Reddit reviews Traffic: Why We Drive the Way We Do (and What It Says About Us)
We found 23 Reddit comments about Traffic: Why We Drive the Way We Do (and What It Says About Us). Here are the top ones, ranked by their Reddit score.
I'll prepare for the downvotes, but if you check out the book Traffic: Why We Drive the Way We Do (and What It Says About Us) it explains why late merging is good and is actually what traffic engineers plan for. I know it's not a popular opinion, but I found it a fascinating read (the whole book, not just the merging part) and highly recommend it.
>According to a recent study released by NAVTEQ, the average U.S. driver that uses a GPS system with real-time traffic updates is able to cut nearly 4 days off of their annual commute as well as decrease their carbon footprint by over 21%.
Navteq is shilling their products and the blog author parrots their marketing press release. Nice research and value-add. Submission downmodded.
Now for the real issue.
The "study" conveniently ignores what happens when everybody starts using the service.
Their findings depend on the edge that drivers using a GPS with real time traffic updates get over the regular drivers. Once the percentage of GPS users, it is obvious that the current data is meaningless as that edge decreases in size.
Will it be better if everybody used them? Depends...
If GPS systems give everybody the same advice, they are obviously worthless.
Attempting to design GPS systems that are smart enough to try to balance the load by giving different people different advice has its own challenges. How do you decide who do you send where? How do you adjust when people ignore the advice they got and drive somewhere else? How real-time is the "real-time" data? (Hint - absolutely not real time, and a few minutes make a huge difference in traffic).
Look, we could go on and on, but let me point out two things:
A) The blog entry submitted is worthless.
B) If you want to understand traffic, please read this book. It will not answer all those questions, but it will help you appreciate the complexity of the problem.
I am all for them. Also from various things i have read they are safer also. Since they force the drivers to actually pay attention and not just stop at the red light, shut off brain and wait for the green until they gas it.
As long as they dont implement something like this Magic Roundabout
Heres a couple other links you may find interesting
Proven scientifically: http://www.amazon.com/Traffic-Drive-What-Says-About/dp/0307264785
There are roughly a million things wrong with this, I don't even know where to start.
This exact sort of solution to driver behavior modification has been suggested (and implemented) before. In Tom Vanderbuilt's book Traffic: Why We Drive the Way We Do (and What It Says About Us), this type of solution is discussed in brief. Here's an excerpt:
> What if there was an eBay-like system of "reputation management" for traffic? This idea was raised in a provocative paper by Lior J. Strahilevitz, a law professor at the University of Chicago. "A modern, urban freeway is a lot like eBay, without reputation scores," he wrote. "Most drivers on the freeway are reasonably skilled and willing to cooperate conditionally with fellow drivers, but there is a sizeable minority that imposes substantial costs on other drivers, in the form of accidents, delays, stress, incivility, and rising insurance premiums." 15
> Inspired by the HOW'S MY DRIVING stickers used by commercial fleets, the idea is that drivers, when witnessing an act of dangerous or illegal driving, could phone a call center and lodge a complaint, using mandatory identification numbers posted on every driver's bumper or license plate. Calls could also be made to reward good drivers. An account would be kept and, at the end of each month, drivers would receive a "bill" tallying the positive or negative comments called in. Drivers exceeding a certain threshold could be punished in some way, such as by higher insurance premiums or a suspension of their license. Strahilevitz argues that this system would be more effective than sporadic law enforcement, which can monitor only a fraction of the traffic stream. The police are usually limited to issuing tickets based on obvious violations (like speeding) and are essentially powerless to do anything about the more subtle rude and dangerous moments we encounter—how often have you wished in vain for a police car to be there to catch someone doing something dangerous, like tailgating or texting on their BlackBerry? It would help insurance companies more effectively set rates, not to mention giving frustrated drivers a safer and more useful outlet to express their disapproval, and gain a sense of justice—than by responding in kind with acts of aggressive driving.
> But what about false or biased feedback? What if your next-door neighbor who's mad at you for your barking dog phones in a report saying you were acting crazy on the turnpike? As Strahilevitz points out, eBay-style software can sniff out suspicious activity—"outliers" like one negative comment among many positives, or repeated negative comments from the same person. What about privacy concerns? Well, that's exactly the point: People are free to terrorize others on the road because their identity is largely protected. The road is not a private place, and speeding is not a private act. As Strahilevitz argues, "We should protect privacy if, and only if, doing so promotes social welfare."
