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More often than not, I end up sitting at a red light with no traffic passing by in front of me. If I were king, I would immediately get rid of at least half the traffic lights, or at least make them blink during the 14 or so non-peak traffic hours of the day.
I think your blantantly 100% wrong. Most traffic is caused by LLCers, so your moving along at 0 to 5 MPH on the 65 MPH speed limit interstate thanks to LLCers. I'll take 80 MPH over 5 MPH.
Let's say your loved one is a gun shot wound victim in your vehicle and the bullet went through your phone as it made the way into their body. Now your cell phone is dead, your in your car, you know where the hospital is, it's not very far, and your loved one needs emergency medical services.
Are you really going to stop and call an ambulance from the nearest pay phone, or just drive to the hospital quickly?
Thats OK You have the right to be wrong.
Most traffic is caused by LLCers,
Actually all traffic is caused by having cars on the road.
so your moving along at 0 to 5 MPH on the 65 MPH speed limit interstate thanks to LLCers.
If you are moving along an interstate highway at 0-5 MPH it's not because of LLC's, its because either 1.) real bad weather 2.) an accident (incidently far more likely to be caused by a speeder or agressive driver) or 3.) way to much traffic than the road can handle at normal sppeds.
I'll take 80 MPH over 5 MPH.
I would think that it would depend of the road and conditions.
2011 Hyundai Sonata, 2014 BMW 428i convertible, 2015 Honda CTX700D
I'd use my loved one's cellphone.
This must happen a lot in the bad part of urban Dayton. Lots of people drive others to the hospital and leave as soon as the aids get them into a wheelchair or onto a gurney.
2014 Malibu 2LT, 2015 Cruze 2LT,
I'm never wrong, so you might want to check your worldview. :P
Not all traffic is caused by having cars on the road. If I could clone myself to populate the San Diego region similarly to what exists now, I'm sure that I could drive just as many cars on San Diego freeways as is typical on any given day and drive much MUCH faster every day without incident or accident than is the typical speed on our freeways at rush hour. Most traffic is due to LLC's and other subpar driving methods, practices, and impeding of traffic.
Granted, some of my clones would have to settle for the speed limit in the right lane. 5 over in the 2nd, 10 over in the 3rd lane, and 15 over would do nicely in the fast lane. It would be utopia! Frankly, with all good drivers on the road, I think our congestion would be nill, I think our freeways are designed to handle many more cars and many more people if you can execute all LLCers off the road.
http://sfcitizen.com/blog/2010/08/10/audi-drivers-think-theyre-better-than-every- one-else-but-theyre-not/
There’s no doubt that the intersection of Third and Market Streets could be designed better (a narrower crosswalk and a little pedestrian fencing would do the trick) but this shot shows that some drivers of Audi cars need to pay more attention to the task at hand.
It seems.
Audi driver pas de deux – missing the stop line by about 8 yards:
2014 Malibu 2LT, 2015 Cruze 2LT,
You do realize that if there were no cars on the road there would be no traffic.
If I could clone myself to populate the San Diego region similarly to what exists now, I'm sure that I could drive just as many cars on San Diego freeways as is typical on any given day and drive much MUCH faster every day without incident or accident than is the typical speed on our freeways at rush hour.
I seriously doubt that. A road can only have X numbers of cars on in per mile depending on speed. To get more cars on the road in a safe manner speeds have to slow down. When everyone tries to get onto the road at the same time gridlock happens.
Much the same effect when a movie ends and everyone leaves at the same time. You end up walking out rather slower than when you all walked in one at a time.
2011 Hyundai Sonata, 2014 BMW 428i convertible, 2015 Honda CTX700D
Ridiculous light sequencing today...my commute has 10 lights, all on main roads, 7 were red. Also slowpoke city, gobs of people going 10 under for no reason other than their own ineptitude.
That's a new A8, so the driver has money, and in America, that excuses all sins :lemon:
Much the same effect when a movie ends and everyone leaves at the same time. You end up walking out rather slower than when you all walked in one at a time.
