60 feet closer to their destination!! I wish more people would check this site out. Traffic is a real problem that wastes billions of taxpayer dollars and hours on the road every yea…

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...

There are even laws on the books specifying the left lane as the "passing lane". There seems to be a recent trend in making these more strict, so I wonder what effect they're having. This guy seems to have an up-to-date catalogue (green indicates more strict):

http://www.mit.edu/~jfc/right.html

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

#27

Post by PieSquared »

joezydeco wrote: post #16
mrshoe wrote: post #8

This man is a saint. For years I've wished more people understood these principles. Instead, I get drivers who are angry at me for leaving a big space in front of my car. If only I pulled up right behind the car in front of me, they'd be 60 feet closer to their destination!! I wish more people would check this site out. Traffic is a real problem that wastes billions of taxpayer dollars and hours on the road every yea…

These ideas work, but only if you can get everyone else to play along, knowingly or unknowingly. In Chicago at rush hour, if you leave more than a car's worth of space ahead or behind you, it will be filled instantly.

Is that an assumption or something you've tried?

If it's the former, he addresses that concern on his site.

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

#28

Post by VBprogrammer »

While I find letting the 'cheaters' in grates too hard on my soul I alway try to practice driving at the average speed and avoiding using the brake. If for no other reason than to avoid wear on the car (in the UK most cars are still manual and so each start is a tiny bit more wear on the clutch as well as the brakes).

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

#29

Post by RyanMcGreal »

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:

* Driving in congestion is no longer stressful. It just isn't. (Hence the "zen".)

* Dramatically improved fuel economy.

* It's possible to drive through even wildly erratic traffic (swinging from 100 km/h to 20 km/h) without ever touching the brakes. It becomes a kind of game. Manual transmission helps.

* Some other drivers seem to figure out what I'm doing, and they fall into place behind me at a reasonable distance. I've had people follow me for hundreds of kilometres this way.

* Even though you'd assume leaving a huge gap in front is an invitation for other motorists to cut ahead, they rarely do - especially in congestion. If they do, I just let them race up to the front of the gap and then fall back by a single car length to restore the same gap.

I absolutely swear by this driving method. It's easier on the car, easier on the heart, and even serves to create a bubble of calm around you in an otherwise turbulent flow of traffic.

------

[1] Edit to qualify "drive at a constant speed". As I noted later, my speed ranges dramatically based on the congestion level - what remains more or less constant is the safe opening in front of me. Sorry for any confusion with my original choice of words.

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

#30

Post by RyanMcGreal »

kyro wrote: post #18
zck wrote: post #4

Some Japanese scientists did a study to show how traffic jams can appear of of nowhere. They told 22 drivers to drive in a circular path at 30 km/h. A traffic jam appeared, and moved backward. The video is here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Suugn-p5C1M

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

Emergent network phenomenon is emergent.
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