Why It's Nearly Impossible to Get Rid of Traffic
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- Опубліковано 1 жов 2024
- The average human will spend 1-3 years in traffic over the duration of their life. That's crazy! There's got to be an easy fix to the traffic issue-just add more roads, right? Turns out that this is a major problem studied by physicists and psychologists alike, with no easy answers. Join Hank Green and find out why improving traffic is such a difficult task in this new episode of SciShow!
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*leaves space in front*
Other lane drivers: It's free real estate.
Len Frantora I've found that this doesn't slow me down in any way. Either I'm in the faster flowing lane anyway, and I'm still driving faster than the other lanes. Or I'm in the slower lane. And then they continue on to another lane.
I just can't stand it when you try to keep that space in between you and other cars and those drivers think "oh I'm just gonna squeeze in here" and it's like no...I wanted some safe space punk. I wish everyone could watch this video.
@@XxFreako64xX it's actually leaving that space that causes rubbernecking. When you back off the car in front of you, everyone behind you compresses.
@@wdmckee I thought Hank had said it would be best to allow space between cars because if you're too close- front or back of the car- if you brake, so does everyone else. Which causes that wave effect and a higher chance of getting hit. Plus makes everyone slow down. So when people who dont feel like waiting like everyone else (especially on construction roads) will wait till the last second to cut in line causing everyone to brake rather than slowly merging and keeping traffic flowing. Thoughts?
@@wdmckee And I dont mean backing off the car, before the traffic jam starts I like space in between me and the car as well as behind me- though I cant control that part- but if someone brakes I front of me- I wouldn't have to. When someone cuts in front of me-well then, I'm gonna brake. Causing a ripple effect. Just my thought on it though. :)
We need everyone to watch this video.
so they can ignore it and immideatly revert back to their inefficient way of driving!
honestly for me, if i was king, i would ban 90% of cars, and put all that infrastructure money on public transportations, bike lanes, and pedestrian lanes. (I just really hate cars and i hate driving.)
But what if I hate public transpo tho?
Then u will ride a bike and u will like it! (Should've mentioned that u can use a motor scooter if u want.)
-Rainbow Bubbles- for President 2020
So this video needs more traffic then? =P
Patience should be tested in the driver licence test.
THIS!!!
It already is... Its called "parallel parking". Lol!
I think anyone would just put their best foot forward.
There's a mandatory 4 hours to take the test or else you can't leave the room.. if you do to retake the test you have to wait 4 more months and if you try to come back within those 4 months you have to wait a year and you only get three chances to take your test and if you fail are three you get three strikes and your out, as in you go to prison for 25 to life.
That's what the DMV is for.
I've played cities: skyline, I know it's hard to build good roads.
Yes! The best strategy is ahem: TRAINS
same
its good to build hard roads.
Combo of trams and buses works till a huge city for me
How accurate is it?
This video needs to be mandatory for anyone who gets a driving license
What about the people who are already on the road and are idiots?
@@3rdeyeshine94 Eventually they will die. The new generation that would learn this will grow older and teach the generations to come. The drivers who didn't know that in the past will no longer be around resulting in a drastic change in driving behaviors. It would just take a lifetime or two.
This video should already be common sense for anyone who has ever been behind the wheel. But common sense isn't very common.
no the solution is driver-less cars
It would also help if the concepts presented here are enforced as law.
I remember when I used to live in Melbourne. I started work at 7. If I left at 6 I would get there just about right on 7, but if I left at 5:50 I would get there at 6:20.
That is part of the solution, but even a bit fewer cars in some area would increase overall capacity and that again would allow more cars.
I can sooooo relate to that when i was at RMIT . im from country and i found it so strange
Same in Houston
Yup, same in Dubai. One minute makes a huge difference in traffic.
being in a traffic jam apparently feels like being stuck between a rock and another rock, surprise you're in a sack of Rocks.
and I'm the hardest, most muscular rock of them all.
Muscle Hank Hmm I wonder how you would compare to THE Rock. Of course, I’m talking about ol’ daddio, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson!
Why is it so hard to fix traffic is for the weak
i'm not sure if i like this one better than the old style: "(traffic jams) are for the weak"
again, i just can't decide which one would be better.
+superdupergrover
me neither!
Thank you for using roadsign from my city :)
It's actually now a law in Poland to use zipper merging whenever applicable. If you don't, you get fined. :D
The only problem is here in the States, it's a guaranteed way to create a plug.
They used a picture of traffic jams from my city :D I wish that was a law here.
