2strokebloke's basic laws of traffic.

[2strokebloke]

Law number one: The root cause of all traffic jams is stupid people.

Here's a simple example, the below picture is of normal, happy traffic. All traffic is moving nicely, and people are able to use the on ramp and get into traffic without problem.


See how happy the blue car is?

Now to how traffic is caused, a semi truck or any other vehicle with an incredibly slow acceleration rate is heading down the on ramp into traffic. The speed limit is 55mph, but the truck will only be able to reach 40mph by the time it gets into traffic. One in traffic, the cars behind the truck, all have to slow to 40mph for a short period of time while the driver continues accelerating. Now, the element of stupidity is introduced, these stupid drivers because they are now moving slower, bunch all up together and no longer have space between them for cars to merge in from the on ramp. However these cars need to get in or they're going to to ram into the traffic that's not letting them in, what happens, is that both the incoming car, and the buched up traffic have to slow down, to let these new vehicles enter the highway, and there you have it - 15mph, bumper to bumper traffic.


If driver's weren't so damn stupid, they'd leave enough room for incoming traffic to merge into, so they wouldn't have to slow down even more. But hey, some people are just really dumb.
And then there's the other traffic, Cop pulls somebody over for speeding (an element of stupidity right there) then, all [stupid] passing drivers slow down to 20mph. Argh! so frustrating! Stupid people should be outlawed!

[jon@af]

My God, it's brilliant!

EDIT: Not being sarcastic, I really mean it, more people should read that, then maybe they'll see "gee, I guess maybe getting over for people to merge is a good idea."

[freakray]

Stress relieved?

Bad drive home today?

[TexasF355F1]

Another thing that annoys me are the stop lights on the on-ramps. I mean WTF? How is that suppose to help with traffic flow, it hurts it in my opinion.

[jcz1987]

[quote=2strokebloke]Law number one: The root cause of all traffic jams is stupid people.



Some people are just really stupid when it comes to drivng.

[Oz]

You nailed it buddy!

[replicant_008]

Often, traffic lights are positioned at on-ramps to control the amount of traffic on the freeway. Most of the traffic signals are computer-controlled and when the main highway reaches capacity, the use of traffic signals can queue some of this traffic on the local road network and control its entry to the freeway.

Traffic behaves in a similar way to sound waves - there are areas of compression (with slower moving traffic) and areas of expansion (with traffic accelerating into gaps).

I've always regarded some folks reluctance to accelerate to catch up gaps within the legal limit as tantamount to selfishness - as this would improve the overall flow of traffic if completed smoothly.

The fundamental rule I've always adopted when using an on-ramp is to approach at a speed that is 10 km/h (or about 8 mph) FASTER than the prevailing speed of traffic as it enables you to match the speed more quickly and find a slot. (And to be hooked into an intermediate gear rather than top to enable acceleration if required - that and adopting an approach of being elbows out!)

[Oz]

Dunno Rep. I've always found that going 100km/h faster than current traffic and then weaving in and out of those already on the freeway, followed by getting in the overtaking lane and dropping back to 20 below the posted limit makes me a lot of friends.

[blindside.AMG]

I live in LA, the cause of traffic there is too many damn people!!!

[Jay!]

Wow, that blue car does look really happy.

Seriuosly, people. A zipper can do this, so why can't we?

[2strokebloke]

Originally Posted by blindside.AMG

I live in LA, the cause of traffic there is too many damn people!!!

You meant to say: I live in LA, the cause of traffic there is too many stupid people.

LA must have the highest concentration of stupidity per every 100 people in the whole U.S. it's no wonder their traffic is so bad.

[taranaki]

On the rare occasion that I venture into town in the rush hour,Ifind that the centre lane of a three lane highway usually moves at the fastest and smoothest speed.Traffic in the 'slow' lane is constantly thinning at the off-ramps,accelerating to the next on-ramp,then driving ridiculously close to prevent cars at the next merge point from getting out in front and depriving the existing motorway traffic of precious metres.

Traffic in the 'fast' lane,isn't.Far too many people elect to drive out there,because they believe that the traffic will go faster,resulting inthe centre lane thinning out.

Of course,there are always the clowns who insist on weaving from lane to lane,diving into every gap that opens beside them,but they don't seem to get where they are going that much faster.....

[Sean]

Right on 2stroke. I expecially love it when traffic slows down to a crawl and people drive along the shoulder, then try to merge. It's so fun to not let them in so they have to stop and wait for someone to take pity on them. When you pass them, roll down the window, smile, wave, and give em the finger.

[blindside.AMG]

Originally Posted by 2strokebloke

You meant to say: I live in LA, the cause of traffic there is too many stupid people.

LA must have the highest concentration of stupidity per every 100 people in the whole U.S. it's no wonder their traffic is so bad.

No, I still think it's because there is 17 million people in the LA area. When you're driving on a 20 lane highway that isn't moving it isn't because people can't merge it's because there are just too many people on the road. Not too hard to understand, but your IQ must be above 50.

[Jay!]

Originally Posted by blindside.AMG

No, I still think it's because there is 17 million people in the LA area. When you're driving on a 20 lane highway that isn't moving it isn't because people can't merge it's because there are just too many people on the road. Not too hard to understand, but your IQ must be above 50.

...17 million people that aren't smart enough to carpool or use another alternate form of transportation day after day after day. Everyday getting into the same car alone and getting on to the same packed freeway and complaining that it doesn't ever move...

That sounds stupid to me. Is that hard to understand?