The Sad Truth Behind Twin Cities Traffic Congestion.... (Minneapolis, St. Paul: 2013, house)

[Cruz Azul Guy]

Originally Posted by Doctor Z

I won't even own a vehicle with a U-Connect system installed. It's no ones business where I am or where I go. I will NOT be tracked! (Cell phone off battery removed)

Hopefully you also got a reverse osmosis system hooked up in your home to get that government mind control flouride out of your tap water.

[mr roboto]

Originally Posted by Cruz Azul Guy

Hopefully you also got a reverse osmosis system hooked up in your home to get that government mind control flouride out of your tap water.

And the chemtrails too.

[Chester Burnett]

Originally Posted by mr roboto

And the chemtrails too.

I'm actually impressed. He dug deep and found even more credibility to lose

[Grizzly Addams]

Originally Posted by Glenfield

No problem. I don't want one either, though my present car already has things like collision avoidance systems. That should be your choice.

Studies show that traffic flow is improved if as few as 5% of the cars on the road are autonomous. I'm sure we'll get to that number.

To me the big advantage of driverless cars is they don't require the huge public investment or change in commuting habits of mass transit.

Let me guess, driverless car manufacturers either performed or funded those studies. We need more lanes and better interchange systems. These cloverleafs are completely archaic and completely disrupt the flow of the freeways.

[Glenfield]

Originally Posted by Grizzly Addams

Let me guess, driverless car manufacturers either performed or funded those studies. We need more lanes and better interchange systems. These cloverleafs are completely archaic and completely disrupt the flow of the freeways.

You guess wrong.

The study was funded by the National Science Foundation's Cyber-Physical Systems Program and done at the University of Illinois. Experiments show that a few self-driving cars can dramatically improve traffic flow - Engineering at Illinois

There's no money for more lanes and rebuilt interchanges. Only privately funded solutions are truly viable.

[Doctor Z]

Originally Posted by Cruz Azul Guy

Hopefully you also got a reverse osmosis system hooked up in your home to get that government mind control flouride out of your tap water.

I have had an RO water system in my home for over 10 years now and I keep the filters up to date. The Government doesn't control the masses thru transit or traffic. It indoctrinates us thru television, and print media mainly and to a lesser extent thru movies and radio.

[Doctor Z]

Originally Posted by Glenfield

You guess wrong.

The study was funded by the National Science Foundation's Cyber-Physical Systems Program and done at the University of Illinois. Experiments show that a few self-driving cars can dramatically improve traffic flow - Engineering at Illinois

There's no money for more lanes and rebuilt interchanges. Only privately funded solutions are truly viable.

Driverless cars can't improve traffic flow in my book because they REMOVE my free choice to EXCEED THE SPEED LIMIT, TAILGATE, and otherwise BULLY other motorists out of my way!

[Glenfield]

Originally Posted by Doctor Z

Driverless cars can't improve traffic flow in my book because they REMOVE my free choice to EXCEED THE SPEED LIMIT, TAILGATE, and otherwise BULLY other motorists out of my way!

Weak troll bait. No thanks.

[slamont61]

Originally Posted by Chester Burnett

Show me a city that doesn't have bad traffic and I'll show you a city where no one wants to live.

Does that mean Cleveland has no traffic issues?

[WoodburyWoody]

Originally Posted by Cruz Azul Guy

The number of people who telecommute is growing as well. I saw somewhere that up to 37% of US employees currently have some kind of telecommuting capability. This isn't the only answer but the more people who work from home the less cars that will be on the road. I think local governments should consider incentivizing employers to expand telecommuting of their workforce to recognize the benefit it has in alleviating traffic.

Also as I've mentioned in the past. Minnesota needs to consider legalizing motorcycle lane splitting which is another easy way to improve traffic flow. This is done in California and studies have shown it not only has a substantial effect in lowering traffic congestion but also improves safety for motorcyclists.

Add to telecommuting, something to incentivize flexible schedules for those jobs where it works (same as telecommuting ... for the jobs where it works). The Twin Cities definitely has a weekday morning and afternoon rush hour. When I can drive to work outside of those rush hours, my commute time drops almost in half across St. Paul into MPLS in the morning and almost always the same going east in the afternoon. If I remember correctly - and I may not - before the economy started to tank in '08, Best Buy's HQ in Bloomington added flexible schedules and telecommuting to their options, citing the time lost by employees to congestion.

Having lived in SoCal for a few years - though I never rode a motorcycle there - I think lane splitting needs to be considered, too. Keeps people moving.

In regard to light rail, one piece of particularly low hanging fruit is timing the lights. This is just my own experience, but there are times when there is no train or the train has already passed and all roads have red lights for up to two full minutes (I have timed it) at University and Huron, University and 29th and Huron and Washington. This happens enough that I time it. All the while, traffic backs up, sometimes past the next intersection. Even if the goal is to time it so that the trains get green lights, there is still congestion caused this.

This is all easy-to-implement, fairly-low cost things things to consider.

Though I am not opposed to spending some money to improve both mass transit and roads.