Just thinking at a stop light....

[JerryH]

Have you ever noticed? Anybody going slower than you is an idiot, ​

and anyone going faster than you is a moron. - George Carlin

 

[TConnolly]

Around here, if you are first in line at the light you better not react too quickly to the green light. You need to wait until all of the red light runners have had their chance or you'll end up with an SUV in your back seat.


Operaghost's post reminded me of an old joke.

An old lady called her elderly husband's cell phone one day to say "Dear, please be careful on the freeway, I saw on the news that there is a car going the wrong way down the express lane."

The husband replied "Its not just one car, its hundreds of them."

 

[ndzied1]

I have noticed definite personalities on the highways around northwest Chicago. For years my commute took me on I-294 South in the morning and North in the evening. I rarely experienced what here is called a "Gaper's Delay". Almost everyone drove above the speed limit and there was minimal lane changing.

Then when I changed jobs and started riding on I-90 or I-290 I noticed that they happened much more frequently. I don't think the number of events that could be gaped at was different, just that the reaction of the people was different. People seemed to change lanes more often and speeds were more varied.

Not sure if there was just less traffic on the I-294 route or just different personalities but for sure the experience has been different.

I think it's neat to watch the videos from far away that show traffic and the bunching / un-bunching that occurs. As a driver, you have limited input of the road as a whole (at least in my little Honda Civic I do ). You get good input from the cars directly around you with the quality of feedback quickly diminishing as you look farther and farther away. It reminds me of some of the things I have read about swarming phenomena in ants, flying insects, birds (flocking).

 

[Peter Nachtwey]

This is a good simulation. It is exactly what I was thinking.

Have you ever noticed that when travelling on the highway all the cars slow down in "waves" that appear to have no visible reason?

http://math.mit.edu/projects/traffic/

I am sure each of the cars is modeled as a FOPDT system.

Yes, all the cars(FOPDT) are in series.

Some one is going to be the first idiot.
The main problem is that someone initially slows down for some reason and starts the wave problem. The first person that slows down could do it for a number of reasons. Usually it is due to switch lanes our someone pulling in front of you causing you to start the wave. Sometimes there are 'choke points' that require cars to slow down. Then the lead cars are too slow to start accelerating and accelerate too slowly so the problem gets worse.

Now, how to reduce this problem?

Edit, I like the word jamitons.

 

[ndzied1]

I think you would need to increase the bulk modulus of the traffic.

But, it would have to be speed dependent and non-linear at intersections and merges/splits.

I think I heard traffic once described as "slug flow" but that is going from memory and I don't have time to do research right now.

Also, there is a huge discrepancy in how a car reacts to changes in the other cars if that car is in front of them vs when the car is behind them.

There is good reason for this.

The only way I see to minimize the effect of random traffic slow downs is with knowledge of what is forward, beyond the drivers event horizon. The only way to do that is with advanced sensors, advanced (AI?) algorithms and mesh networks.

 

[ndzied1]

Or you could do what this guys does...
http://trafficwaves.org/

 

[RussB]

Each/all of the cars ahead of me is a first order plus dead time ( FOPDT ) system. Why is it that the first car always has the longest dead time and time constant?

That is a "First Order" "Murphy's Law" of the road.

 

[Paullys50]

..
Wisconsin is the worst state in the union for people hanging in the left lane and travelling below the speed limit on a clear dry highway....

Seems like it's always those Minnesota/Illinois drivers that come to Wisconsin to "get away"!!!

 

[Adam303]

I have learned that, unless a car is presenting an actual threat to my safety, I just don't care if they are a slower or blocking my progress. If I'm a few minutes later so what?

I think I’m with Bernie on this one, better off being 20 minutes late then 30 years early.