Why do freeways come to a stop?

[Merritt]

Hate when this happens...now you know why.

http://i.imgur.com/wbwmd.png

[TomcoPDR]

Sweet, never knew that without an engineer telling us.

Maybe he'll do a study next why grocery store line ups backs up when there's 1 cashier with 10 customers checking out at the same time, compared to 1 cashier 2 customers.

[b.rock1]

yeah, i have a friend in civil engineering. it's crazy how complex traffic patterns can get. summary: anything and everything can/will cause a traffic jam.

[Maxt]

And that's why the dicks that blow by everyone then wait to the very last second to do a push their way in lane change to make their turn off are the real problem on the roads.. Yet their is no traffic offense of "just being a dick"...

[cde1966]

I like how they use the 60mph as the speed everyone would be traveling. Rethink the above, most traffic is traveling at 100kph (approx) so some at 98 and some at 105ish. A few are traveling at 110-115 and a couple more are going 120ish. the faster cars see a van on the side of the road and slams on the breaks casusing a TJ. Or some dumdass engineer decides to see what will happen if he slows down in traffic and how the third law of thermaldynamics affects the flow of traffic, all while on the phone with his mom asking her what his shirt size is...

There are too many variables in traffic to be able to make one flow chart and blame it ll on one driver slowing down while everyone else in the world is driving the speed limit exactly...

[topmade]

I thought this was common knowledge. All it takes is one dumbass to cause a TJ. Biggest piss off is when stupid rubber neckers are hitting their brakes so they can get a better look at something happening on the other side of the road. Even worse is when it's just a cop giving someone a speeding ticket and everyone slows down to see if they can recognize the driver.

[cloud7]

Also people tends to over-brake. A car brake in front, then the people behind brakes harder causing catastrophic effects the further back when the process is repeated.

[supe]

Every once in a while you get into those traffic jam conversations and you always get the one person that just seems to have all the solutions, if they only did this, if people only did that...blah blah... face it traffic jams are a fact of life.

[Xtrema]

That's why there should be no speed limit. In order to keep an average of 100km/h, the people who are leading the pack need to do 200km/h.



:rofl:

[dirtsniffer]

man this thread was so much better in its fifth iteration

[Eleanor]

Remember Clarkson & May talking about the funnel effect?

If the speed limit is 100km/h and the road gets bumped down from 4 lanes to 3, the speed limit needs to be increased to ~134km/h :D

[ricosuave]

Originally posted by topmade
Even worse is when it's just a cop giving someone a speeding ticket and everyone slows down to see if they can recognize the driver.

They dont do it to recognize the driver, its because most idiots on the road think that every lane (and the ones in the other direction) have to slow to 60 when passing a set of flashing lights...

[Ven]

Originally posted by topmade
Even worse is when it's just a cop giving someone a speeding ticket and everyone slows down to see if they can recognize the driver.

So is this what you do; try to see if that person has a social connection to you? Or is this your best guess as to what you think is happening? I'm just curious because I've never had that reaction or urge. I slow down because I have to by law or to adjust to traffic flow.

[GoChris]

This is why south deerfoot at southland is always a crawl. Not because of the merge at southland, bow bottom, anderson, it's the retards flying up in the far right merge lane until the last second and budging in. didn't take a rocket scientist to figure that out.

[xnvy]

Originally posted by ricosuave


They do it because most idiots on the road think that every lane (and the ones in the other direction) have to slow to 60 when passing a set of flashing lights... :werd: Just today on Glenmore about 30 seconds away from Chinook some guy was getting a ticket, parked on the shoulder, but instead of just one lane, all 3 lanes were slowed to a crawl.

[M.alex]

Originally posted by GoChris
This is why south deerfoot at southland is always a crawl. Not because of the merge at southland, bow bottom, anderson, it's the retards flying up in the far right merge lane until the last second and budging in. didn't take a rocket scientist to figure that out.

Gimmie a break. It's backed up because people are retards and think that the second they can merge, they have to. I always run the lane until the very end (And sometimes onto the shoulder) and have no problems.

