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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."
The other day, a person was changing their tire on the shoulder of the road facing the opposite direction (was a 4-lane road, 2 lanes in each direction, separated by a 20 foot or so median) and traffic on my side of the road came to a halt. Once I made it to the front of the line of traffic, in the lane (going the opposite direction) nearest the tire-changer, a car in the lane next to me and slightly ahead of me was gawking at the scene so hard they started drifting HARD into my lane. They were completely mesmerized by someone changing a frigging tire. To the point that they weren't even conscious that they were still driving a car.
I swear I don't get it. I had to blare my horn at them to get them to get back over into their lane, and they had the temerity to flip me off! Luckily for me, I drive a large truck and was able to pull in front of them at the next light where I stopped, put on my hazards, drug them from their car and threw them into traffic. No, of course I didn't. However, it's interesting how rage-filled we people get in traffic. I am trying to get it under control, but cannot abide selfish, stupid unaware drivers. I hate them with a burning passion.
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I know I slow down when people tailgate me very badly (within a meter), and speed up again when they change lanes. It's a guilty pleasure.
Honestly, it's the only safe thing to me do. If I have someone driving that close behind me I'll need more time to brake if something happens up ahead, to prevent the person behind me ramming into me.
Give me space, and we'll go a nice fast speed. I'll be happy to let you pass me and will move to the right. Ride my ass and expect to go under the limit.
Last week I was in France, in a car, on the motorway. I couldn't understand why the traffic was so jammed up, but I sat in traffic on the 3+3 lane road for almost an hour. There was no traffic on the other side.
Then, as I came up to a bridge I noticed there were people lined up underneath it -- the Tour de France was passing underneath the motorway. Some people were driving past at less than walking pace hoping that the cyclists would pass by at just that time, but they didn't. Once over the bridge, there was no traffic jam at all -- except on the other side of the road, where the jam went on for miles.
Interesting post... I do that all the time, too. I use my cruise not just to maintain speed, but because I'm a leadfoot it helps keep me from getting tickets, and I see it all the time. I think some people are just jerks, but many people do it subconsciously... they'll actually slow when someone is behind them (not necessarily tailgating, as I avoid that), and speed up when you change lanes. It's just perception, as we've both come to the same conclusion by the same means.
Other things that completely screw up traffic (besides the obvious grid-lockers and rubberneckers, even when someone is just changing a tire or getting a ticket):
1. "hypermilers" who don't understand lights are timed for the speed limit, and if you don't get up to speed in a reasonable amount of time, you're just going to waste all that gas at red lights.
2. During rush hour, the problem on "surface" streets is that lights can't be long enough to allow everyone to go through during the green light, so those people just sitting there when the light turns green are racking up the number of cars that are going to get stuck for an extra cycle... but the problem, as I see it, is people have largely stopped honking, so they'll just sit behind such an oblivious person and just wait. If people honked, we could get things moving again. It doesn't have to be a nasty lean on the horn, just a toot-toot.
3. Cops... I like cops, I appreciate cops, I have cops in the family; it's not really the cops, it's the people who drop below the speed limit simply because one is nearby.
A few other things that affect me daily: we have a number of locations where the right turn goes into a protected lane... so there are "keep moving" signs... nothing so infuriating as the people in front of you coming to a COMPLETE stop at a "keep moving" sign. In the same vein, there are a number of places with RIGHT turn arrows that are green when the cross traffic has the left turn... again, people come to a complete stop, and sometimes don't even continue moving at all, treating it as a right turn on red.
And lately, the past year or so, I wouldn't necessarily call them "hypermilers" but so many people seem unwilling to even get up to the speed limit, let alone exceed it by a few miles per hour, as if you're going to get a ticket for 48 in a 45... I know the police aren't going to give me a ticket for 5 miles over, and I often get passed by cops when doing so.
Whew. Nice to rant about it every once in awhile... "cathartic" experience.
Stupid, sexy Flanders.
I think the jury is still out on whether its safe or not - and most evidence so far suggests its actually safer. I know if traffic is crawling along it seems safe enough to me - the biggest problem is being cut off by arse holes who are pissed off you're filtering through traffic despite the fact they are sitting there.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lane_splitting#Relevant_research
I know in the UK you can only do it when traffic is flowing below a certain speed, and that they ask you questions about it if you are getting a regular drivers license (yes - hard to believe they'd want drivers of cars to be aware of motorcycles) - of course license requirements there are much much more stringent than they are in the USA.
Thing is - on a hot day sitting on a hot bike in full gear (its like wearing your fur coat to the beach...) not moving can be really miserable. It can contribute to fatigue, bike failure - all kinds of stuff that I would figure would be more dangerous to traffic than filtering.