Does anyone else remember the scene in Mission Impossible 3, where tom cruise is hosting a dinner party full of guests who only know his fake cover identity as a statistician working on traffic waves for the department of transportation? The movie portrays it as conversational kryptonite, where he briefly discusses traffic issues in order to weaponize boredom and get some people to leave him alone. That part broke my…
What Are Traffic Waves and Why Do They Happen So Much?
81–90 of 97 posts
Re: What Are Traffic Waves and Why Do They Happen So Much?
#82I 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.
Lane splitting is legal in California. But honestly, how does this reduce congestion? My experience is that these motorcycles often dart between cars causing drivers to swerve slightly and tap their brakes. I would argue this makes congestion worse as it causes more cautious drivers to brake (sometimes abruptly) and almost always slow down. Finally, it is important to consider that as a vehicle, most of us are not lo…
I'm aware of CA splitting -- it's not been adopted yet elsewhere in the US. It's too bad that you had to experience someone who was "swerving in and out" and not the majority of riders who would split sensibly and safely.
Lane splitting is only supposed to occur below a certain speed; splitting above that number would be a violation, of course.
Take a look at Europe to see how easily splitting can be integrated, for both driver and rider. It absolutely does reduce congestion: bikes move smoothly to the front and away, freeing space.
American drivers just aren't educated to realize this because negative stereotypes about motorcycles are so prevalent in the US, and the many positive benefits of riding aren't presented as options here.
Re: What Are Traffic Waves and Why Do They Happen So Much?
#83Whenever the topic of self driving cars comes up in conversation I let people know I think self driving cars are going to solve a lot of our traffic woes. I'm not sure if a model exists yet for cars 'putting out' traffic waves, but I'm sure once we have self driving cars and they start talking to each other this is going to be of great interest. I'm hoping we can effectively 'micro' away some degree of congestion.
I think people overstate the degree to which self-driving cars will actively 'talk' to each other. And I actually think it's somewhat detrimental to advocating for self-driving cars, because the immediate thought is that communication acting as a channel for malware. And that's a fairly justified fear. In the end, I think most of the communication will just be in terms of the fact that self-driving cars interacting w…
I hope that self-driving cars will broadcast their intentions, so other cars can use that to get a better prediction of where the car will be. But the broadcast processing definitely needs to be done carefully: the data may be corrupted or malicious, so the receiver needs to carefully process it to avoid crashing (software or vehicle), and also check it against the picture of reality it gets from its sensors.
If the vehicle in front of you tells you it will accelerate, you shouldn't accelerate too, unless you can verify the acceleration and that it's safe for you to do so.
Re: What Are Traffic Waves and Why Do They Happen So Much?
#84Earlier quoted context omitted.
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…
California is the worst about this and if that's where you live may be giving you a false impression of the US as a whole. It's probably because in California, 18-wheelers are required to stick to the right lane and have a lower speed limit (55 instead of 65). That's not true in most other states. I, too, have noticed that people here tend to just pick a lane (usually the left one to avoid trucks) and stick to it no…
Experience up and down the east coast and currently in the Midwest.
I've started calling the first merge style you've observed the "Minnesota merge". I deal with it on the way to and from the office, each direction with a good mile of merge lane.
Ninja Edit: Jersey is the best for clear right lanes. I've made entire journeys never coming up on anyone in the right lane, unless they were in the process of "merging", which in this case means getting all the way into the left lane immediately.
Re: What Are Traffic Waves and Why Do They Happen So Much?
#85The demo breaks after I click around a bit: http://i.imgur.com/OGvAO2Q.gifv
this happens because the brake level when you click the brake button is smaller than the brake level needed to not collide with the car in front of it.
Re: What Are Traffic Waves and Why Do They Happen So Much?
#86Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
To avoid breaking, allow more space in front, including space for someone to merge in.
Re: What Are Traffic Waves and Why Do They Happen So Much?
#87Earlier quoted context omitted.
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…
Whenever I see an article about traffic patterns, I inevitably see this exchange: Person 1: You can fix traffic waves by smoothing! Person 2: Smoothing traffic waves makes no sense! It's frustrating. I don't know what to believe. Is there any peer-reviewed, simulation- and data-backed research that puts this issue to bed for good?
The smoothing doesn't increase the road capacity, though there is likely a small benefit to mitigating the negative effects of merging.
The big benefit, which the grandparent concedes, is the reduction of unnecessary fuel usage, wear and tear on the vehicle and driver.
So, I consider it a win regardless.
Re: What Are Traffic Waves and Why Do They Happen So Much?
#88I 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.
Because following distance is irrelevant. Following time matters, and that is a function of speed.
Okay, but on-the-fly time calculations aren't exactly optimal. It's much easier to establish a lower limit on distance.
Re: What Are Traffic Waves and Why Do They Happen So Much?
#89This 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…
I think you're thinking of http://trafficwaves.org/trafexp.html I read it too, years ago, and also follow its recommendations. (And I ended up in the Seattle area, so I've gotten to experience the same traffic the author did...) It makes traffic less annoying for sure, even if there were 0 other benefits I'd do it. The only freeway issue that annoys me these days is people who don't keep right except to pass during n…
Yes, that must have been it. I don't remember anything about the look of the page, but his tone seems very familiar.
Re: What Are Traffic Waves and Why Do They Happen So Much?
#90This 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…
Someone posted the link, and noticed the part where he saw behind him. TL;DR: When driving downhill into a valley, you can see for miles behind you out the rear window.
Also, I didn't say that smoothing the waves increased road capacity, though improving merging may help a bit. Rather, the reduction of stop/go is to everyone's benefit.
In the city things are largely the same, people here tend to speed to the next red light, but it doesn't help.