*Begins to slow down when light turns red*
*Watches other drivers go around and accelerate towards red light*
*Stops behind car/s that passed*
repeat
Hey now, some people really need to get to the office 16 seconds sooner and if they endanger your life and theirs in the process, it's always worth those extra 16 seconds!
Sometimes people causes over hours of time waste by doing this time save but it is just a torture to who want to cross the road and you stuck on the middle of cross way. Guess what road became a knot itself already
By the way how they pronouncing "+"shaped roads
Yep, in cities with relatively short driving distances (say 15 minutes or so of driving) the best you can generally do at most times of the day is save 1-2 stop light cycles total which is like 3-4 minutes at best, but this is in best case scenario. Most of the time you won't save any real time except for the time it takes to move maybe a few car lengths because everybody is stopping at the stoplights anyway.
You know what causes an awful lot of traffic problems?
Human beings driving.
Also people slowing down to look at a minor incident on the side of the road as if they have never seen a fender bender before.
I long for the day of fully automated city driving... can you imagine? People can keep goofing around on their phones without causing anyone else to miss the light!
I can't wait until driverless tech catches up enough to allow robots to cause an awful lot of traffic problems too
@@xostler or how about making cities walkable so then you wouldn't even have to drive? Being able to walk a few blocks to the grocery store instead of driving for 15 minutes. But currently in the US that's mostly illegal which is bs and needs to change.
I was disappointed that one answer to traffic given in this video wasn't to have fewer cars driving. Cars take up a ton of space relative to the amount of people being transported. Find ways to allow and encourage people to walk, bike, and take transit.
I don't mind traffic. But I do mind sitting at a red light for 2 minutes while literally nobody on the road perpendicular to me goes through the intersection. That's annoying. Traffic lights need to have a more adaptive schedule and switch to flashing yellows/reds more often. A lot of cities do a good job with this, but others are absolutely terrible.
I'd like to bet that this is one of those counter intuitive cases where doing what seems reasonable actually makes things worse. To really make traffic lights work better, you'd need to have them controlled by a computer capable of solving what amounts to an np complete problem on the fly...
Tall Troll Why would you need to solve a problem without a P-complete solution? Just use a simple algorithm: is there any car/person waiting to cross? If the answer is yes, put that traffic light green and the others red and wait until it crosses the street, then do the opposite.
This is the solution for low-traffic areas in certain directions, which are abundant where I live and they’re really annoying and useless (and apparently where the OC, original commenter, lives)
Roundabouts. Assuming the people where you live are bright enough to be able to figure them out. We put some in where I live, and if you read the signs and have a basic understanding of road use, they're intuitive and easy to use. And far faster than traffic lights.
Of course, that's a perfect-world solution. Too many people get behind the wheel and turn into a drooling window-licker moron that coulnd't tell a clutch pedal from a seat heater.
(Just not the UK roundabouts....I've heard stories about those ones...but the ones I use here are 2 lanes and simple :D)
Yeah, here in Spain we have lots of roundabouts, but we also have some intersections with lots of useless traffic lights. The problem is that some traffic lights are there and I've never, ever seen somebody cross the street or someone come from either side.
Roundabouts are the most amazing thing. They keep traffic moving so nicely. But of course we Americans are really good at making them terrible. There was one in my small town where I grew up that was actually designed by George Washington. It worked really well until some dumbass decided to put stop signs at 3 of the 4 entrances thus making it redundant. I have no clue why, there were maybe only 15 cars every hour going through it. Why do we always have to ruin nice things?
You don’t get stuck in traffic YOU BECOME THE TRAFFIC
I fully agree with that
People think that it is everyone else but they are part of the problem just as much as every one else
I feel like that should become a bumper sticker like the ones that have a tailgating related message on them.
Speaking of which, I might have to adjust my driving style again.
Sorry to be ringing in so late, whether traffic is good or bad~ it's just facilitation of transport. So there is that. Furthermore, as much as aggressive driving is problematic I understand that I am the timid driver a lot of the time, but it's more for the car I drive than me, I drive like I'm old because my car is. It could handle more than I put it through, I just choose not to do that because say a few extra thousand miles is worth to me much more than what cumulatively would amount to seconds. Lastly, I'd want to think that in such traffic events I'd wisen up to the problem. Hopefully so I could for just once say, HAZAH! The nice guy finished first XD
This is the point nearly no one gets.
It's not difficult just ram your car through all the others
Hustle Hank : This.
Someone just did that in my town and caused a 10 car reck
"Hustle Hank"?? Cmon now these memes are getting stretched a bit thin.
