What rules could help highway travel be more efficient? Why do people travel slow in the fast lane? Why the sameness?

Why the sameness Asked by GoldenLion 3 months ago Similar questions: rules help highway travel efficient people slow fast lane sameness Transportation.

Similar questions: rules help highway travel efficient people slow fast lane sameness.

That really depends on which situation you're talking about, if it's congestion or the open road situation that you want to improve. But basically changing the rules won't do much, there's more to be had by changing road structure, and some really radical changes in technology. Merely driving faster won't do much.

Maintaining a high average speed would help, and for that you need to reduce the number of times you have to slow down as much as possible. Longer on/off ramps would help, but there's not much you can do about those times you're switching from one road to another. Another big limiter is human reaction time.

The faster you go, the bigger the gap has to be between vehicles if you want to be able to stop safely. Seen from the perspective of the road, traffic is most efficient at about 45 MPH. At about there you'll have the largest number of vehicles passing/hour with retained safe braking.At 70, the road loses efficiency, as the increased gap needed for safe braking means there'll be fewer vehicles/hour.

The way around this is to take the human out of the equation. An auto/assist pilot, preferably one capable of communicating with the car ahead, would let you stack the cars much denser on the road, and still retain safe braking ability. This would give rise to all sorts of difficult decisions though, but they'd all be too fast for humans to handle.

Let's say the lead car has to brake hard for something, and that the 2nd car has poorer traction - what should they do? Should the lead car distribute the force of impact between the obstacle and the 2nd car coming to rear-end it? Or should it take the full impact from the rear, hoping to be able to avoid the obstacle ahead?

And "slow in the fast lane" isn't a defined condition. Maybe I want to drive at the legal limit, but end up behind someone driving below the legal limit in the slow lane.So I get into the fast lane to overtake the slow guy, but only get up to the legal limit to do so. Asking/allowing people to drive faster than the limit gets legally tricky real fast.

Or maybe I think driving at +3 MPH entitles me to use the fast lane and you think +10 MPH is the limit to use the fast lane.

Are freeway speeds to slow and for their reason people don't know the rules of travel GoldenLion 3 months ago .

Are freeways designed to travel slow. Idaho has one of the fastest commute times on the average. Do you find highway design and important factor in travel speed?

GoldenLion 3 months ago .

People take their time because they prefer to move their car when THEY decide it's suitable. It's usually illegal to try to prevent someone from overtaking, but usually you don't have to help it either. Also, keep in mind that you have no right to go faster than the speed limit.

Let's say the 1st car is doing -3 mph compared to the speed limit in the slow lane and the car coming up behind is doing +/- 0 mph and goes out to overtake. With such a small speed excess it'll take the 2nd car some time to get past. And for the countries I've checked, there's no law requiring people to speed under certain conditions.

Then there's the question of when to cut in. I've driven a lot under poor conditions, and I tend to be very aware of the spray kicked up behind my car. Not wanting to blind the driver behind, I'll make sure I have a decent gap before getting back in lane.

If I have to hold someone back 5 seconds more in order not to blind another driver, then so be it. The travel time added by keeping someone else from flooring it for a few seconds isn't really measureable in the scope of the whole journey. And I get quite annoyed when someone cuts in immediately ahead of me and blasts my wind screen with rain/snow or whatever.

Whether freeway speeds are slow or not is an impossible question. They may be slow in terms of what modern cars can do, but they're not slow in terms of what us humans can deal with. They're certainly not slow when you look at the injuries available if you would be in an accident.

The relationship between speed, braking distance and kinetic energy of the vehicle isn't linear. Risks increase more than the speed does. Are youy willing to accept a 20% higher risk of serious injury in order to go 10% faster?

The biggest factor in travel time is the ability to maintain a high average, and you get that by being consistent - not by shooting for a high top speed. Having a couple of patches of 50 mph will easily hurt your travel time a lot more than doing 70 instead of 75. So yeah, freeway design is important.

You need enough lanes to deal with the flow, and as few interruptions as possible.

Most people traveling in the fast lane seeking rapid passage are going 10 to 20 mph over the speed limit, in my opinion. GoldenLion 3 months ago .

You need a $43 k Ford f-150 with massive tires and then you can keep pace in bad weather conditions GoldenLion 3 months ago .

55 mph was regulated by Pres Carter to save gas. Do you think freeway speeds are too slow and designed to save gas? Nothing puts out more emissions than a thousand idle cars on the freeway in gridlock.

Why do city planner fail so miserably when it comes to roads. Should the department of transportation be done away with because of failing performance to meet consumer expectations? GoldenLion 3 months ago .

The number of traffic fatalities is decreasing since 1950. Check out the stats. Once google car becomes a modern feature like onstar fatalities should drop to near zero.

GoldenLion 3 months ago .

Re: self enforcing - You've gotta realize that there are three possible states, people being helpful, people being indifferent, and people being against. There is NO LEGAL room for you to expect people to break the law and exceed the speed limit for your convenience. Speed brings risks, it's as simple as that.

A 10% increase brings a 20% increase of kinetic energy, and braking distance. Me speeding is MY RISK, and MY CHOICE. Actively holding someone back is usually illegal, but the argument that the car ahead of you isn't speeding enough according to your tastes isn't going to get you anywhere.

