Help ease stop and go traffic

[irwin]

Thought this was a pretty good read...

http://amasci.com/amateur/traffic/traffic1.html

here's a bit from it:

My first 'experiment': accidentally erasing waves!
Once upon a time, years ago, I was driving through a number of stop/go traffic waves on I-520 at rush hour in Seattle. I decided to try something. On a day when I immediately started hitting the usual "waves" of stopped cars, I decided to drive smoothly. Rather than repeatedly rushing ahead with everyone else, only to come to a halt, I decided to try to move at the average speed of the traffic. I let a huge gap open up ahead of me, and timed things so I was arriving at the next "stop-wave" just as the last red brakelights were turning off ahead of me. It certainly felt weird to have that huge empty space ahead of me, but I knew I was driving no slower than anyone else. Sometimes I hit it just right and never had to touch the brakes at all. Other times I was too fast or slow. There were many "waves" that evening, and this gave me many opportunities to improve my skill as I drove along.

I kept this up for maybe half an hour while approaching the city. Finally I happened to glance at my rearview mirror. There was an interesting sight.

It was dusk, the headlights were on, and I was going down a long hill to the bridges. I had a view of miles of highway behind me. In the neighboring lane I could see maybe five of the traffic stop-waves. But in the lane behind me, for miles, TOTALLY UNIFORM DISTRIBUTION. I hadn't realized it, but by driving at the average speed of the traffic around me, my car had been "eating" the traffic waves. Everyone ahead of me was caught in the stop/go cycle, while everyone behind me was forced to go at a nice smooth 35MPH or so. My single tiny car had erased miles and miles of stop-and-go traffic. Just one single "lubricant atom" had a profound effect on the turbulent particle flow within the entire miles of "tube."

[civicdidex]

saves gas too

[hapoo]

i always do that but unfortunately no one else does so it doesn't work all that well. I find its a lot easier than using the gas and brake, but it does lead people to cutting you off when your gap increases.

[speedracer120]

It sucks that we all know this intuitively yet choose to ignore it. I've also found that drivers in Seattle were a bit slower and dare I say it more pleasant than in SoCal.

[Merlin]

but it does lead people to cutting you off when your gap increases.

That is why it won't really work.

[Jeffbx]

Also goes to show that it just takes one moron to start the whole stop & go to begin with.

[ArkiStan]

Unless it's a single-lane road, people will seldom have the patience to just sit behind the "genious" with a huge gap ahead of them. I know I wouldn't.

And I'm pretty sure that minimizing the car distance, even if it means engaging in stop-and-go and wasting gas, will eventually allow everybody to reach their destination a little sooner than having an evenly distributed parade of slow vehicles. Some people might consider the ten extra minutes with their family in the evening well worth the extra bit of gas and stop-and-go action.

[Nija]

I've been doing this since I learned how to drive (I learned in my brothers '68 bug). It's a lot easier to drive stick that way, I found.

[Svyn]

I also do this when I can, instead of riding on top of someone causing more stop and go. If you have ever noticed in construction zones where the road gaps down, truckers do this quite a bit. If you get two of them side by side where a two lane road goes down to one, they will sit side by side or straddled to let the traffic in front of them merge, then they can let the flow of everyone else behind them stay constant, and hopefully force people to merge into one lane earlier eliminating a bottle-neck at the final merge destination.

It bothers me when I am in traffic and people suddenly whip into my lane, which I left at most a car length in front of me to avoid the need to slam on my brakes. If traffic is moving slow don't sit there and whip in and out of people. I know I have done it from time to time, now I just try to turn up the I-pod and mellow out.

I am sure whipping in and out of traffic that is slow to begin with really gets you what maybe 30 cars ahead? Unless something tragic is happening at your destination, I don't see how it really helps that much.

[bachviet]

It is not going to work in SoCal since pple are going to cut in front of you.

[palayah8ta]

It is not going to work in SoCal since pple are going to cut in front of you.