A lot of the congestion is because people don't know how to merge (okay, it's not all LLC's fault). If people merged correctly, 90% of congestion would disappear. Our freeways are nowhere near at capacity!! There are people merging incorrectly and not accelerating correctly to enter a freeway. I see people all the time act like 45 MPH is a good speed to merge onto a roadway moving at 65 MPH. That forces cars to slam on the brakes, which causes cars behind them to move even slower than 45, and it has a compounding effect. Then some other idiot decides they are okay to merge at 35, then the next incompetent merges at 25, and on and on and worse and worse.
To correctly merge is to not impede traffic and safely find an open spot at speed. Sometimes that requires "speeding (OH MY GOD!) to do correctly, because that is preferable to hitting the brakes and STOPPING in the merging lane because you couldn't time it right. That slows the 1,000 cars behind you down and wastes gas and increases pollution.
The same thing happens at movie theaters, people don't know how to merge correctly when walking. Right of ways are unknown or not used when your a pedestrian, and someone in front is walking so slow that everyone behind them must follow slowly. If the guy in front went faster everyone else could go faster too. Unfortunately, in narrow tight spots, your forced to drive or walk like the lowest common denominator.
"A road train would feature a lead vehicle setting a pace on a freeway, and then via some sort of inter-vehicle communication or perhaps radar systems, all the other cars would follow turning their speed and steering over to the guy in front."
Lead vehicle - aka LLC?
Avoid Sweden: Volvo Says 'Road Train Will Happen' (Straightline)
I didn't realize owning a VW variant could do that to people. Our friends had a Jetta, then a Beetle and a Passat wagon. They remained fairly normal.
2014 Malibu 2LT, 2015 Cruze 2LT,
Volvo's a little late to this party.
It might be before some of the poster's times, but sometime between 1995 and 1999 Buick (GM) made a video about leSabres which would follow signals sent from the roadway and would keep the distances space between cars.
The video showed 6 or 7 leSabres in a train following a signal on a test track: the drivers did not have their hands on the wheels.
This page has the videos: three of them. I couldn't open them because they require RealPlayer
http://www.path.berkeley.edu/PATH/Research/demos/
Here's another link to a .wmv on another page:
http://www.skytran.net/16Calculators/CalcImages/Automated%20Autos.wmv
http://www.skytran.net/16Calculators/Calc01.htm
2014 Malibu 2LT, 2015 Cruze 2LT,
Again you are wrong. If you are right then why is congestion worse only during certain times when the roads are in heavy use? Why are 4 lane highways still congested long after the merging is done?
Our freeways are nowhere near at capacity!!
Drive a Chicago expressway during rush hour then try saying that.
A high speed road with traffic doing 65MPH can safely hold 26 cars per mile per lane (presuming cars are traviling 2 seconds apart). Far more cars than that are on the roads here in Chicago during peak periods.
When you are in stop and go traffic on the interstate its not because of LLC's or people who don't now how to merge nor is it magic pixies. It's simply way to many cars using it at the same time.
Same thing with the movie theater, its not that people don't know how to "merge" into the isle, its that the isle fills quickly and people cannot get into it at all.
2011 Hyundai Sonata, 2014 BMW 428i convertible, 2015 Honda CTX700D
So in short what happens when the lead vehicle loses control and goes off the road?
2011 Hyundai Sonata, 2014 BMW 428i convertible, 2015 Honda CTX700D
It's the compounding effect of bad drivers. One driver that hits the brakes on the interstate for no good reason might cause thousands of cars behind it to have to slow down. So when there is heavy use someone making a driving error has more of an effect as more drivers are in close proximity to their poor driving.
4 lane highways are congested after the merging is done because the next merge 2, 3, 5 miles up the road has already backed up (due to poor merging and driving) to the previous merge.
Now I have questions for you.
How come you often find traffic jams and congestion for no good reason at all? Suddenly, a mile or 2 up, it clears up with 4 wide open lanes :confuse: No accident to speak of, no debris on the road. It happens a lot.
As for your question I suggest reading up on wave theory.
2011 Hyundai Sonata, 2014 BMW 428i convertible, 2015 Honda CTX700D
Again, the number of cars is not the issue otherwise you'd have the same gridlock traffic everyday. But some days traffic flows smoothly in San Diego, and some days it's an abomination. Everyone didn't just happen to call in sick on the good days. It's simply a matter of bad mergers and bad LLC's causing the congestion and traffic issues. It's a few bad apples ruining it for everybody, but even the bad drivers do not drive poorly everyday. They drive poorly often, but even a bad driver has a good game every once in a while.
