🚀 go-pugleaf

On Wed, 09 Dec 1998 02:13:47 GMT, Brandon Sommerville 
<grimrod@mindless.moc> wrote:
>Rahul Dhesi wrote:
>
>>In <366DAF31.7103@xix.netcom.com> Mike Smith <m-smith@xix.netcom.com> writes:
>>
>>>Absolutely wrong, Rahul. Used as Brandon describes, both lanes would be
>>>in constant use. Everyone could go at their own pace and no-one would
>>>have to wait for some inconsiderate soul blocking the overtaking lane
>>>until a gap opened up in the "wrong" lane. I too have seen such traffic.
>>>It is happy, happy happy and COMPLETELY safe. Won't happen here though!
>>
>>All this will happen if you have only half as much traffic as will take
>>two lanes.  If the left lane has very few vehicles in it, traffic
>>capacity is cut down sharply.  There is no way around this.
>>
>>I don't see such spare highway capacity here in the Bay Area.  Are you
>>in the boonies somewhere?
>
>This was in northern Ontario, so yeah, it could easily be considered
>the boonies, but I found similar roads crossing the US from Michigan
>to North Dakota.  The Bay Area is so overcrowded that you shouldn't
>use it as a model for traffic flow.

Argh!  The problems only become serious when traffic is high.  The 
solutions must cover most all situations.  If you expect people to adhere
to one set of standards when there is a lot of traffic and another when
there is little, you exponentiate any problems, and add state-transition
problems.

>
>Any engineer that designs a part, be it a road, pipe, cable or car
>part so that it is at it's maximum flow all the time is an idiot.  You
>ALWAYS allow for more than you will see under most circumstances.
>Surely that can't be too hard to grasp.

The real problem is the freeways are (quite literally) hard-coded for a
maximum volume, and in many urban areas are far beyond that volume.  The
bay area isn't even the worst (Atlanta [for time] and LA [for volume] are 
in general, and many specific problems can be found in many places).  The 
hard part to grasp is where to get the money to design and build a freeway 
that allows for more than you will see under most circumstances.

>-- 
>Brandon
>
>"Spoooooooon!"

jg
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