begin quoting Andrew Lentvorski as of Thu, Feb 22, 2007 at 12:24:42PM -0800: > Ralph Shumaker wrote: > >I'd like to know why nobody seems to notice the involvement of > >tailgaters in accidents. > > It's worse than that. Practically all of our traffic jams are caused by > lack of following distance.
Nah. It's not that simple. It's that nobody will get out of anyone else's way. A sizable fraction of drivers will get on to the highway, and doing 10mph under what the rest of the traffic is doing, simply drift over to the leftmost lane. And stay there, forcing those going faster to pass on the right. Most of these folks who gravitate to the left-hand lane seem to be zoned-out zombies; they're driving with a glassy stare, slack faces, looking neither left nor right; and they're hunched forward over the wheel in what looks like a very uncomformtable posture. They're ignoring around them. I'm convinced they're self-hypnotized... Another fraction of the must-be-in-the-leftmost-lane-at-all-costs group are busy drinking coffee, talking on the phone, etc.; especially the SUV drivers who, I suspect, like the leftmost lane because they aren't really comfortable driving a vehicle so large. The leftmost lane gives 'em that extra room they need to feel comfortable driving with one knee. Another fraction of drivers simply do not think others should be ahead of them... if you pass them, they'll speed up. It's really rather educational to drive long distances using cruise control, and watch how many people are driving in a daze, speed varying all over the place. (The general rule seems to be that people not paying attention slow down, until someone looks like they're about to pass them, whereupon they will then speed up to match the passer's speed (up to some comfort threshold). Passing a large vehicle seems to have the opposite effect -- they slow down as they pass a tractor-trailer, for example -- a 20mph variation in speed on lightly loaded roads is pretty common.) I've met several people who figure it's their _right_ to drive in whatever lane they want, and anyone who wants to pass 'em can just suck it up and deal -- they deliberately obstruct traffic on account of "all the damn speeders". They've taken it as a daily goal to MAKE people slow down. With folks like this on the road, we're going to have accidents no matter what. Unfortunately, "paying attention" isn't an easy metric to apply. > If every car has following distance, *even at low speeds*, merge systems > work. People can change lanes. Traffic hiccups simply get eaten by the > following distance getting a little smaller for everybody rather than > coming to a screeching halt. I got caught up in Martinez rush-hour traffic once. No following room and high speeds, but it was less stressful than driving non-rush-hour in San Diego, and having to worry about some idiot deciding that they really need _my_ lane, now, and it's your fault if you can't handle 'em doing 55mph in a 65mph zone. And when it comes to having a traffic hiccup eaten by a buffer zone, well, that depends on the driver. I've ridden with people who proudly proclaim how good of a driver they are by maintaining a buffer zone, but when the car ahead of 'em hits the brakes, so do they, as hard or harder. They _introduce_ traffic hiccups. It's not just a following zone... it's minimizing the change in acceleration -- minimizing jerk, in several senses -- when the car ahead taps his brakes, I need to take my foot off the gas. When someone changes lanes into my buffer zone, regain it over the course of a few seconds, not in one second. > Unfortunately, Southern Californians regard following distance like > antimatter. MUST ANNIHILATE! If you don't annihilate it, someone from the next lane over will. There's no benefit in it, as it isn't going to stay around anyway. > The main problem is just lack of number of cops. By and large, everyone > gets away with anything on the roads because the police density is too > small. And if we limited all cars to no more than 25 mph, we'd be golden too. :/ Haven't you noticed that a cop car on the highway tends to induce a traffic hiccup? -- I'd rather be passed than be stuck behind a slowpoke. Stewart Stremler -- [email protected] http://www.kernel-panic.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/kplug-list