Every day on the way to and from work it is the same gridlock, Ok sometimes its worse and sometimes its better but it is the same gridlock. Listening to the traffic reports on the radio and TV its pretty much the same gridlock.
Pleas explain how it can happen with LLC's and people who cannot merge when you don't have the same congestion all the time? Are you trying to tell me that LLC's and bad mergers are on the road at 7 am Monday thru Friday but not at 11 AM those days?
Think of it, when are the most people commuting to and from work and when is the worst time for traffic? Roads can only handle so much traffic, when more than that tries to use it you start getting gridlock.
Today is a Friday prior to a holiday weekend, I suspect that many people are not going into work today, that will make the drive a bit better than it was yesterday.
2011 Hyundai Sonata, 2014 BMW 428i convertible, 2015 Honda CTX700D
http://www.thecarconnection.com/news/1060664_proof-positive-nearly-1-in-5-driver- s-unfit-for-the-road
Some common sense points: in order to have a freeway carry as many cars as possible, it is necessary to use all the lanes for traffic. E.g., on a two-lane interstate, if all the cars are having to squeeze into the fairly well-filled right hand lane so that the left lane is kept "open" for those privileged ones who want to speed above the speed limit means that the left lanes will be barren of vehicles for long stretches. The two lanes are not going to be able to carry as much total load. Indeed the squeezing into the right hand lane means those cars will be backed up and slowed down further increasing the congestion in the right hand lane and decreasing the number of cars it (and the other lane in total) carries.
The same pattern extrapolates to 2- and 3-lane interstates: in order for maximum traffic flow to be carried at heavy times all lanes must be used. I observe that when traffic is heavy and someone squeezes into the 2nd lane or the 1st lane it causes a ripple effect of slowing down backwards from the merger point. The concept that the left lane must be kept open for those who choose to speed is ridiculous.
2014 Malibu 2LT, 2015 Cruze 2LT,
At rush hours I try to stay out of the right lane just to stay out of the way of the on/off ramps - center lane when there is one, left lane when there's not, but I go with the flow & don't obstruct either one. Simple, really.
I have no problem with the idiots in the slow lane if they want to drive anywhere from 0 to 15 MPH during rush hour be my guest. But if the fast lane is reserved for people going 65-75 MPH, then your going to have a heck of a time getting into the fast lane without causing a wreck, or at least breaking the law with an "unsafe lane change", unless of course, you have 270 HP or more under the hood and can accelerate to speed in a few seconds. That's the problem, you get slow pokes using the left lane during rush hour as their camp site, thereby impeding traffic and causing congestion and people swerve in and out of lanes to avoide the campers in every lane.
I'm not saying increased cars on the road doesn't cause traffic, I'm saying that most traffic is caused by poor drivers, as when people drive at a higher level, traffic flows more smoothly. Haven't you noticed even in the worst areas and worst rush hours in the country, every once in awhile (maybe once a month) traffic moves unusually fast, and it isn't a holiday or anything like that.
It would take a heck of a lot more people and cars driving correctly to cause the same amount of traffic we have today with many driving incorrectly.
Assuming a speed limit of 65 as in Ohio, I don't see anywhere that says the left lane is reserved for people going any particular speed. I see speed limit signs and I see OSP cars with people and trucks pulled over.
It's clear to me this discussion goes nowhere because it's a monologue from someone wanting to force everyone else to clear out a lane for speeding. Some need to learn cooperation and learn to obey the laws.
2014 Malibu 2LT, 2015 Cruze 2LT,
This applies especially when moving left. I have no problem sharing the road with people, but if you are going to move left then you should do so in a manner that doesn't cause traffic to be impeded upon, which causes braking, which causes congestion and traffic jams.
That is why we have laws. Laws like - see link: http://www.mit.edu/~jfc/right.html
That truly make left lane camping illegal. Slower traffic MUST move right. Slower traffic MUST yield to faster traffic. It's simple, it's safe, it's evolved.
Follow that law and there will be no problems.
