It’s the people not zipper merging correctly. You have idiots entering that are not up to speed and you have idiots breaking for the idiots not up to speed.
On ramps should be required to have their lane not end abruptly which causes the panic. The on ram should continue for at least a 1/4 mile.
Cars cause traffic. Cars changing lanes causes traffic. Cars merging causes traffic. Only solution, get rid of the cars and the system built to cater to them.
This is the correct answer. There isn’t a city on earth that has fixed congestion by building for more cars. It’s the places that build for trains and bikes that are best for driving, ironically.
Sometimes, you achieve good traffic flow by making a city so absurdly difficult to drive in that people give up, park in the outskirts, and take public transport.
Example: Amsterdam. In the city, there is almost no traffic, achieved through insanely twisty road signals, stupid expensive parking spots and no gas stations. And still, almost no traffic doesn’t mean no traffic… I can’t understand people still clinging to a car in such conditions.
I’ve literally seen a test with 4 cars driving around a circle, and they tell the drivers, “go at a consistent speed and maintain the distance in front of you” and after 5 minutes they’re all bunched up on one side of the circle. No amount of zipper merging and nice ramps will fix this.
Zipper merging is more complicated than driving straight forward and requires both lanes to slow down significantly relative to the cars in front and behind them.
The best flowing highways I’ve ever seen were ones where the on ramp didn’t end, but became the off ramp for the next exit. Obviously you can’t have that everywhere, but it’s basically a free flow lane that gives time for adjustment. I’ve also seen on ramps (older ones) that aren’t much more than a turn lane, and dangerous if you don’t know the area and traffic patterns.
The issue with this style of lane design is it basically doubles the amount of lane changes that lane experiences, which can make it the most dangerous possible space if exits are close together. I’ve lived around Dallas. It’s scary.
It’s the people not zipper merging correctly. You have idiots entering that are not up to speed and you have idiots breaking for the idiots not up to speed.
On ramps should be required to have their lane not end abruptly which causes the panic. The on ram should continue for at least a 1/4 mile.
Cars cause traffic. Cars changing lanes causes traffic. Cars merging causes traffic. Only solution, get rid of the cars and the system built to cater to them.
This is the correct answer. There isn’t a city on earth that has fixed congestion by building for more cars. It’s the places that build for trains and bikes that are best for driving, ironically.
It always comes to a point where the only way to improve traffic is to flatten the buildings people drive to, defeating the purpose.
And then you have to rebuild them farther away, creating even more traffic!
Sometimes, you achieve good traffic flow by making a city so absurdly difficult to drive in that people give up, park in the outskirts, and take public transport.
Example: Amsterdam. In the city, there is almost no traffic, achieved through insanely twisty road signals, stupid expensive parking spots and no gas stations. And still, almost no traffic doesn’t mean no traffic… I can’t understand people still clinging to a car in such conditions.
I’ve literally seen a test with 4 cars driving around a circle, and they tell the drivers, “go at a consistent speed and maintain the distance in front of you” and after 5 minutes they’re all bunched up on one side of the circle. No amount of zipper merging and nice ramps will fix this.
Zipper merging is more complicated than driving straight forward and requires both lanes to slow down significantly relative to the cars in front and behind them.
Adding to this, more collector-distributor roads that parallel the highway on both sides to reduce the weaving of people entering and exiting.
This is also why I hate cloverleaf highway intersections, the merge period is way too short and the speed delta can be high.
Just one more road bro it will fix traffic
The best flowing highways I’ve ever seen were ones where the on ramp didn’t end, but became the off ramp for the next exit. Obviously you can’t have that everywhere, but it’s basically a free flow lane that gives time for adjustment. I’ve also seen on ramps (older ones) that aren’t much more than a turn lane, and dangerous if you don’t know the area and traffic patterns.
The issue with this style of lane design is it basically doubles the amount of lane changes that lane experiences, which can make it the most dangerous possible space if exits are close together. I’ve lived around Dallas. It’s scary.