If everybody drives a tank then nobody is driving a tank
That's why I keep the snow plow attached all year long
Zipper merging is actually a traffic rule in Germany
Norway too
As it should be!
yet if you actually try to zipper merge in the US, you’ll be met with honks and middle fingers
I think it's a traffic rule almost everywhere, the trouble being that it's not known/understood in a lot of those places
@@Jonny2by4 tf part of the country you live in where doing the right thing earns honks and birds??? Preschool City? Taking turns is something everybody learns in kindergarten, even here in the U.S.
We gotta learn from ants.
In which, quite specifically *all* travel like the "angry" lane-swapping driver.
Shoot acid from our bums? I already do after Indian food.
You mean like having a logical hive brain like fsd cars communicating together?
Note to self: buy car with legs
So many people in the comments seem to think someone merging into your lane in front of you requires you to brake. They must already be going your speed or faster to do that. Just let off the gas and regain your distance.
dogwaffles The thing that miffs me is when they merge into your lane at a speed much faster than either you or the car in front of you, then slams on the brakes for way longer than is necessary, thus forcing you to also brake. This happens way more than I care for on my daily commute.
there are also people that hits the brake each time a car changes position infront of them regardless if it involves them or not. and then there's those that doesn't want to give way when people tries to merge into the slower lane, causing them to get stuck in between.
People are stupid, which is why they don't realize no gas = slow down. Or maybe they have magic cars that violate physics, in which case, I wish I had that car too.
Except, sometimes they merge so close to you, that you want to regain your distance as soon as possible.
" And you didn't move a single centimeter" keep doing the good fight! One day we will all convert to metric . . !
How about lane discipline? The vast majority of bad traffic I experience comes from one person doing 10 under the speed limit in the left lane, leaving a quarter mile of open road ahead of them. It's fine if you don't want to do the speed limit (I guess), but move over if that's the case. It's the law in many places, but sadly not all. It gets even worse when you get 2 of these idiots side by side creating a rolling roadblock. Don't move to Idaho.
barrishautomotive I hate drivers who form a blocade by all driving exactly next to one another at the same speed. Don't hover in blindspots and don't form a wall!
That's not true. The video explained that it comes from tailgaiters tapping their brakes or simply too much traffic at bottlenecks further down the road where you can't see it. The person floating in the left lane just slows it down a little providing they're not tapping the brakes. When you see grandma floating in the left lane, give her distance and resign yourself to arriving 30 seconds late to wherever you're going. It's better than tailgaiting.
+Guy Sourlandt Depends where you live. Where I am now flashing your brights is a clear request for them to do something because they're impeding your path. In most of the US this probably wouldn't be understood at all and is likely even illegal. Actually,... it's probably not legal here but it is such a common practice with no enforcement against it... If someone cuts you off, same thing, it makes your displeasure known, at the very least he won't be able to say in the future that he/she is driving safely when it is that obvious every time he pisses someone off. In the US it feels like people can drive badly and everyone is too polite to point it out in a way, that is, the mechanism to point it out doesn't exist in US driving culture. Honking the horn tends to be reserved for true emergencies, "I might actually run into you," and flashing the lights for, "I'm not going to slam into your car but you're a dumbass for changing into my lane with that little space."
This video glosses over what "more" space means. If you are leaving excessive gaps and not keeping up with traffic in front of you, you are like a rock in a river causing a backup behind you, and rushing traffic in front of you. Grandma floating in the left lane CAUSES traffic as people have to weave around her. That excessive gap is creating the wave, not absorbing it.
If the road here has two or more lanes traveling in the same direction the right lane is for over taking only. I traveled around New Zealand last year and if your holding up more than 2 cars you need to pull over and let them pass or the cops will fine you, best law ever!
I used to be a little aggressive when driving, but my city filled the roads with radars. I decided to be way less aggressive until I memorize all the places there was the pesky little things. During this time I noticed I was commuting faster. Driving under the speed limit actually made me brake less and by that being more efficient.
I think, now I'm gonna go out on a limb here & make a generalization, that the "answer" to this issue, is about the same as every other issue in America. A collective, dare I say, "cultural shift" in mindset, like leaving more space between cars & realizing that I/you/them/all of us are a part of the problem, will be very effective, but only if generations continue to breed progression instead of stagnation.
People arnt patient enough
Don't hate traffic....you are traffic
Jerry Schippa pfft shows what you know. I can hate traffic because I already hate myself
Eh, not really because by the time we manage any cultural shift it'll be deep into the automation era and largely ineffective. The 'answer' is just to fund automated transit, even the worst automated vehicles are better than human drivers now and the best are far better than the best humans. Also if we manage to get roadways which are solely automated transit those vehicles can then begin to reliably communicate with each other in ways that prevent all traffic issues forever.