I agree.
There are a couple of "someones" promoting their superior driving skills. The other is in the NW, but both on the Left Coast.
-George Bernard Shaw-
2025 Ram 1500 Laramie 4x4 / 2023 Mercedes EQE 350 4Matic
I got 100%.
I had to put in an email address to get my score but I used the one I have reserved for possible spam outbreaks.
Puget Sound = not for me. :P
Rush hour traffic is pretty good. Most everyone is awake/alert, wants to get to work on time, generally does not scr-w up. Worst time to be on interstates is on weekends, holidays. So many are on the road and are clueless. This is when the most amount of campers can be found. I hate driving the interstates on holiday weekends. So many dopes out there.
I posted back in Jan about some drug dealers, bad guys being pursued by cops on I90 west of Chicago by troopers and a helicopter. This was on local Chicago/Rockford news tv in our area. They were captured in Rockford.
I was passed by the bad guys, in a silver Dodge Charger, who were driving on the right shoulder. Ironically, they could be considered less of a problem to motorists than left lane campers. They did not hold anyone up, just were going about their business of trying to elude the police chasers and the helicopter cops. I, nor anyone else was, held up, slowed down by them. Kind of nuts. Huh?
People like that need to be called in as suspected impaired drivers. You have to be suffering some kind of malfunction to do that.
I totally agree. You can see the attitude of some of the left lane dominators in the tone of their posts. They don't care about the total amount of traffic flow when traffic is heavier: it's just "get out of my way."
There should be cooperation. But interestingly the attitude of some left lane dominators shows in the choice of vehicles. I can see the advertising in some commercials trying to hook into the feeling or need that some people have to be "better" thans others based on the quality of their vehicle. In some cases, perhaps, they are compensating for personal deficiencies that they feel in some area. In others, it's just a testosterone driven competitiveness. I note the advertisements for cars that are just upgrades of other pedantic models and the company is trying to differential the car from its base model of cars. But it all feeds into the racing attitude on the roads.
I drove I-70 to OSU on Sunday (no, I didn't see Tressel back from Florida to resign). I did not see one sign that says "Slower traffic keep right." I did see lots of speed limit signs. I did see lots of Ohio patrol cars with the pretty blue and red flashing lights which had pulled over speeders. Hmmmm.
As long as someone is going the speed limit in the left lane and they feel there's enough traffic in the other lanes (#1 and #2), then the speeder is free to use those other lanes. I didn't notice anyone holding up traffic in the left #3 lane Sunday. Everyone was going the speed limit and over.
>If anyone comes up behind me wanting to go faster, I get out of their way.
I'm always happy to let the bear bait roll on along when it's convenient and safe to move into the right hand lanes between trucks and cars. The OSP people were out and ready for those folks from Indianapolis flying home from the 500 race.
2014 Malibu 2LT, 2015 Cruze 2LT,
It is funny but I have never seen any statistics on which lane/s where the majority of things actually occur, i.e., accidents etc. (2 to 4 lanes+ each way) on either the IIHS or NHTSA sites. It would also be interesting to see which lanes in which cars are traveling are the predominant lanes cited for "speeding".
I know it is not the case in every state but here in Washington driving in the left lane is illegal unless you are passing someone.
I agree that volumes do get to the point where driving in all lanes is just fine. In those cases of congestion, the right lanes go faster in many cases.
I also feel that when there are only two lanes going in the same direction, if you are passing cars while driving in the left lane, aggressive drivers behind you who want to go even faster need to learn some patience. This is especially true when passing a long line of cars. Just make sure you get over as soon as possible.
Totally agree. Especially when in left lane and going at least 10 mph faster than right lane. But, there are always the intimidators, who will tailgate and want you to go way too fast. Seem like many of these are in big pickups, suvs more often than not.
The ones I really hate are those idiots who will tailgate you on a two lane road and refuse to pass on the passing zones.
2011 Hyundai Sonata, 2014 BMW 428i convertible, 2015 Honda CTX700D
My New Hero: Mike Jackson (AutoObserver)
Jackson used to head MB USA and now runs AutoNation.
And I agree about those who can pass, but tailgate instead. It's the exact opposite, yet the same defective mind, as a LLC.