Leave Gaps when in Traffic (Seattle: safety, move, cars)

[Minntoaz]

I'll just leave this right here.

SCIENCE HOBBYIST: Traffic Waves, physics for bored commuters

Not ground-breaking information but evidence-based research to back up a fairly simple approach to reducing traffic.

[509]

That is nothing new....

Seattle needs to follow the lead of first world countries like Singapore when it comes to traffic.

Gaps are good. People need to stop making unnecessary lane changes. 45 mile per hour speed limit is better in urban areas.. Annual mandatory vehicle checks for road worthiness. Pre-positioning of tow trucks to get vehicles off the road.

Of course, all of this will be mute in a few years with self-driving cars. At that point, you will need a special permit to drive you own car in the Puget Sound area.

[Ruth4Truth]

It's far from that simple. If you leave a gap in front of you, obviously, someone will move in to fill that gap. Then--there's no more gap. So in order for you to observe the "leave a gap" policy, you have to fall back to leave a gap again. Then it fills again, often by someone cutting it too close, forcing you to slow down. You can almost end up losing ground this way, rather than proceeding forward. It doesn't solve anything. I leave a gap just for safety purposes, but no one else practices the "leave one car length per every 10 mi./hr. of speed" rule, so those gaps constantly get filled in.

[hurricaneMan1992]

The science doesn't lie. Look, it's not a race. Sometimes you just have to slow down, sometimes you have to speed up, it's the average speed that matters. You may lose a second or two by slowing down to maintain the gap, but you would gain tens of seconds by not having traffic waves. Plus when you eventually need to change lanes in heavy traffic you might appreciate having a gap to get in to! Slow down to get there faster, counter-intuitive, but supported by hard data. However, it would take a herculean effort on the part of the police to get enough people to change their habits for it to work...one advantage of autonomous cars (hopefully).

[CityWok]

Yeah this is more about people driving consistently than leaving gaps. Given how we're all different and have our own philosophies, it would never happen.

Even though self-driving cars might solve this issue (as well as others) they'll also create new problems, too, so careful what you wish for

[Hemlock140]

Originally Posted by Ruth4Truth

It's far from that simple. If you leave a gap in front of you, obviously, someone will move in to fill that gap. Then--there's no more gap. So in order for you to observe the "leave a gap" policy, you have to fall back to leave a gap again. Then it fills again, often by someone cutting it too close, forcing you to slow down. You can almost end up losing ground this way, rather than proceeding forward. It doesn't solve anything. I leave a gap just for safety purposes, but no one else practices the "leave one car length per every 10 mi./hr. of speed" rule, so those gaps constantly get filled in.

Yes, this is my experience. Any gap will immediately be filled by someone else that is either anxious but afraid to change lanes, or who simply sees a rare gap and hates to waste it.

[stan4]

Originally Posted by Ruth4Truth

It's far from that simple. If you leave a gap in front of you, obviously, someone will move in to fill that gap. Then--there's no more gap. So in order for you to observe the "leave a gap" policy, you have to fall back to leave a gap again. Then it fills again, often by someone cutting it too close, forcing you to slow down. You can almost end up losing ground this way, rather than proceeding forward. It doesn't solve anything. I leave a gap just for safety purposes, but no one else practices the "leave one car length per every 10 mi./hr. of speed" rule, so those gaps constantly get filled in.

You can't be serious.

[CrazyDonkey]

On the old 520 bridge, going from west-to-east, there was often a jam over the "hump", after which traffic flowed easily. I noticed that when I got to the top, I always looked to see if the "Mountain" was out, unconsciously easing my foot off the gas pedal.

[Ruth4Truth]

Originally Posted by Hemlock140

Yes, this is my experience. Any gap will immediately be filled by someone else that is either anxious but afraid to change lanes, or who simply sees a rare gap and hates to waste it.

Clearly, the strategy can only work if everyone's on the same page.

[wbeaty]

Originally Posted by Ruth4Truth

It's far from that simple. If you leave a gap in front of you, obviously, someone will move in to fill that gap.

Yes, three hundred people jump in, every single day. And that makes me FIVE MINUTES late to work! (Traffic being heavy, therefore about 1sec spacing between cars. 5min = 300 cars cutting me off.)

But in truth, if actually if you try this trick, people don't leap in, not in a constant stream. Instead, *lane weavers* leap in. But then they leap out again.

But think: if we're only insulted by cars "cutting us off" by merging into our gap, then we'll never notice that nearly all of them leaped out later, for a loss of zero. And, those that leaped in, they did so because we happened to be in a much faster lane. Nobody actually wants our precious empty space. They only want our lane, if it's the slightly faster one. (If its the slightly slow one, often nobody leaps in at all, since they might have trouble getting back into the fast one, once they dared to leave it!)

Try the trick for weeks, so you can really see what happens: drive with a gap, and count the total cars that merged-and-remained for your entire commute.

For me it's none to three.

THREE. They delay me by three whole seconds during my 45min commutes. Maybe six. THIS SHALL NOT STAND! For revenge, I'll have to furiously pass twenty other drivers, to get back at the congestion which tried to make me feel like a loser when three extra cars merged into my lane. Take that, congestion, I bet I can really make you suffer!

Heh. Don't even get me started.