If you're in the left lane and going slower than the guy behind you, pull to the right. I wish people in America would be taught this, I'm amazed at how often light traffic I encounter is from a few people meandering in the left most lanes and then everyone behind just matching their speed. Obviously does nothing about major traffic but still annoying. Besides that, people need to stop thinking of driving as a competition and let others change lanes and merge. I'd like to think those 2 things would help the situation a bit.
What Are Traffic Waves and Why Do They Happen So Much?
51–60 of 97 posts
Re: What Are Traffic Waves and Why Do They Happen So Much?
#52An interesting point to mention is that the traffic "jam" moves backwards. This is because at the front of the jam, cars are able to accelerate out of it, while at the back o the jam cars are piling up into it. Seen from above the jam is a shock wave moving backwards. This often upsets people when they get out of a jam only to see there was nothing causing it! In reality what caused it may have been much further up t…
It's usually high density traffic and someone pulling a move like a forced merge which causes the person now behind them to slam on their brakes. I've seen this hyperactive "weaving" happen too many times to have it be explained only by "slow human reactions times".
I heard a few years back (no source) that when they model traffic they can design systems that work perfectly, its human error (not hitting the gas fast enough after a green light, changing lanes to often, 18 wheelers getting in the far left lane to turn right) that make the models break down.
Re: What Are Traffic Waves and Why Do They Happen So Much?
#53If you're in the left lane and going slower than the guy behind you, pull to the right. I wish people in America would be taught this, I'm amazed at how often light traffic I encounter is from a few people meandering in the left most lanes and then everyone behind just matching their speed. Obviously does nothing about major traffic but still annoying. Besides that, people need to stop thinking of driving as a compet…
In my driving experience in the US:
If a highway has two lanes, the average speed in the left lane is higher than the average speed in the right, but the only major passing opportunities are on the right when there's an empty stretch (because no one merges right).
If a highway has >2 lanes, the left is never consistently the fastest moving lane, and almost every passing opportunity comes from moving right. It is not uncommon to find the right lane near empty, and it is then possible to blow by everyone in that lane.
The exception to the above is in areas with heavy merging, wherein the average American driver seems to not understand how to merge (either blocking one another, or coming to a stop as the merge lane begins). In this case, speed seems to increase moving left.
Re: What Are Traffic Waves and Why Do They Happen So Much?
#54If you're in the left lane and going slower than the guy behind you, pull to the right. I wish people in America would be taught this, I'm amazed at how often light traffic I encounter is from a few people meandering in the left most lanes and then everyone behind just matching their speed. Obviously does nothing about major traffic but still annoying. Besides that, people need to stop thinking of driving as a compet…
I wish people in America would be taught this
I remember being taught this when I started driving in the 90's. And I remember people following it until the mid/late 2000's. It's as if a switch was flipped, and nobody cared about this practice anymore.
Re: What Are Traffic Waves and Why Do They Happen So Much?
#55Atlanta has rolled out variable speed limits on some highways (I285) which attempt to slow down the flow BEFORE people reach the congested area.
I'm not sure how well most users understand how it's supposed to help them go faster by slowing down; a bit more education could be helpful so everyone plays the game.
It is a bit weird seeing the speed limit jump from 45 to 65 then to 35 within the space of a mile…
Re: What Are Traffic Waves and Why Do They Happen So Much?
#56I wish, for those of us that ride motorcycles in this type of traffic in the US, that all states would adopt a sensible lane-spitting allowance for motorcycles. In country after country, lane-splitting has proven to help reduce congestion, and yet, if I try it here, I'll get a ticket. Ridiculous.
Re: What Are Traffic Waves and Why Do They Happen So Much?
#57This reminds me of a piece on traffic I read quite a few years ago and might have been on reddit or even perhaps slashdot. I still follow its advice to this day when having to brave the 101. It discussed traffic waves and our reactions to them. The repeatable waves this article mentions come from (most of) the individual drivers driving faster than the capacity of the road to carry them all. So they bunch up at some…
How can you be sure the cars behind you aren't even more compressed than they otherwise would be if you're leaving so much space in front of you like that? One thing I hated about that article was that the author assumed he was doing such a great service for everyone by "smoothing out" the traffic waves by leaving a buffer, but he never really proved it; he just waved his hands and said that it looked like the cars b…
The way I do it, I eventually catch up to the car in front of me. Not having the data to pick the perfect, average speed, I err faster so that the traffic behind me isn't, on average, going significantly slower than traffic in front of me. Note that waves behind you are the only waves affected. All you're doing is thinning out the medium so they don't propagate efficiently. The end goal is keeping actual speed close to average speed; spacing is a means to an end.
Re: What Are Traffic Waves and Why Do They Happen So Much?
#58Earlier quoted context omitted.
Not to mention that, in the country I live in, it is guaranteed that while you're idly rolling forward, some asshole will cut you off and take your place so that he can win that precious 2 seconds.
So let him. What's the harm? If he's gaining an insignificant amount of time, then you're losing an insignificant amount of time.
Now I have to slam on the breaks, instead of having a gap to avoid hard accelerate/break cycles.
I'd like to avoid the wear on my car and my nerves, but it's not possible because some (expletive) person will fill the gap.
Re: What Are Traffic Waves and Why Do They Happen So Much?
#59If you're in the left lane and going slower than the guy behind you, pull to the right. I wish people in America would be taught this, I'm amazed at how often light traffic I encounter is from a few people meandering in the left most lanes and then everyone behind just matching their speed. Obviously does nothing about major traffic but still annoying. Besides that, people need to stop thinking of driving as a compet…
I wish people in America would be taught this I remember being taught this when I started driving in the 90's. And I remember people following it until the mid/late 2000's. It's as if a switch was flipped, and nobody cared about this practice anymore.
I was taught this and practice it regularly.
I think it's an attitude thing. As often as I see drivers in my area blowing through red lights and pulling other ridiculous or dangerous stunts every single day, I can only imagine it's due to a lack of care or respect on the drivers' part.
Re: What Are Traffic Waves and Why Do They Happen So Much?
#60I would never get closer than a car's length away from the driver in front of me if I was driving 60 mph; why should I act any differently when I'm driving 30 mph? Speed is trivial - the gap must be maintained so drivers have the opportunity to react to cars around them without having to make any drastic changes in speed.