From: curt@vtucs.cc.vt.edu (Curt Tilmes)
Newsgroups: rec.autos.driving
Subject: Re: Tailgaters abound!
Date: 15 Sep 92 17:40:00 GMT
Organization: Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA
In-reply-to: ptrei@bistromath.mitre.org's message of 14 Sep 92 17:44:53 GMT

>     In the ideal case, traffic would continue in the two lanes down
>to the cones, then cars would take turns, merging the two streams
>evenly and fairly. 
Try a computer simulation.  This is *not* the ideal case.  For maximum
throughput, the cars should merge over the longest distance.
Everytime a car has to stop and wait, three feet in front of the
single lane, the entire queue stops.


>     What really happens? People are so scared of getting boxed in in
>the closed lane that they get out of it as if it were mined. Thus, the
People are scared?  Or they just have some clue about how a queue works.

>lane which will shut down empties, while the "open" lane grinds to a
>crawl, sometimes more than a mile before the cones.
The "open" lane grinds to a crawl because every other car is stopping
to wait for a car to enter the lane at the very end, instead of
merging over the entire length of the lane, while both lanes are still
moving.

>     This is a legal, open lane - we've only been warned that it will
>shut down somewhere up ahead. I stay in it (heck, I'll even move into
>it), and "zoom by" scores of cars (btw, passing on the right is legal
>on MA highways). When I get to the cones, it's my experience that I
>*may* have to wait for one or two cars before one lets me in.

>     I'm sure some of the people I pass think "that bozo will be stuck
>since no one will let him in - I outsmarted him by shifting lanes
>early". They're wrong.
I think that bozo will save himself 5 minutes, while setting 100
people back 20 minutes.  Sure, its great for you, but for the average
time through the queue, it sucks.  I think that's what they call
being 'self-centered'.. I'm much more important than anyone else on
the road.

>     This practice does not slow down anyone who was behind me to
>start with - cars get through the one-lane section at the same rate
>regardless of order of entry. Nor is it unsafe - the merge takes place
>at stop-and-go speeds.
The merge *shouldn't* take place at stop-and-go speeds, in the ideal
case, where people merge way back from the shut down lane, the
one-lane section can be moving at maximum speed.  The hold up comes
when *1* bozo has to be let in, and the entire queue comes to a halt.

>     Yes, I gain an advantage over the unthinking masses who pulled
>into the unblocked lane at the first sign, without looking at what the
>traffic was actually doing. I don't feel any guilt in doing this - if
>the other drivers lack common sense I feel no need to bring myself
>down to their level.

>     If you are waiting near the end of a long line at the
>supermarket, and you notice that a new clerk has arrived and is about
>to open the next register, do you stay in line, or do you move over?
Different case.  When I am walking, I don't have any acceleration 
problem.  When 100 cars in a line stop, then have to start again, you
have an *enormous* slow down.  Compare a stop sign to a traffic
light.

>
>							Peter Trei
>							ptrei@Mitre.org

Curt