| Re: Signal timing foiled by inattentive drivers [message #796849] |
Mon, 03 March 2008 19:42 |
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My city has a number of designated major thoroughfares with lights
timed to the speed limit. Signs helpfully point out this fact. Some
significant preponderance of drivers swirl around me and zoom past,
achieving nothing but catching the red light. Talk about flunking an
open-book test....
I was taught that smoothly, continuously flowing traffic is the
collectively fastest and my job is to avoid fouling it up by either
going too slowly *or* introducing turbulence and resistance by working
it too hard. This in addition to the stone fact that going with the
flow (in a lane appropriate for your speed, and a speed appropriate
for the lane you need, of course) is easier on your car than dancing
the gas-and-brake two-step the whole way. But the tragedy of the
commons is always close at hand, in traffic as elsewhere.
The point being that inattention isn't the only way to confound such
ideas -- ignorance and the shortsighted pursuit of unenlightened self-
interest also come into play.
--Joe
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| Re: Signal timing foiled by inattentive drivers [message #796919 ] |
Tue, 04 March 2008 04:01 |
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Post removed (X-No-Archive: yes)
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| Re: Signal timing foiled by inattentive drivers [message #796924 ] |
Tue, 04 March 2008 04:14 |
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Scott in SoCal wrote:
> On Mon, 3 Mar 2008 10:42:12 -0800 (PST), Ad absurdum per aspera
> <jtchew [at] california.com> wrote:
<snip>
>>I was taught that smoothly, continuously flowing traffic is the
>>collectively fastest and my job is to avoid fouling it up by either
>>going too slowly *or* introducing turbulence and resistance by working
>>it too hard.
>
>
> Was your teacher's name "Claybrook," by any chance?
I'm finding it hard to argue with his paragraph, sometimes it really
does pay to go slow to go fast. I don't know how many times I'll
approach a red light and simply lift off as soon as I see it's red.
Someone behind me will become impatient, pass me, and end up stopped at
the red light... which turns green 20 yards before I hit the stop line,
so I'm already in second gear and accelerating by the time I pass them
again. An extra side benefit is that I don't use as much fuel...
nate
--
replace "roosters" with "cox" to reply.
http://members.cox.net/njnagel
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| Re: Signal timing foiled by inattentive drivers [message #797016 ] |
Tue, 04 March 2008 17:02 |
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Post removed (X-No-Archive: yes)
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