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Solutions for Avoiding Traffic?
gregwbrooks asks: "Technology lets us wardrive and kludge together interesting uses for the OnStar equipment in our vehicles, but what about the one thing I really need: On-demand, real-time traffic information? These guys have a BREW-based app that downloads real-time traffic maps to your cell phone -- it just rolled out in Chicago and Milwaukee, and apparently is going national soon. What other options are out there for someone who doesn't want to fiddle around with tiny web pages on his phone while driving?"
I was gonna say take the bus or carpool.
Unfortunately mass-transit leaves a lot to be desired in the majority of U.S. cities.
I had a 55 mile commute for a while, right through the heart of Minneapolis, and through the worst strechs of traffic in the twin cities. I looked at all the traffic info I could, but in the end I rarely changed my route. Sure I had a few alternates, but a couple miles of stop and go is still faster than any of the alternates that take me 20 miles out of the way. Side streets do not go through, nobody wants traffic in their neighborhood (the kids can and do play ball in the street) so they make it impossible to take anything but major routes. Combine that with traffic lights timed to stop you on the secondary streets and you are much better off stoped on the freeway than moving on a "empty" side street.
Course public transportation would be better, if it worked... I'm not holding my breath.
One simple acronym: CB
CB Radio is simple, it's been around for many years, and while it's not exactly open source, it is available for everyone.
Remember, the #1 cause of traffic jams is traffic. The best way to avoid traffic jams is to not drive.
As soon as everyone starts using fancy new technowidgets to find alternate routes routes to traffic jams, traffic will be routed to those alternate routes. Unfortunately, the alternate routes usually won't be able to handle alot of traffic, so the alternate routes will get jammed up as well.
If you get some new device today it would probably give you the edge up for a few years. But just think of what else you could spend that $1000 on.
Around here, we have spent $billions to build new freeways and roads to reduce "Traffic congestion", however these new roads always end up being just as clogged as the old routes.
I've been riding my bike & taking public transit to work for 7 years now, and it's great.
"Can of worms? The can is open... the worms are everywhere."
1. Telecommute - don't leave the house, but still get paid.
2. Move - be closer to work or be somewhere where there's less commuter traffic hindering your journey.
3. Change jobs - ie, commute somewhere else instead.
4. Use public transport - use your travelling time productively, reading a book or something.
"Accept that some days you are the pigeon, and some days you are the statue." - David Brent, Wernham Hogg
I've noticed that the slow lane (far right) appears to have the optimal flow rate for a highly congested highway.
I used to drive on a major highway daily where the traffic was literally bumper to bumper, stop and go. During rush hour, the fastest route (except HOV lanes) was to stick to the far right, even to stay in the "local lanes" on the right of the jersey wall.
It doesn't make sense to me, but that tactic has shaved hours off my commute time over the years.
Just a thought.
But Herr Heisenberg, how does the electron know when I'm looking?
Not as drastic as giving up driving or moving closer...
Change your schedule by 15-30 minutes.
Awhile back, I realized that if I left my house at 7:30 I'd get through traffic and land at work at 8:30, BUT if I left my house at 8:15 (45 minutes later) I could get to work by 8:45. That's a half hour cut off my commute each way, or an hour a day, gained by simply letting everybody else fight to get to work first. When the masses are mostly in town and parked, I leave my house. My work hours are only shifted 15 minutes! I arrive at 8:45 instead of 8:30, I save an hour a day on my commute, not to mention the reduced gas consumption, pollution, and aggravation.
Leaving 45 minutes earlier just to sit still on the parkway did seem pretty silly. Am I the only one with a wee bit of flexibility in my schedule?
Operator, give me the number for 911!
Only when you truly understand this that the solution will become evident.
On the nights I have chorus rehearsals I drive to work. Because that's after the morning rush hour, I drive to work in the fast line, but I leave a decent space in front of me in case the cars in front get nervous.
In the evening, traffic on the 401 can be bad .. that's when I start in the slow lane while everyone else is battling for space in the fast line, but by the time they're fighting their way off the highway, I'm back in the fast lane again.
Whatever lane I'm in, I always try to leave a few carlengths in front .. what that does is to allow me to absorb the shock waves that propogate back through traffic during rush hour. It looks like I'm being an idiot by the cars behind me, but they probably don't realize that they're going at a constant speed rather than speeding up, braking, speeding up, braking, speeding up, braking. Which one do you think is better for your car and your mileage?
And please, Slower Traffic Keep Right!
"What other options are out there for someone who doesn't want to fiddle around with tiny web pages on his phone while driving?"
Just sit back, relax and enjoy it. People, especially in the US, seem to develop a habit of making themselves frustrated over traffic. Poor time planning, habitual generalized aggression, assumed impatience for no real reason, whatever, people get irritated over something that getting irritated about only makes worse.
Give yourself plenty of time, take it easy and relax. How often do you get a good excuse to get away from everyone and chill? Use it. Hell, take the slow route.
"I may be synthetic, but I'm not stupid." -- Bishop 341-B
This moves the traffic and parking problems from downtown to the high-speed train stations. High speed rail lines need widely spaced stops; the train's high peak speed is wasted each time the train must brake, wait for passengers to board and disembark, and re-accelerate back to cruising speed. This is the same phenomenon that makes a 15MPH bicycle competitive with a 35MPH city bus: the bus stops often, spending less time running at "normal" speed.
So more passengers must travel longer average distances to each widely-spaced train station. The time saving is real only if the downtown area is so crowded that travel by automobile is impractical (as in Manhattan or downtown San Francisco). Thus the rail line originally intended to relieve congestion, in the long term, causes congestion to propogate to outlying areas. Just like Long Island, New Jersey, Connecticut, and the East Bay. The only real solution to congestion is to avoid requiring so many people to travel at the same time, to the same destinations, over such long distances. Sadly, that much-touted benefit of the information age remains a mirage for most of the working population.