Driving that causes congestion

BrianD3

I was just thinking about how driver behaviour contributes to conjestion. Example: yesterday I was at a T-junction waiting to turn onto a main road. There were a couple of cars ahead of me waiting to turn right, it took them ages as the main road was busy. Now if they had been awake they would have seen that 100 metres to their left along the main road was a nice big roundabout. If they had turned left, done a U turn around the roundabout they would have saved both themselves and me several minutes without inconveniencing anyone.

Apart from the obvious like keeping box junctions clear are there any other examples of how traffic would flow better if people used their brains

markpb

There are road works all along the road outside my house, narrowing it slightly. It's still one lane each way but there's no right turning lane at one of the junctions. None of the traffic in the opposite direction will stop to let people turn right across them so the traffic in the other side builds up until there's a huge queue of people behind one pour soul trying to turn.

Of course, there's also a roundabout 200m further up that they could use so I have limited sympathy.

peasant

BrianD3 wrote:

Iare there any other examples of how traffic would flow better if people used their brains

Ever seen a traffic jam on the motorway that seemed to be there for no reason ? (ie. when you get to its end there's nothing there that may have caused it)

These are caused by people not keeping their safe distance and driving at erratic speeds.

At some stage someone will hit the brakes (maybe even ever so slightly) the car behind that's too close will have to brake harder ...and so on further down the line until at some stage one car comes to an almost complete stop, forcing everybody else to stop, while they already accelerate off again

This then spreads through traffic like a wave, but interestingly enough, the point where cars come to a stop always stays in and arond the same location.

If the traffic is dense enough and no-one keeps their distance ...that jam could stay in that spot for hours.

BrianD3

Very true peasant. This is a big factor in rubbernecking delays. Driver 1 lifts off the throttle to look at a Ferris wheel or someone changing a wheel. 50 tailgaters back, someone has to come to a complete stop because of the domino effect.

astraboy

peasant wrote:

Ever seen a traffic jam on the motorway that seemed to be there for no reason ? (ie. when you get to its end there's nothing there that may have caused it)

These are caused by people not keeping their safe distance and driving at erratic speeds.

At some stage someone will hit the brakes (maybe even ever so slightly) the car behind that's too close will have to brake harder ...and so on further down the line until at some stage one car comes to an almost complete stop, forcing everybody else to stop, while they already accelerate off again

This then spreads through traffic like a wave, but interestingly enough, the point where cars come to a stop always stays in and arond the same location.

If the traffic is dense enough and no-one keeps their distance ...that jam could stay in that spot for hours.

I see this the whole time in Boston. A 4 lane highway coming to a crawl, or often a stop, due to people driving too close and tapping brakes! Its crazy. I have seen it several times and it never ceases to amaze me. Obviously people moving over lanes towards an exit may slow traffic, but with everyone doing 75mph it takes a lot of cars and only a few idiots to bring the place to an adrupt stop, backing up traffic. I hate it as I always fear being rear ended in those situations.