@@Outwardpd that makes sense. Transportation will *hopefully* be so far along by then. Question is, well 2 actually, what do we do about old cars? Do they just get scrapped & we're forced to get newer, automated ones, or buy an expensive retrofit kit? & Also, do you think we'll ever reach the point of self-driving racing lol
I particularly enjoy the moments when some asshat is tailgating me, then blows past me in an unsafe manor, only to find me right behind him at the next stop light. I always make sure to give a nice happy wave at them, which always seems to infuriate them lol
microbuilder kek
most cars have these neat things that are so shiny you can see a reflection in them that allows you to see whats going on behind you lol
...and then, sometimes he just manages to catch the green light while you have to stop... :P
lol yes indeed
microbuilder lol
I feel a lot of things would be way more efficient if a majority of people didn't work and get off at approximately the same time everyday and things were staggered more. It would cut down on a ton of traffic issues and I find it kind of ridiculous how you have to take a day off of work yourself to get anything done because of the 9-5 standard business hours for virtually everything (especially with banks, doctors offices, government/licensing stuff)
this is so you don't have time for strengthening family bonds but especially don't have time to consider we've all been bank robbed by what we think is money but is actually only 5% of what its value should be and our offspring are already promised collateral on state debt. We've increased individual and overall efficiency many many many times over since industrializing but aside from laze inducing small comforts and mindless wastes of attention we reap nearly none of it in fact just the opposite. Watch prices rise but food quality and pkg size shrink..
Only problem with space allocation is everyone else wants to fill open spaces.
Space allocation does not help traffic it hinders it
@@GTSN38 I'm pretty sure it helps. Basically you want to make yourself as predictable as possible to other drivers, to do this you must leave space between you and the car ahead of you. However, if the person ahead of you is leaving a reasonable amount of space they will be more predictable, and so you will need less space to be predictable. This pattern repeats and speeds gradually increase as everyone predictably speeds up.
That's true but not in all cases. One thing I quickly learned, having to negotiate a cloverleaf interchange between two freeways with a merging conflict beneath the overpass, that the single lane dedicated to approaching the ramp to the other freeway leaves no choice to other drivers who might want to go around me when I leave about 5 car lengths between me and the driver in front of me. Why would I do that? To allow drivers coming OFF the freeway I'm getting ON -- who have to share that merging lane with me -- plenty of time to THINK before they make the merge, leaving ample space between me and the car in front of me to make the merge. Typically, once I've made that 5 car lengths of space between me and the car in front of me, I can make space between me and the car BEHIND me as well, by accelerating just a tad, and offering more than just one car leaving the freeway I'm entering to make the merge. As I started doing that several times, a lot of cars noticed what I was doing, began doing the same thing, and after about 6 months or so of creating this "zipper merge" at an obvious merging conflict point, almost every car making that commute each morning would follow that procedure and the chronic traffic jams that used to take place at that merging conflict point disappeared. Now, I could get away with that because the exit lane was a single lane; this won't work on open freeway four - six lanes wide. The temptation is too great for drivers to fill those empty spaces with themselves. Part of the driver psychology that is difficult to assuage without being able to demonstrate to them that they're creating more problems for themselves and every other driver than they're solving.
I drive an hour to work every day, and doing that much driving, I figured all this stuff out by observing. It's cool to get validation that they're legit concepts. I always see aggressive drivers who weave around the highway, but they always only end up a car length or two in front of me.
Indeed, same here.
Before I retired I did my share of Southern California traffic. 50 years of it. With my engineering background I've made some observations:
Chronic congestion is often caused by right lanes that drop off. I-15 South of I-10 drops two right lanes in a few miles stretch. 6 lanes are dropped to 4. That's just stupid engineering.
I read an old issue of Popular Science (1950) a long time ago and it told about a study at Columbia University (I think) that showed drivers that were slow and over cautious caused as many accidents as drunk drivers. The only difference was, they were not involved in them. Probably no solution to that problem. On the other hand, overly aggressive drivers are just as bad.
A good driver needs to tread that fine line between aggressive and passive. A large majority of drivers are very good at it.
a 1950's study on automobile traffic??? Anything in the past 70 years
" I-15 South of I-10 drops two right lanes in a few miles stretch. 6 lanes are dropped to 4." I read that with the SNL Californians accent.
@@Slarti
😊
@@Iconoclasher so you have seen the sketches? As an Englishman I find them hilarious.
its because people who don't know how to drive somehow end up getting driver license
Some don't know how to, but some just don't care.
