Traffic Waves

Main site: http://trafficwaves.org/
Watch at 0:01 to see the fight between "cheaters" versus "blockers" which causes this exit-lane backup. (The backup shown at 0:01 isn't the worst I've seen at this spot.) ALSO TRY HITTING 0:01 OVER AND OVER REALLY FAST.

The Backpackers' rule: if we leave trash on the trail, so does everyone else, and the whole environment immediately turns to crap. If we pick up our own trash, the garbage piles don't vanish. They just build up more slowly from the many OTHER people who always leave a trail of crap behind them as they go. So, if we don't like it, we have to pick up other people's trash as well as our own.

But sometimes, rarely, a little cleanup goes a long way, and one single person can make a huge difference.

During evening rush hour on Seattle I-5, this clogged left lane usually has a 1/2-mile backup. This exit-only lane leads down into the high speed "Express Lanes" under the city. If you manage to exit here, there's rarely congestion in the Express Lanes. You might gain 10min! But the exit itself is jammed. And whenever it's jammed, you might lose more time in the jam than you'll gain from getting on to the express lanes.

Also, if you miss getting into the left lane early, then you're screwed, since nobody in the row of ~200 cars will let you in. There is no "zipper merge." Also, merging drivers coming in from righthand ramps are not "cheaters," yet they're still aggressively blocked by those already in the jam. It's impossible for anyone to tell who is cheating and who is legit, but that doesn't stop people from closing up all gaps. Down at the downstream end of the jam, just a few drivers occasionally force their way in aggressively, yet this nearly halts the exit-lane flow.

BUT ...if I refuse to be a tailgater, and instead let ten cars merge ahead of me as I approach the jam, like magic the whole thing evaporates, and everyone takes off at high speed. SOMETIMES! It doesn't work every time. Maybe once a week. Maybe twice. But when I don't try this trick, I never see it unjam spontaneously. And when I try this trick on other Seattle jams, it doesn't work. Only certain jams are "sensitive" like this one.

Unfortunately this video can't show you the view from above. Also, you can't see behind me, so you can't see that my "hole" is the only one in a very long row of cars. You can't see that nobody is pulling out and passing me, instead all those merging cars are coming in at high speed from a distance. Also you can't see the size of the reliable daily jam that was there on other days, or the jam ahead of me before I arrived and started draining it down by letting people merge.

Note that letting some cars get ahead of you is NOTHING, it doesn't slow you down. On a 30min congested commute at 65MPH, 2sec between cars, if you were a slowpoke going 5MPH slower than the rest, how many other cars would pass you? Seventy five! And a gap of 2.5 miles would open up ahead of you! In other words, slowpokes don't have 10-car gaps, instead their gaps are miles long, either that or stunningly huge numbers of cars are pulling out to pass. Yet on the same commute, letting a few (10) cars merge will slow you down *insignificantly*: by 10 to 20sec out of 30min, or less than 1MPH slowing (64.5MPH, not 65MPH.) Ten cars one way or another is NOTHING, it's way too small to matter. Ten cars is not a real delay, it's a psychological illusion which appears whenever you believe that you're in a race. In a race, a few seconds can mean the difference between winning and losing. On your commute, a few seconds are irrelevant. If a few seconds delay genuinely bothers you, then why not change your alarm clock and get up TWENTY SECONDS EARLIER! Or if set for five minutes earlier, you'll be able to let a couple hundred cars merge ahead of you. :)

Conversely, if you want to drive significantly faster than everyone else, then you need to pass 50-100 other drivers to shorten your commute by just a minute or two. If you only managed to pass a few cars, that's called FAILURE, and your speed wasn't increased enough to matter. Your place in line is meaningless, and unless you're passing hundreds of cars, you're speed is the same as everyone in the jam.

.

Note: Trolls & spammers blocked immediately. Zero tolerance.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• traffic
• waves
• jams
• amasci
• science
• physics
• chaos
• diy
• cars
• driving
• hypermiling
• fuel
• gas

[VikefanTony]

I take exception with the "cheaters" term. Both lanes should be utilized and at the same time all cars should leave 5 car lengths of space behind the next car. That way there is plenty of room for cars to merge without breaking and who cares if one more car get's in? I let everyone in. You can either increase someone else's stress or you can decrease it, it's up to you alone.

[wbeaty]

@VikefanTony But "late mergers" pace the cars in the other lane while signaling to merge. Sometimes/usually the full lane lets them in.

The Cheaters on the other hand use the empty lane to race down to the far end. That gives a big "ha ha screw you" to the cars in the other lane, who try to block them.

But if lots of late mergers get a "zipper" going, then both lanes fill up. There's no empty lane, no cheaters. The jam drains off.

Early merging ...CAUSES cheating? Seems so.

[imskilled94]

I don't think this works in LA. Too many asshole drivers

[wbeaty]

@imskilled94 Works fine in LA.

In fact, I've seen complaints from LA people that driving has recently changed:  too many people are leaving huge empty spaces! They thought it must be caused by cellphone texting. Heh.

[wbeaty]

As a driver you can be one of the vast hoard of mindless Sheep.

Or you can polish your skills and become a Wolf, speeding through the grid, cutting people off, gaining bits of headway.

Or...

you can become a shepherd.

[magna59]

Traffic solved ..... do you think you can have a go at the banking industry next ?

[Laramas]

"All I wanna do is to thank you (even though I don't know who you are). You who let me change lanes when I was driving in my car."

[mysterytrey]

On my average commute sometimes I'll find this one same driver that would be in the lane next to the exit lane, carefully get to the edge of the white dotted line farther away from the exit lane, turn on his turn signal, and then near the dotted lane near the exit lane. If he starts the lane change regardless of whether they give him space, theyre scared as s**t. It looks as if he started the lane change when he gets to the edge and fakes it. He always gets room.

[SoCaLStylZ88]

@wbeaty I assume you're lucky then, or just don't have to deal with NY drivers. Here on Long Island I see it every morning, there is always 2 or 3 people that leave big gaps, which leads to 10 cars tail gating each other and gunning it as soon as the middle lane clears. Even though those cars gunning it don't really make progress, it still creates a dangerous situation of road rage, and I believe road rage is contagious.

[SoCaLStylZ88]

@VikefanTony pissing crazy drivers off leads to road rage which is contagious, creating accidents.

[VikefanTony]

@mountainmafia99 I guess people really are this stupid. I always wondered how accidents happen on perfect, sunshine days. It's because of retards like this who don't understand that driving 50 mph with 10 car length cushion is safer than driving 50 mph with 10 inches of cushion.

[VikefanTony]

@SoCaLStylZ88 He's only pissing off the crazy ones.  Anyone with half a brain realizes what he is doing is smart and efficient.

[VikefanTony]

@thesh0ck No, you are a moron.  Next.