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Rude Drivers Reduce Traffic Jams
BuzzSkyline writes "Traffic jams are minimized if a significant fraction of drivers break the rules by doing things like passing on the wrong side or changing lanes too close to an intersection. The insight comes from a cellular automata study published this month in the journal Physical Review E. In effect, people who disregard the rules help to break up the groups that form as rule-followers clump together. The risk of jamming is lower if all people obey the rules than if they all disobey them, according to the analysis, but jamming risk is lowest when about 40 percent of people drive like jerks."
Vindication at last! I can now provide proof to my wife that my driving style has a purpose, and that purpose is for the greater good of mankind.
Take it to the limit, everybody to the limit, come on, everybody fhqwhgads.
That depends on the loudness of your horn. If it displaces enough air to actually move the cars forward, you might be a helpful jerk.
especially on the Belt Parkway where people seem to slow down to 30mph to go over a bridge
The rule only applies if SOME people break the rules, not every one of you hot-dog-eating-bastards.
Nothing frustrates me more than incompetence on the road. I deal with it swiftly, and with great justice!
Being Slashdot, the answer would be one that doesn't run on Linux :)
wow. Asshole Saturation Point. When that happens, I don't care *who* you are, you ain't looking good in them jeans.
I suggest relaxing with a nice drink before you drive.
Nerd rage is the funniest rage.
Actually, the number of flying cars I've seen up to now was very low. :-)
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
AGREED. Agreed more than anything I've ever agreed to in my life. Maybe even including my marriage and mortgage signing. Agreed, agreed, agreed.
Attention slashdotters: the parent post has an 87.342% chance of evoking a reply containing a goatse link. You have been warned.
Except when you have a jerk on your backside that will clearly blow past you at warp 2 the second he has a chance. THEN pacing the car next to you is the only sensible option to teach those insensitive clods a lesson. /me runs away and sings Dennis Leary's "Asshole"...
Nice! I am finally part of the solution.
"Seven years of college down the drain. Might as well join the f-ing Peace Corps." - John 'Bluto' Blutarsky
The French are merely being practical.... The left lane is reserved for passing, the right lane is reserved for columns of invading armored vehicles.
Personally, there's one rule I'd like ingrained in every driver's head: never match speeds with someone in the lane next to you
I think that's a pipe dream. You know what rule I want to beat into every driver in every flyover state?
(rage bubbling just thinking about it)
DON'T FUCKING GO SLOWER THAN THE FLOW OF TRAFFIC IF YOU'RE IN THE PASSING LANE
I'd be happy if they learned that. If you find yourself in the left lane, and the traffic in the right lane is going faster, do one of a few things
-learn to use the gas pedal
-get into the right lane as soon as possible
-find the nearest cliff and drive off of it
-wait for me to ram you off the road and kill all the children in your backseat you appear to be thinking of
I know the speed limit says what it says, and it's good to go that speed. Good for you. If there are people who are not going that speed, you do not try to force them to go the speed limit, that's dangerous for everyone on the road. If someone is passsing you on the right, that should be a major wakeup call to you: you're causing other people to do dangerous things. I've been guilty of this myself at least once or twice, just get over into the right lane ASAP and feel stupid about it, because you were in fact being stupid. Numerous times I've seen drivers create slowdowns on what would otherwise be mostly empty highways because of this. Always in the midwest though, presumably because elsewhere they quickly get shot.
Disclaimer: please do not take this as actual advocacy of killing anyone, even drivers who do this.
It's funny how there are so many bad drivers among the general population, but everyone posting here is great at it.
Me, I'm a predator by nature
Well I'm not just any predator - I'm a frickin' T-Rex! There. Beat that! [*]
[*] Note: Ownership of a wolf moon t-shirt is considered cheating
Proprietary, closed source drivers are the biggest barrier to the perceived capability and adoption of Free Software (tm). If there are Rude Drivers, we need to ensure that these are open-sourced, without binary obfuscation or other proprietary claims made through digital rights restrictions, etc.
Gimme the source for the Rude Drivers!
"Speaking the Truth in times of universal deceit is a revolutionary act." -- George Orwell
I actually saw a woman driving with her elbow this morning. She had the cellphone in her right hand and her left hand was blocking the sun from her eyes.
That bitch really needs to learn how to use her knee.
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It IS a character flaw. It comes from mindlessly carrying out a task. It's the opposite of acting in a deliberate, strategic, planned fashion based on your own independent decision-making.
Ok, well I suppose you might be some kind of freak who has no actual human qualities. Good for you. For everyone else in the world, we occasionally follow our instincts and conditioning. For mere mortals (not you, who I'm sure is a veritable god on earth) there is absolutely no way around it. All the mindfulness in the world will ultimately not allow you to cease following your instincts and conditioned responses. You may as well be trying to prevent your reflex from kicking your leg when the doctor taps your knee.
What's worse, it's stupid to be so mindful of little everyday crap all the time. There's a reason why your brain allows you to run on autopilot when doing certain things. When I'm walking down the street, should I be thinking, "Left, right, left, right, left, right. Don't walk too close to that guy, Wait, now you're too far. Make sure you're swinging your arms while you walk, or else it looks weird. Left, right, left, right." It would be stupid, and what's worse, it would prevent my mind from thinking about more important things, such as where I'm going. I mean, not you, obviously. You're a god among men, don't suffer from such frailties, and have unlimited cognitive abilities.
Now honestly, I'd agree with you if you were simply saying that people should be more mindful on the road. It's a dangerous place, and we take it too lightly. But trying to make it about people being "sheep" is just a little silly. If you were human, you'd understand that every single person who drives for any length of time will eventually space out for a little while. Every one. Every single person will occasional fall into some unconscious pattern of following someone else on the road without noticing. All people have unconscious/subconscious forces that help in driving their behavior, and by definition they aren't very aware of it.
ROFL. I think you meant "reckless" driver. When my insurance company labeled my household as "wreckless" drivers many years ago, they gave us a reduction on our insurance rates :D
MCSE? No, sir...I don't do Windows. Yes, I am an idealist. What's your point?
you say that like cops are great scholars of traffic law. I always get told "tell it to the judge".