David Garcia And drugs.
It's actually men who do the stupidest, most dangerous things while on the road. They also like to behave like they own it
Limi V Hmmm. Here we go...
I think having too many traffic lights contributes to the traffic problems. There are many intersections near to where I live that ALWAYS seem to be congested, but the very few times when traffic lights don't work, the traffic flows smoothly and there is no congestion at all. In my opinion, probably around half of all the traffic lights could be removed without any negative consequences to safety, while simultaneously increasing the flow of traffic by a lot. Just my observation.
I like roundabouts for traffic control but most in the USA don't understand them
That's a really good point. A semi-major intersection had the lights out and everyone was moving easily, similar to a four-way stop. I think the amount of backup was bigger than it is normally at that time.
Interesting you say that. This is something that you can find out. Look up how to do a Warrant Analysis in the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices (MUTCD).
Traffic lights are great if they are times correctly. Usually they aren't though and we get stuck at each and every one.
@@GuyFromJupiter depends on the goal. If your goal is to slow speeding vehicles down, "badly" times traffic lights do a great job of this.
CGP Grey answered this more than a year and a half ago. Take selfish soft meat-bags out of the equation. Nothing but coordinated self-driving cars on the roads.
Or hear me out.
#BanCars
More public transpo.
Magical moment of my life was a lady straddling lanes to prevent others from driving to the end of the lane (to zipper merge) getting pulled over.
You callin' me a soft meat bag?
Ya, that's accurate.
Leaving more space between cars is 100% not the answer, because then some ass decides to get right in between you and the other car and instead of tapping your breaks you're practically slamming them
Yup. Happens to me all the time.
People are stupid and don't know how to drive.
Driving is a Privilege, and Re-testing should be Required. Like actual testing. It is a Moving Object that Kills more than Semi-Automatic Rifles Times Over per year. And yet people are numb to it. you know... Experience on the road... even though they Suck at driving.
Phish N' Chimps most deaths by cars are accidents lol thank God less people die from ar's then cars otherwise everyone would be a murderer
oh.. Accidents. you means an Oops! Driving too fast, driving inebriated, Or just being a Stupid person.
Phish N' Chimps no I mean theirs a large lack of people who go into their car and decide "let's go destroy stuff", while that's basically all you can do with a gun...
Except for you, right?
I don't think you even watched the video, ya arrogant bumpkin
If you wait enough you'll see a "Traffic Hank" soon!
Loll, that's what the Legion of Hanks need xD
thinking about making an account/profile pic just for this comment rofl.
Your zipper theory only works if there is actually a "you go, I go, you go, i go" behaviour. But most times you let one person in and everyone tries to pile in at once and then we all just sit there.
That’s why you need to enforce it with fines like Poland did. In my country it’s a free for all and usually results in a ton of road rage and a crash because no one in the other lane gets let in, then when they finally sneak through the next car in the first lane SLAMS down the breaks and stops half an inch from the car merging in, stopping every car for the next 3 miles.
I'm still waiting on my self driving car. I have a feeling computers can do better.
You could say that self-driving cars are waiting for you. The only thing keeping full autopilot off the streets now is legislation. Write a letter to your local reps, the mayor, city council, senators, Governor, everyone who might be able to Tweet something practical to lawmakers.
Computers can absolutely do better, and I hope autonomous vehicles will become normalized in my lifetime.
One solution for traffic: Rent/Own a dragon.
...or a bulldozer
"Why Is It So Hard to Fix Traffic?"??
a)The Human Factor
It's pretty simple, Stagger starting times for work based on zones. Having a 9-5 schedule for everyone is the primary reason why traffic occurs especially as the population grows and accessibility to cars is becoming easier.
A B You would just be eliminating symptoms. The real problem is that people don't live near their workplace anymore or have to rely on their car to get there.
A B You want the government to dictate what times businesses can operate?
But how to get get work done if you need to talk to someone that’s not a work yet?
everyone that works at the same place will have the same schedule.
namenszwang ist behindert And you want the government to dictate where people can live? That's how we get China and the Soviet Union
I just avoid packs when I'm driving and try to have the least amount of cars around me.
Also, the Mythbuster found out that roundabouts can improve the flow of traffic as much as 20%.
Only in the US, because here in the US we are all idiots that only care for ourselves. In the UK and many other countries there ARE roundabouts, and they help.
Roundabouts in the US are pointless. No one knows how to use them
toasties burned I know how to use them
@@danieldaniels7571 goodn I wish there were more of us 😁
Some people tend to block lets say left lane if there is narrow bit at the end, in my country we call them "sherifs" because the think they are responaible for the road and if they are staying on one lane the rest shall not overtake them because the block them. Thats another thing that has to be put into stop.
