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Rude Drivers Reduce Traffic Jams

Posted by Soulskill on from the earning-that-one-finger-salute dept.

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."

4 of 882 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Respect rules of the road, not just the officia by La_Boca · · Score: 5, Informative

    the safe thing to do is you should have already switched lanes (if you're in the left that is) by the time they got to you if you see them coming up.

  2. Re:Correlation != causation by Nethead · · Score: 4, Informative

    See http://trafficwaves.org/trafexp.html for a model of tailgating.

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  3. Re:and yet NYC still has traffic jams by the_Bionic_lemming · · Score: 4, Informative

    but if it's the latter, why should I make room for you to break the law (go over 65)?

    At least in Illinois, it's the Law to move over to the right lane if there is faster traffic behind you. So in illinois, you would be breaking the law to enforce another one. Not to mention that it's just plain rude of you just move over to the other lane that's driving all legal and stuff. Or become a traffic cop. A real one. with tickets and stuff.

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  4. Re:and yet NYC still has traffic jams by jaguar5150 · · Score: 5, Informative

    Yes, it is your fault. You are not the police. You are not God. Stop trying to control traffic with YOUR over-inflated sense of entitlement.

    YOU are the single point of failure in these scenarios. You are outnumbered by the people wanting to go 69 (or whatever speed) in a 65.

    I typically drive about 4-6 mph over on the freeway. I have no problem moving to the right (or even the center) lane when someone wants to go faster than me. Neither should you. The only reason in the world for you to think it's OK to sit in the left lane going the same speed as the person in the next lane over is because you think you are in control. You are a bad-ass wannabe traffic director.

    Get out of the way of the other people needing or wanting to move faster than you.