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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?"
What would be very slick would be an open source system that integrates with wireless data (GPRS, EDGE, WCDMA, WiFi -- take your pick) and GPS to project onto your windshield in heads-up-display (HUD) manner what the traffic conditions are ahead of you. Being open source, you could then add whatever modules interest you so that your HUD could indicate when you are near a Starbucks, state park, 2600 meeting location, weather conditions ahead, or whatever you might want to know while driving. Heck, with a system like that motorists could even pinpoint the locations of speed traps for each other. Imagine your HUD flashing a red warning of "speed trap 1500 meters ahead"...
These devices/apps are just what you want.
This was also talked about previously.
I heard a story on All Things Considered just yesterday about a phone based system for finding drive times between two locations. It is called 511 , it is available only in the Bay Area right now, it uses a variety of data including road sensors and speed pass data for near-real time traffic data calculations. It sounds iteresting : http://www.npr.org/features/feature.php?wfId=17889 73
Talk to your managers about telecommuting a day or two a week. That way you only have to worry about the traffic between your bedroom and your home office.
The other solution that I've found is to live no more than five miles from the office. This gives me a typical commute of about 10 minutes from the front door to my desk.
It's good to use your head, but not as a battering ram.
I've noticed that, too. I live in Los Angeles and my job took me all over the greater southern California and even northern California.
:)
If there's traffic, I always stayed in the righter lanes. Either in the number 3 or 4 lane on a four lane highway (I believe you count lanes where lane 1 is on the far left).
Anyway, I notice two things during rush hour traffic. It seems majority of the drivers are rushing (obviously). They think the left lane is the fastest of all the lanes. Therefore, these drivers want to merge onto the left lane. This is somewhat true as long as everyone in the left lane is driving a bit faster than speed limit. However, when traffic slows down, the left lane seems to come to a halt first. (I'm guessing there are more cars in that lane compared to any other lane.)
Then the number two lane slows down... then your other lanes. No one wants to drive on the right lanes because they're slow. Both on and off ramps are on the right lane. Therefore, traffic can increase and decrease in the right lane. There are also those huge semi-trucks in the right lanes. Majority of the drivers don't want to be stuck behind those big trucks.
But I noticed one thing about those big rigs. They don't like stopping. (Maybe because it's a pain to upshift through all those gears from a stop?) So when I see traffic slowing down, I merge into the right lanes and follow the trucks. Sure, they are slow. But it's hardly stop and go compared to the lefter lanes.
That's my technique when it comes to highway driving in California
Your city may differ. As for surface streets: forget it. There's no point rushing through the city or finding shortcuts. Just leave ten minutes earlier to get to your destination on time.
Good one less car on the road. Alternate transportation methods are nice but they all fail in the time catagory thats an important one for a lot of people. It's nice if you can combine your excersise and your commute. The only mass transit method that seems realy viable as an alterative to cars is high speed trains I'm talking about 150mph+ they can reduce the commuting time and arent subject to traffic as they use highly regulated and planed routes.
Bikes are nice if your talking a short distance or level ground.
Busses are allways a joke they are allways slower than a car offer no real bonus besides possibly being cheaper than a car.
Low speed trains are good if traffic is normaly bad if your on a well served route.
One of the problems with building new freeways is they are just that another path not an increase in the existing paths capacity. Adding alternate routes is good if you have a management systemt hat can divy things up in the right porportions.
No sir I dont like it.
- Every 10 minutes is not on-demand.
- I often listen to WTOP for traffic reports, which are every 10 minutes, but if that doesn't sync up with your bail-out locations (which it rarely does) you may not hear the news in time.
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Doesn't always cover your problem or concern
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(other replies have raised this same point, but
...) even long traffic reports often don't cover what you want and they are very subjective. I almost never get the answer to the question I have every day - "Should I take the bailout which always takes 10-30 minutes of my time or do I stay on the spur which can take between 4-60 minutes?" This question is rarely accurately answered unless there is an accident report.
I'd love to hear a good answer to this question.Traffic jam analysis. FAQ.