Fund and improve public transportation! Today on my way home from work I saw a traffic jam while the bus I was on had no problem passing all the cars because of the bus lane.
This makes sense but you will get cut off exactly when you leave more than less than one car length in front of you
If you have enough space in front of you, then you won't be "cut off" (forced to brake/swerve to avoid hitting a merging car), the other driver simply merges in and you coast for a bit to regain your gap.
it's interesting how all of the best solutions involve us treating each-other as equals. I wonder why that might be? (cough cough, Alfie Kohn, cough cough)
I'm really hoping automated cars become viable and affordable soon. It would help with this, and things like providing transport for those in society who can no longer safely drive.
I don't know why the U.S. doesn't put more money into effective public transportation. Trains don't get into traffic jams, in case any one was wondering.
We have had automated vehicles (forklifts) at my job for several years now, and let me tell you... they stop functioning and need assistance FREQUENTLY. And this is in a small area with a small number of vehicles. Autonomous vehicles will be great in, like, 50 years when the technology is perfected. Until then, it's going to be a mess. When the human in front of you is a horrible driver, at least you can just honk your horn to get them to pay attention, you don't have to stop everything and call tech support. We are a LONG way from autonomous vehicles being any kind of traffic fix.
For a city like mine, it just plain doesn't work - way too spread out. We have buses, but you wind up waiting for hours. (Jacksonville, FL, 874 square miles)
Yeah buddy, that's why I said trains. Particularly magnetic ones, which are super fast and efficient for upkeep.
Automated cars are 1000x costlier and 10x less effective than simple good public transit. We had it all figured out until the automobile lobby undid that progress to sell more cars.
Clicked so fast because traffic sucks
These best practice tips need to be on the driver license test and we need people to retake this test every time they renew their license. A lot of traffic can be avoided if everyone has a better knowledge of what to do and not do.. like go 5 under in the left most passing lane.
it's usually 1 or 2 peeps, you can only go as fast as the slowest grandma. Also, all it takes is 1 guy cutting off traffic causing traffic waves.
HOV lanes is the way to go especially for buses which make commuting by mass transit more desirable.
Again more mass transit -- less cars !!!!!
Self-driving cars.
In a giant hive mind.
self driving cars with a shared network/hivemind that sport electric motors (high torque and quick acceleration to the speed limit) would solve a LOT, if not most of all traffic issue
It’s frustrating when people tailgate you on an incline with a manual :/
Midnightblew23 sadly no one in the US seems to understand manuals anymore.
I seem to be the only one that gives more space on inclines Incase someone is in a manual.
I'm in the US and drive a manual, one because it was cheaper to buy new.
Second, it's effectively a free security system (some car insurance companies give you a discount as so few people know how to drive stick anymore).
Though the fuel economy aspect of manual is almost gone, as automatic transmissions are getting very good at shifting at more optimal times.
Automatics dont give you control like a stick....manuals are safer, autos are fragile,sluggish and expensive to replace. Manuals cant be "hacked"
When driving a manual on level road just go to top gear once you hit the speed limit even if its 20 mph....Thats why autos get better now, it can be programmed to shift that way when before it was all mechanical.
So the answer would be to spread out rush-hour by having a range of start & end times to the day, rather than the traditional 9-5. If some people had the opportunity to work 7-3, 8-4, 10-6 and 11-7, and this was done fairly evenly, there'd be reduction of rush hour traffic of up to 80%. I know there are many jobs which aren't specifically 9-5, but spreading out the office hours could work.
I agree. I had one shift that started at 7 AM & ended at 3-30 PM. So much better, especially for a morning person like me. No traffic whatsoever at 7 AM. Of course, that was in Idaho. In California, 8 lanes were always full of cars, even at 3 AM.
That's how I handled traffic for years. My work time was flexible, I just needed to get done what I was expected to. I just kept starting earlier and earlier until I liked the amount of traffic I was dealing with. Ended up working 6am to 3pm.
Then 2 more people in the office liked the idea and did the same...we created our own early crew.
Combat King 0 Or Or! How about we cut the ridiculous 40 hrs a week and also help work-life balance? I think Sweden people work 3 days a week.
I was thinking about avoiding everyone getting on the road at the same time. I haven’t looked at the numbers of cars or into the changes in behavior, if any, but I suspect that “rush ‘hour’” traffic here in Houston has now become several hours every day(3-7p compared to 5-6)
So basically, nobody really knows how to drive.