Hahha, and throw snapple bottles at ur car, bumping Chronic 2001, dogging u the whole time. I love LA sometimes.

[Showtime]

In LA you leave an opening and cars will pile in front. It doesn't matter if it get them any further than staying in their lanes.

-j

[InfiniteNothing]

The real way to reduce traffic is to create a "go ripple". When the traffic eases up, don't sit there and lolygag. GO! Jump and dodge through the lolygagers. I swear, traffic is all about the exit effects.

[Feel Good Inc]

LA traffic is hopeless

[nhbilly]

LA traffic is hopeless

[sizemic1]

My modification to that theory is to just drive behind a big rig.
They almost always move with the speed of traffic. Very rarely do I ever see a stop a go situation with them. Also, no one wants to cut in front of you because no one wants to be caught behind a rig. Granted, I wouldn't drive behind one during good traffic conditions, but when things are nasty, it works pretty well. Give it a shot.

[InfiniteNothing]

Oh but all the little stones that the big rigs pick up and kick towards your car. You end up with all these little nicks in your paint.

[Grubbie]

It sucks that we all know this intuitively yet choose to ignore it. I've also found that drivers in Seattle were a bit slower and dare I say it more pleasant than in SoCal.

I grew up in Seattle and noticed the drivers are very nice you could say.... or just dumb. After goign to school in boston and noticing how people drive here, compared to seattle it is crazy. In seattle, people will normally let you merge without a problem and are nice drivers. The only problem is there are a lot of DUMB drivers who will yap on their cell and drift into your lane and almost run you off the road before they swerve back into their lane.

But I know why this guy would of tried this, traffice on 520 is HORRIBLE during rush hour. The problem with letting you sit there, people will def cut you off if you lead a big enough gap.

[Airencracken]

driving at a constant speed is better for your mpg as well. using cruise control constatnly can SEVERLY increase your mpg. Especially if you have a hybrid.

but you always get cut off.

[guiseppewv]

Unless it's a single-lane road, people will seldom have the patience to just sit behind the "genious" with a huge gap ahead of them. I know I wouldn't.

And I'm pretty sure that minimizing the car distance, even if it means engaging in stop-and-go and wasting gas, will eventually allow everybody to reach their destination a little sooner than having an evenly distributed parade of slow vehicles. Some people might consider the ten extra minutes with their family in the evening well worth the extra bit of gas and stop-and-go action.

How do you figure that you will get there 10 min earlier?

[InfiniteNothing]

driving at a constant speed is better for your mpg as well.

Unlike what civicdidex said... SKIMMER!

[Airencracken]

Unlike what civicdidex said... SKIMMER!

pffft. I just felt like agreeing. Just because something has been said doesn't mean it can't be said again. I also went into more detail. You're just angry cause you have to buy premium gas.

[InfiniteNothing]

pffft. I just felt like agreeing. Just because something has been said doesn't mean it can't be said again. I also went into more detail. You're just angry cause you have to buy premium gas.

A simple would do.
I don't HAVE to use premium. There's a knock sensor that will retard timing.
What does hybridity have to do with cruising anyways? You'd loose efficiency any time you were regenerating/using energy cruising.

[Airencracken]

A simple would do.
I don't HAVE to use premium. There's a knock sensor that will retard timing.
What does hybridity have to do with cruising anyways? You'd loose efficiency any time you were regenerating/using energy cruising.

Because when you have a hybrid and you engage cruise control at aroudn 60-65mph the gas engine will turn off most of the time (except when hill climbing) this is good for MPG. and a wouldn't do.

[verve247]

I use that method all that time. I play a "game" where i try to see how little i can use the brakes. my MPG went from 24 to 27-29.

Oh yeah, and SoCal traffice maybe hopeless, but they drive a lot better than the bay area ones. Freakin' slow ass mofo's that also can't merge.

[speedracer120]

ROFLMAO. True, too true. Having to cross the Bay and having so few options doesn't help much. At least in SoCal, if you have the balls, you can try to cut thru the ghettos on surface streets.