> Less ambitious and official versions of this have been tried. 16 The Web site Platewire.com , which was begun, in the words of its founder, "to make people more accountable for their actions on the roadways in one forum or another," gives drivers a place to lodge complaints about bad drivers, along with the offenders' license plate numbers; posts chastise "Too Busy Brushing Her Hair" in California and "Audi A-hole" in New Jersey. Much less frequently, users give kudos to good drivers.
> However noble the effort, the shortcomings of such sites are obvious. For one, Platewire, at the time of this writing, has a bit over sixty thousand members, representing only a minuscule fraction of the driving public. Platewire complaints are falling on few ears. For another, given the sheer randomness of driving, the chances are remote that I would ever come across the owner of New Jersey license plate VR347N—more remote even than the chance that they're reading this book—and, moreover, I'm unlikely to remember that they were the one a Platewire member had tagged for "reading the newspaper" while driving! Lastly, Platewire lacks real consequences beyond the anonymous shame of a small, disparate number of readers.
I'm reading a book called Traffic: Why We Drive the Way We Do right now that I think you may find fascinating. It's incredible so far and really touches on some interesting ideas.
Listen to the book Traffic, it will change how you think about how the roads we use are built. Also, I'm an audiobook listener so I suppose you could read it too. http://www.amazon.com/Traffic-Drive-What-Says-About/dp/0307264785
do you move in between lanes trying to get in the good lane? do you let people merge into your lane without trying to block them? do you only go in the left lane while passing, allowing traffic to move?
do you even know the ways to make a road efficient? read up on the science/math of traffic. you'll be amazed. i was guilty of a lot of bad road ideas until i read this: http://www.amazon.com/Traffic-Drive-What-Says-About/dp/0307264785
adding another lane does little to improving traffic flow. more people just decide to use the freeways instead of other methods. you know why they can drive so fast on the autobahn? you need a license, and you get it taken away if you do something inefficient.
Studies have actually shown that waiting to merge until the last minute optimizes usage of the road. Leaving the lane empty for a quarter mile before it ends is just wasted asphalt. Source: http://www.amazon.com/Traffic-Drive-What-Says-About/dp/0307264785
That said, I generally merge early since it is considered polite.
If you find this interesting you might wanna check out a great book on this subject. The book is called Traffic and it provides some very interesting insight into the way that people drive.
No.
An interesting passage in the book Traffic: Why We Drive the Way We Do (review) explains that traffic accidents/fatalities were an interesting measure of the corruption of a country. Corruption being a measure of how much the members of the public respect and honor the law in their own country.
Are Americans honest? Drive on the highway and stick to the speed limit. Measure how many cars pass you and compare it to the number you pass: that will give you a measure of how little the average American respects the law.
The late merge that you talk about actually isn't so bad. At least, according to this book: http://www.amazon.com/Traffic-Drive-What-Says-About/dp/0307264785
Read Traffic: Why we drive the way we do. The dude just might convince you to become a late merger; it's better for the whole system if we all just merge late.
That is precisely why. This book focuses, in part, on Sweden's traffic changeover.
This book Traffic by Vanderbilt is the best non fiction book I read last year. Just if you are interested in the how and why traffic works the way it does.
This might also be relevant: http://www.amazon.com/Traffic-Drive-What-Says-About/dp/0307264785
I recommend this book for those interested in the subject.
sometimes, although last night i was being kept awake thinking about how wrong this book is. it makes me so angry.
Correct -- and many other things people don't realize. Someone actually wrote a book about it. Traffic: Why we drive the way we do.
Traffic moves faster if everyone goes up to the point of merging and alternates one car form each lane into the reduced space.
Amazon Link.
Super late to the party, but this is very interesting. If you're still checking this, could you talk about the book Traffic? It's the most interesting book I've read in recent memory.
http://www.amazon.com/Traffic-Drive-What-Says-About/dp/0307264785
This is an interesting related book.
Yep. Traffic capacity is there to be used. If your lane is ending, don't merge 1/4 mile before the lane ends, that's just unused roadway.
Read this!
Merging late is better for traffic flow. Stop driving with your ego.
Read some traffic theory. This is a good start: http://www.amazon.com/Traffic-Drive-What-Says-About/dp/0307264785