Eliminating Stop-and-Go Traffic
We’ve all been in horrible traffic on the highway where you’re completely stopped for awhile, can take your foot off the brake to travel 10-15 mph for a few yards, and then totally stop again. Personally, I’ve always wondered why it is indeed “stop-and-go” traffic instead of everyone just moving along at a constant, average speed.
A man named William Beaty in Seattle had the same thoughts, and did an experiment when driving in stop-and-go traffic one day. He began hitting the usual “waves” of stopped traffic, and instead of filing in line with the other cars only to stop a short distance ahead, he decided to hang back and move at the average speed of traffic. He left a huge gap in front of his car and arrived at the next clump of stopped cars as the brakelights were being turned off. Beaty kept up this behavior for about thirty minutes, continuing to leave a large space in front of him and driving at a constant speed.
As he looked in the rearview mirror, he was shocked to see that in the lane behind him for miles, there was a total uniform distribution of the cars. However, in the lanes beside him, there were the usual stop-and-go waves of cars. Everyone ahead of him was also caught in the stop/go cycle, but behind him cars were able to drive at a smooth 30-35 mph. By driving at the average speed of the traffic around him, he had erased miles of stop-and-go traffic.
The next time you’re driving in heavy traffic, remember Beaty’s actions, and apply them to your own driving. According to him, traffic patterns are in our own hands.
A single solitary driver, if they stop “competing” and instead adopt some unusual driving habits, can actually wipe away some of the frustrating traffic patterns on the highway.
For more information about car rental in Atlanta, contact Triangle Rent A Car today!
what happens when one leaves a big gap in front of him usually? It usually happens that other drivers go in front of him (either from behind or from other lanes)…. This is desirable but inpractical… What do u think about that?
And also when you get to apoint where there’s no congestion any more and everyone accelerates to 100km( or say 120km), the majority of these people who decide to “hang back” hold the traffic behind them. It is enough tho have a bunch of them on each lane in proximity to increase other ppl’s frustration…
Cheers
Thank you for the comment Solo. I can’t answer for Melissa but it does seem to be a sticky wicket. I suppose if everyone just did the speed limit and kept some space all would go swimmingly, but it isn’t a perfect world like you said and things are bound to go haywire.