Ban the stop and go hell of rush hour. Cars rolling at freeway speed without stopping pollute way less than drivers stuck behind idiots who can't just go forward down the road at the speed limit.

The human suffering and ecological impact reduced if only there would be a focus on enforcing speed minimums...

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mc3301 2 days ago | parent | next [-]

It isn't just slow or distracted drivers. It is congestion. It is too many cars, and the impossible task of making them all "go" at the same time.

What we need is fewer cars and better shared transportation.

Heck, we should replace ALL cars with busses, and then they could go super fast with all the other buses. Make 'em small, so it's maybe 20 people per bus. That's 20 cars off the road, right there.

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matsemann 2 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

It's just traffic. The arrogance of thinking everyone else is the problem is kinda weird. You're just as responsible for the congestion and pollution.

	▲	potato3732842 2 days ago \| parent [-]
		Quality of operation absolutely is a factor in the equation. The overall results seem to get dragged down to the lowest common denominator. Something like a park-and-ride lot after an arrival cleans out way faster/better than a school despite both more than saturating whatever their entry onto the main road is.

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djrj477dhsnv 2 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Even if everyone drove optimally, every road is going to reach a capacity where its physically impossible to maintain a certain speed. It's similar to network congestion. Mandating that everyone drive faster won't solve anything.

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mjevans 2 days ago | parent | next [-]

It would reduce the duration of rush hour... once the least skilled drivers were improved or removed from the pool. I do agree it wouldn't solve a complete lack of capacity, civic planning, transportation infrastructure. Including lack of busses that travel frequently enough and where people want to go.

	▲	potato3732842 2 days ago \| parent \| next [-]
		>It would reduce the duration of rush hour... I do agree it wouldn't solve a complete lack of capacity, Exactly. Rush hour is like dumping 5gal bucket into a sink. You'll always be bottlenecked by the drain but a better drain will mean all the drops get where they're going faster and with less waiting around.
	▲	oblio 2 days ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		> once the least skilled drivers were improved or removed from the pool. Let me guess this straight, the plan would be that: 1. in a global environment (the following steps are done everywhere around the world) 2. where maximum speeds, though: - clearly marked everywhere - mentioned during driving lessons and driving codes/books - part of the written driving exam every driver has to pass - enforced by police, cameras, a myriad of automated systems etc 3. are still ignored by, say, 40%+ of drivers ... so, the plan would be that in this environment, mandating minimum speeds would actually improve anything? :-))) I'd be super happy to read the study proving this. Where by study, I mean actual physical trial.

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potato3732842 2 days ago | parent | prev [-]

I think if find a way to fix the worst of the worst it'd probably up the throughputs and speeds a lot in the same way that quashing TCP retrans problems does.

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dontlaugh 2 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I assume by that you mean provide good and cheap public transportation so people no longer have to drive.

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empath75 2 days ago | parent | prev [-]

What causes stop and go is actually pressure waves that propagate backwards through traffic once density hits a critical point.

When everyone is following at a reasonable distance (ie, there's a couple of car lengths between cars), if someone has to hit the brakes for some reason (sun in their eyes, car cuts them off, etc), then the car behind can slow instead of stopping, and it doesn't propagate. Notably, the person who triggered the wave doesn't even need to stop. If the person behind them is following close enough, just slowing down a little bit will cause the person behind to slow _more_, and the person behind them to stop.

Once everyone is stacked on top of each other, any interruption in the flow of traffic propogates backwards. That's why when you get to the "end" of the traffic congestion it looks like people stopped for "no reason". But you've just hit the front of a pressure wave. You'll probably hit another one in a little while if density doesn't ease up ahead of you.

The only way to eliminate stop and go traffic is to stop people from entering onto the freeway after it hits a certain density.