Well a better way to say it is that humans are incapable of driving in a way to prevent traffic.
Them timid-folk from 8:03 need to get out of the left lane!! It's for passing, not a picnic!! And know who is supposed to yield when merging! And learn how to turn left at an intersection! And use turn signals when changing lanes, merging, or turning!! And if you *must* be on your phone (I can *SEE* you in the mirror!), get outta the left lane!! (So many annoying things).
Rawr!
Great video, in any case :-)
Zipper merging is where I kinda laugh abit. I mean we had been doining that on the Danish highways in really long time now, and it isnt hard, IF anyone knows how to do it
Daniel Jensen I’ve tried explaining the concept. Many simply don’t understand it in the US
N O M O R E M O N K E Y S D R I V I N G
Just put roundabouts everywhere!
Or just design cities with better infrastructure and public transport!
But Voltaic Fire, they're extremely efficient if you know and follow the rules!
That's the problem, the rules are too complicated for most drivers. Which in my opinion they shouldn't have a license in the first place.
TheSirGoreaxe well then they are the problem
I love roundabouts. They are not complicated, way more efficient then a traffic lights when it comes to how many cars can travel through and once build do not require electricity to run. I love them.
Lillyko The real reason roundabouts work is because they require traffic to slow down. Traffic on highways would also be less congested if there were slower speeds.
I've always called the traffic wave the "inchworm". Especially if there's several consecutive waves.
this video should be played everyday in school in CA...
*every day (meaning "daily")
everyday = adjective meaning typical/ordinary/average
Sitting farther back doesn’t work on the highway because people will continuously cut in front of you forcing you to brake eventually. I’ve seen it countless times. If there is more then a car length or two of space a bunch of people are gonna cut you off
Yep, I used to deliberately leave plenty of space, and people did this.
I guess the trick is to leave just over a car-length, but not enough space for someone to cut in.
Andy Brice Yeah, that's my rule of thumb, except when it comes to highway on-ramps. Then I'll gradually allow for enough space for exactly one other car to zipper-merge from the right into my lane, as any civilized person should do.
Just one or two car lengths? That's tailgating. You should leave two to three seconds of space between you and the car in front of you. Two car lengths is _not_ "plenty of space."
Do you know how to measure seconds? First, you pick a point. On the road or a sign etc. When the rear bumper of the car ahead passes that point, count until your front bumper passes it. There should be a two to three second count to be safe. On the highway that can be more than a hundred feet.
If you leave that much space, and somebody gets in front of you, there's no need to even put on your brakes. You just let off the gas until the space in front is back to a two to three second count.
Koby Dunham the problem is that people will continuously cut in front of you so now you are going 65 mph constantly trying to maintain a safe distance in the left lane when everyone else is going 85
Oliver B use common sense. You go the same speed as the person in front of you, just don't ride their ass. Leaving space for cars to go in front of you doesn't mean going slow.
Watching this makes me realize how "reactive" I drive. Slowing down and leaving a gap ahead of me so I can start up again as soon as the light changes, trying to leave a gap between me and other cars (which apparently to bad drivers is an opening to cut me off), considering conditions and flow of traffic instead of "speed limits" as a the thing determining my speed, taking similar or long alternate routes during rush hour to avoid congestion and actually move quicker....
No wonder I'm angry all the time. I'm driving more strategically than people.
There is too much traffic on fortnite servers
Probably
quicheanaerobe Less drivers, less traffic
At the entrance to the Lincoln Tunnel in NYC, there are signs telling drivers to use zipper merge. It seems to work.
Zipper merge doesn't work in places where there are no such signs, because drivers don't think to use it.
I moved from NJ to CA a few years back. While east coasters don't zipper often I find that CA drivers understand and automatically zipper most of the time. It's very odd.
0:18 Oh, that’s the worst! When there’s so many people in front of you that you you block part of the intersection when you move forward and this can’t go on a green light. 😩
A.I. will solve this
Pipe2DevNull
I mean, that's a perfectly valid solution.
No. No it won't. We have already seen the results of this.
not quite.. we have see the results of early car AI (and with humans still on the road at that) it is much harder for a AI to try to figure out what a human in front of it will do especially if that human is angry or tired or even just doesn't see a stop sign VS a fellow AI it can tell HEY IM COMING FROM THE LEFT WERE YOU CANT SEE ME in .3 seconds besides AI only need be better then humans... which means they already are they don't drink they don't get sleepy they never need to take a restroom break..lol
Chibi Blaziken “early AI”
you could have phrased this comment in a little less foreboding way, buddy.
Solution is simple: Self driving Cars.