[J-D]

Originally posted by M.alex


Gimmie a break. It's backed up because people are retards and think that the second they can merge, they have to. I always run the lane until the very end (And sometimes onto the shoulder) and have no problems.

No problems because you end up slowing everyone else down, lol.

[topmade]

Originally posted by Ven


So is this what you do; try to see if that person has a social connection to you? Or is this your best guess as to what you think is happening? I'm just curious because I've never had that reaction or urge. I slow down because I have to by law or to adjust to traffic flow.
I wasn't clear but I was referring to accidents on the other side of the road where you don't need to slow down unless it's actually affecting the oncoming traffic and the example of trying to recognize the driver was sarcasm. If you drive on deerfoot a lot you will know what I mean.

[Mar]

Originally posted by ricosuave


They dont do it to recognize the driver, its because most idiots on the road think that every lane (and the ones in the other direction) have to slow to 60 when passing a set of flashing lights...
Ya, people don't realize it's only the adjacent lane that needs to slow down. Most traffic jams come from people merging on/off at too slow a speed. Someone merges at 80 (which seems like everyone) and cuts out, causing everyone to jam on the brakes. Then all the other lanes do it in reaction.

[M.alex]

Originally posted by J-D


No problems because you end up slowing everyone else down, lol.

No - it's far better to take the lane to the end, signal, and calmly merge in then be like most retards who go 'OMFG! LANE ENDS IN 2KMS!!!!! MUST MERGE NOW!!!!! SLAM BRAKES, DIVE BOMB IMMEDiATELY!!@!@!'

[BlackArcher101]

Originally posted by M.alex


No - it's far better to take the lane to the end, signal, and calmly merge in then be like most retards who go 'OMFG! LANE ENDS IN 2KMS!!!!! MUST MERGE NOW!!!!! SLAM BRAKES, DIVE BOMB IMMEDiATELY!!@!@!'

Or you can take the happy medium and merge in between those two. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to realize that running the merge lane and cutting in holds everything up. The damn lane speeds up after that point.

Both the people who merge immediately and the ones that wait till the last second slow traffic down. Much easier to merge in between those two points when both lanes of traffic are moving at the same rate. If either one has to brake to fit in, then it's slowing shit down.

[HiTempguy1]

Originally posted by Mar

Ya, people don't realize it's only the adjacent lane that needs to slow down. Most traffic jams come from people merging on/off at too slow a speed. Someone merges at 80 (which seems like everyone) and cuts out, causing everyone to jam on the brakes. Then all the other lanes do it in reaction.

This is probably the number one issue in Alberta. I merge onto H2 going into Edmonton and this is the exact problem. People seem to think it's ok to merge at 80km/h and merge, then speed up to 120km/h.

This is not a casual observation, I honestly can't remember the last time I was able to merge at the appropriate speed if someone was in front of me, because people are fucking idiots.

[M.alex]

Originally posted by BlackArcher101


Or you can take the happy medium and merge in between those two. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to realize that running the merge lane and cutting in holds everything up. The damn lane speeds up after that point.

Both the people who merge immediately and the ones that wait till the last second slow traffic down. Much easier to merge in between those two points when both lanes of traffic are moving at the same rate. If either one has to brake to fit in, then it's slowing shit down.

That's impossible to do (at least there) because the retards who do that go 'OMFG! LANE ENDS IN 1KM. MUST MOVE OVER NOW! WTF?? NO SPOT BESIDE ME, I SLAM ON BRAKES AND COME TO COMPLETE STOP UNTIL SOMEBODY LETS ME IN!

So, when that lane comes to a stop you either have to come to a complete stop yourself because of te jackass infront, or you can take the right lane/shoulder and pass them and merge ahead in a spot.

[Mar]

Originally posted by HiTempguy1


This is probably the number one issue in Alberta. I merge onto H2 going into Edmonton and this is the exact problem. People seem to think it's ok to merge at 80km/h and merge, then speed up to 120km/h.

This is not a casual observation, I honestly can't remember the last time I was able to merge at the appropriate speed if someone was in front of me, because people are fucking idiots.
Ya, Blackfoot onto Deerfoot north is the worst for this one, I avoid that completely.

[bspot]

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