The driver blithely keeping with the flow of traffic is not the one I am worried about. It is the one who is aggressively trying to cut through the flow of traffic while putting everyone and themselves in danger that I worry about.

▲

dylan604 3 days ago | parent | next [-]

I love when cities time their lights so that aggressive drivers just get hit with waiting at a red light while driving the speed limit means hitting greens for long stretches.

▲

toss1 3 days ago | parent | next [-]

Yes, and about twice I've seen this done really right, wherein they post signs of the synchronization speed (e.g., "Lights Timed for 35mph"). I just get in sync with one light and adjust speed and it feels almost magic to go a few miles hitting every green light (it kind of is the macic of math).

It'd be cool if more roads were implemented that way.

	▲	the_sleaze_ 3 days ago \| parent \| next [-]
		I have the same in my area, but instead the lights are synchronized to slow traffic as much as possible. They literally coordinate to make you stop at as many lights as possible and grid lock at rush hour so the highway doesn't get flooded. I walk my kids to school, but when I do drive the 1.1 miles there are no less than 12 stoplights/stop signs.
	▲	dylan604 3 days ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		There's a part of downtown here that is known for being set up like this. However, it's been a bust while there's been a lot of construction blocking lanes so nothing moves at speed.

▲

potato3732842 2 days ago | parent | prev [-]

Sure, some people will get hit with the reds. Some people will learn the timing and learn that you can run just one red and then hit all greens, or that it will save you 5+min if you hammer down and pull a "clearly not ok" pass to get around some idiot who's going too slow to make the green timing.

So yeah, you're reducing speeding, number go up, pat yourself on the back. But you're also increasing the incidence of something rarer than speeding, but way worse.

This is the same problem that 4-way stops at roads that don't deserve them create, you're basically teaching people that the signage is bullshit.

▲

potato3732842 2 days ago | parent | prev [-]

Upping the speed limit reduces the incidence of the latter because just about everyone has a "fuck this I'm weaving" threshold and the number of people who hit it goes down when you reduce the incidence of rolling clusters of traffic caused by the handful of people who religiously follow the speed limit even when not appropriate.