Eliminating stop and go traffic

great concept but wont happen. increasing following distance to coast up to a slow down reduces the amount of cars the road can hold. driving and maintaining following distance coming up to a slowdown does not provide the clues to the drivers behind to start lowering their speeds.

only automated networked driving can do that and its not that far away

 

that is great if you live in an area where that can be done. traffic densities and unfavorable terrains does not make that possible in my area

"getting the big picture" is a no brainer" but at the same time, I have to drive in the real world and most peoople's attention areas struggle to move beyond the hood ornament

 

…perhaps that should read "…beyond the phone with which they're texting!"

 

Try paying $8 a gallon. That'll slow the people down

 

Doubt it...people will still drive the same, just make less trips.

 

In an ideal world this is true. In the real world, however, we have accidents. Accidents will decrease the throughput of cars severely. Slowing down and increasing following distance may decrease accidents so more cars can get through. It's a delicate balance that civil engineers have to decide upon. Self driving networked cars can't get here soon enough.


iPhone ?

 

I notice on Monday after a NASC race on Sunday, the on expressways driving is worst.

 

Maybe. Maybe not. When petrol was cheap people used to drive like nutters here. Then as it got more expensive they still drove like idiots. Then as the pain of high fuel costs started to sink in, people slowed down.

Generalising, but that's my experience of it.

 

As usual everyone has a reason why it won't work for <strong>them</strong>, and they know this without even trying it. What do you suppose causes this knee-jerk reaction?

 

Is it really better to have 100 cars on a given patch of road, going 10 MPH, than 16 cars going 65? That's the thing, getting rid of these traffic waves, speeds up the average speed on the road, from stop & go, to free flowing. It seems intuitively obvious (to me) that this is an improvement.

 

One car length for each 10 mph was also what we learned in driver's ed - back in the 60s.

I try to stick to the middle lanes, keep up with the flow. Shake my head and chuckle at tailgating drivers zooming in and out of lanes and passing me. I often get to laugh at them more than once because they get stuck and I pass them again and then again. Sometimes I end up behind or next to them on an offramp - they look quite pleased with themselves - not realizing they've gained nothing for all the gas they've wasted.

I once passed a guy at least three times in less than five miles. I'm sure he thought he was getting way ahead of those he zoomed past - but he was obviously deluding himself.

Often these are young drivers and I understand because I drove like them when I was a kid. I did it till my friend - who liked to drive fast but drove smart - told me that zooming around in freeway traffic is counterproductive. He was a bus driver and said that keeping a steady pace got you there in about the same time. One might save, at most, a few seconds by cutting back and forth and speeding but doing so often saved no time at all.

YMMV

 

He's right.

As a taxi driver you know exactly how long it will take to get from point A to point B to within a minute at any time of the day. Believe me, driving at 45 or driving at 70 gets you to the destination within minutes. Obviously on a long run driving faster gets you there quicker, but anything under 20 miles makes barely any difference.

Driving in and out the lanes in a busy city makes no difference. Sometimes you choose the right lane, another time you don't, but I'm sure the odds are the same when you're driving crazy.

 

Obviously. Heading left and you go in the left lane, but I meant the people who flit in and out and all over the place and achieve nothing.

 

Actually if you are trying to get to a destination quicker it is better to come up on slow traffic and use the brakes to form in line ahead. Its a common tactic taught in high performance driving schools.
Even when you let off the gas and let engine compression slow you down, a car still under power moves swiftly ahead of you and is slipping in line ahead of you.
The trick is to not worry about who's in front unless you tempt a driver to get into too short a space in front; its that case that we teach drivers to 'keep up" so as not encourage some nitwit to seek a car length gain that risks an accident. And yes I regularly move pass Prii to get in line in front. I'm intent on getting somewhere.

 

Trying to get to a destination quicker, eh?
Let me see now.....

You're zooming along the interstate at about 100 feet/sec (70 or so). Most drivers are keeping about 1 car length apart for every 10mph, so that's about 100 foot spacing, right? So, 1 second apart?

OK, here's an aunt daisy prii driver, I'll leave them in my dust! Zoom, zoom, way to go! Just a little gas, and a micron or two off the brake pads, but who's counting...

Now let me see, how much quicker will I be getting to my destination? The driver I passed was 1 second in front of me, so I must have gained 1 second!!

Look, there's another one!! Zoom, zoom, 2 seconds gained!!

Now, if I keep this up, say passing one prii/minute, after an hour's driving I 've gained 1 minute! After 5 hour's driving, 5 minutes! I'm really getting to my destination SO MUCH QUICKER....

Wait a minute, WAIT a minute, you've fooled me, this is a leg-pull, right?? HA HA HA, very good, I must remember this one....

 

Exactly.

And then you have the randoms like getting stuck at the lights etc.

Seriously, you barely gain minutes by driving like a nutter. But I had to get older and wiser before I realised this

 

Typically o the interstate I travel I pick off 20 or more cars as they cruise, yak on their cell phones, or drift along leaving that 140 foot open lane. (one car length per 10 mph at 70 mph) Few even knew they were picked off.
And in picking off those 20 cars I get ahead by 10 minutes or more. My average speed is 60 mph and thieirs is 50.
Someyimes I've parked and in my office in the the building before they come in the parking lot. I see them out of the window.
Its not the picking off so much as competent driving; the average driver today has little idea how to drive. The first day of high performance driving schools is spent unlearning stuff like one car length per 10 mph. Or 3 seconds separation. Those rules are for non-drivers.