You'll just have to suck up the handful of seconds that has added to your travel time, until the road ahead is clear for you. I'm not trying to prevent you, I'm just not changing my behaviour to accomodate you. Basically, I'm driving like you're not there.Re: bad weatherI've only been caught out twice where the vehicle has been holding me back, all the other times it's ME holding me back.

Vision is vision, the cost & quality of the car isn't going to change my sight distance in pouring rain or snow drift conditions enough to matter.(well, maybe in one of those high-end cars with augmented IR- vision, but they're still too rare to matter. )Re 55 mphGridlock isn't going to be solved by allowing for higher speeds, gridlock is solved by creating a smoother flow. This means more lanes, longer on/off ramps and less changes.

Someone braking tends to create a domino effect. First car drops 3 MPH, next has to brake harder(due to the lag in reaction), dropping 5 MPH, next 8 ASO.It can snowball down to crawling speed before the bottle neck has resolved itself. City planners fail because they're not given enough tools to do their job properly.

Increasing road capacity in already populated areas will always happen at the expense of someone else. What do you think the homeowners will say when someone suggests to route a freeway through their back yard? The owners of the mall and other business located at a junction that'll be routed past won't be particularly impressed either.

But sure, find a politician strong enough to take that resistance on the chin, and to put up the funding as well, and just about any traffic situation can be built away. The Carter stuff I'm not even going to touch. But you might think about the fact that you'll find pretty much the same speed restrictions everywhere.

Regarding your calculations on vehicle densityI don't think you're inluding braking distance in your calculations. And braking distance increase by the square of the speed increase. If all drivers were to brake equally hard, and with the same reaction time, then your maths would probably work out.

But we don't, and it doesn't.

Didn't read the vehicle density post through properly. My apologies to Schelli. Increased speed with due concern does give lower vehicle density.

BECAUSE the average car driver is an IDIOT,and doesn't obey the rules or laws of the road,plus doing so many other things instead of paying attention to the road and others on the road,like talking on the damn cell phone,TEXTING that one really is stupid,oh and I have seen this one a few times working on the Lap Top(yes while driving). The laws and rules that are in place now are fine,the fault lies with the idiots that have no intention of following them. And you can make fines and penalities increase,but that doesn't seem to work.

Drinking and driving has been illegal for years and yet thousands of idiots still do it,and have accidents that hurt lots of innocent people every year! Some how you have to get through to these morons that they are not the only vehicle on the highway,and the laws and rules are for the safety of all of us.

In Germany tailgating is severly punishedIt is the law to move out of the fast lane if a car wants to pass GoldenLion 3 months ago .

Please control your language GoldenLion 3 months ago .

You don't see what I do everyday by being out there in a tranport truck. And I didn't use any profanity they are IDIOTS and MORONS.

Oh and IDIOT,and MORON bother you,then I suggest you find a nice kiddie site to play on and leave this one.

With all due respect GoldenLion 3 months ago .

If you have seen what I have on the highways and what these people do,with no respect for the laws of the road or the people on them then YES,they are STUPID MORONS. WE are going to talk in Kilometers for a few seconds,the average driver puts on 20,000ks a year I put on 200,000ks a year I have seen the highway in every condition and every minute of the day or year,so yes I have more experience on the highway than most,does that make me better,I still have a lot to learn,BUT at least I do learn these stupid car drivers never will.

You should create a website with video of crazy drivers. GoldenLion 3 months ago .

Lowering the speed limit, and enforcing traffic laws would make the highways more efficient. Also, having more people use mass transit.

BTW, there is no "fast lane". On freeways between cities, there is a passing lane, but the person doing the passing can no legally exceed the speed limit. On urban freeways around cities, in most states, there are no rules limiting the left lane as a passing lane.

If you're exceeding the limit, tough; grow some patience.

Suppose the was no speed limit, what would be the rules of travel on the freeway GoldenLion 3 months ago .

There probably wouldn't be any - anarchy would reign where the more of an a$$hat you were the more you expected.

If there were no speed limit, the issue would be self correcting due to the number of fatal accidents, which would actually *slow* down the flow of traffic. Most people think their driving skills are a lot better than they are, by a long shot.

I did some simple calculations - If my math is correct, and that may not be the case, excluding all other factors, and assuming a safe driving distance, slowing traffic down actually gets more vehicles moving that having them speed up:35 mph 8009 vehicles45 mph 6422 vehicles55 mph 5359 vehicles65 mph 4599 vehicles75 mph 4027 vehicleson a three lane freeway. Thjat seems a little counter intuitive.

No one want an accident because insurance premium increase and their license could be revoked. GoldenLion 3 months ago .

You say there is no fast lane legally, but in general the left lane is reserved for the high speed vehicles; just watch the 80 to 90 mph vehicles moving in that lane GoldenLion 3 months ago .

Sometimes one has to drive in the left lane and there are exits on the left lane and perhaps we do not have room for a "fast lane" but need to use all of the lanes for driving. On the left there is an exit in case of emergency. That is not available from the center lanes.

Sameness? I think it is easier to make a road that looks the same from mile to mile. Do not like that?

Go on a smaller road that is older and has more to see. Why do people drive slow? They obey the law.

They are not in a hurry. There are not safe at higher speeds. Why not?

I cant really gove you an answer,but what I can give you is a way to a solution, that is you have to find the anglde that you relate to or peaks your interest. A good paper is one that people get drawn into because it reaches them ln some way.As for me WW11 to me, I think of the holocaust and the effect it had on the survivors, their families and those who stood by and did nothing until it was too late.