Self driving cars will only pay dividends when all the cars are self driving cars. That will take at least 20 years. Old cars have to die off and roads have to be modified, and that can only be done gradually until there are little to no non-self driving cars remaining.
Miami here. Why must you mock me like this .
Ros the only thing worse than morning traffic in Miami, is evening rush hour on the way home in Miami.
Guyona Buffalo takes me over an hour to do 14 miles.
I-95 traffic is ridiculous
This video confirms what I have always suspected. Most people think like rocks in a bag when they drive.
The answer to traffic problems is more and better public transportation.
Good luck with that in the vast US. Only would work for the few dense cities we have. Elsewhere it's too spread out for that to work well and effectively.
5:12 - 6:35 Hm, very similar to CGP Grey's "The Simple Solution to Traffic" (especially from 6:16).
(Although, there aren't that many semantically-different ways to explain the "traffic wave".)
Don't sit in the left (passing) lane!
The drivers you think are doing that probably are not doing so intentionally. Quite simply the "passing lane" law is completely flawed. This is especially the case during rush hour. Please read my example in response to Brian Sierzega's comment.
Its cause of crappy unoptimized Drivers
Sorry to be philosophical for a moment~ but, I'm going to be just that, as there are far more considerate conclusions than say, a general decline in IQ. Perhaps it is the lack of patience, or people's lack of a proper definition for patience. First and foremost in my mind patience is not how long that you are willing to wait, but rather think and analyze before deciding on something, both look the same~ but the latter requires more seemingly worthless effort however it surely isn't. Next in my mind, if it does boil down to waiting, analyze the turmoil- and find in your mind adequate justification without bending the plausible truth unto yourself, this I find helpful because there is no way to say things will go your, or my way~ so it grants crucial positivity amid turmoil. Lastly, though the second is a spin of the first patience is fundamentally the only way to become fully considerate, and to learn, and to make sense of all that is around you~ it likely will always be more complicated than your first impression so take second and third impressions lest you really think one chance defines having good patience. I expect constructive rebukes~ I'm sure I messed up somewhere. This is the internet after all, the opinion, knowledge, and fact stack exchange. Or points left out, this is the subject of patience, and I'm not concluded. I didn't even really define it here I guess.
me: *leaves space with the car in front of me to be safer*
Everyone else: It's free real estate
They didn’t say traffic jam, man.
I love jam ;.;
You just got jammed
I don't wanna know what traffic jelly is.
It's your jam?
It's a Ram Jam because jokes are life
In Belgium commuting on a motorcycle is incentivised monetarily by being able to deduct them from your taxes. Research indicates that 5% more motorcycle commuters (you can filter here, with rules of course) would reduce overall traffic jams by around 40 to 60%. I like that, it does not require you to take public transport which is never ideal unless you work and live in a big city, here many people prefer the rural areas, where it is impractical to not have a personal vehicle. Now all we need is permission to use the bus lanes.
What about when it rains?
You haven’t been to any motorcycle asian countries then.
You can take a look on Taiwan's traffic videos if they are on UA-cam. Air quality goes down when over 50,000 motorcycle are used daily. Don't look into accident rates though since there are Taiwanese who think drinking beer at 6 am before driving is perfectly fine for them.
@wolfiethebumpireslyr: You can get roof-canopy add-on for many bigger scooters. It's not only great in rain, but in winter as well.
@Gitami: Air quality would be way lower if those people would have been driving a car. It doesn't take a genius to figure out that 125ccm motorcycle weighting about 120kg produces less pollution than 1200ccm car that weights almost a ton.
People.
Otherwise known as the Soylent Green theory of traffic dynamics.
Which is why we need to take humans out of the equation.
*smh*
Dude, you probably have never driven in San Francisco if you believe traffic’s become better here :)
Unbelievable but my community college zipper merges when classes get out and it's awesome
Where's my Cities Skylines fam at!!? We know the struggle!!
I just genocide the city when it becomes too much for even the trains to handle xp
@@3bydacreekside i can't play that game, the traffic is so unrealistic it's painful. real people actually learn best routes, people in that game take shortest route no matter what!
What I've learned here:
Traffic is traffic because people are stupid.
If youre on a road with only 1 lane and traffic is stopped, leave a lot of distance between you and the car infront of you and slowly slowly creep forward, your goal is to just not stop and to get to the back of the next guy as hes about to start moving again, this tactic reduces traffic density via the empty space infront of you aswell as reducing wait times due to the lack of the need of reaction time to remove foot from brake
But that's also like opening the value of a faucet at only 20%. Space isn't always the solution like this video suggests so often.
Finally someone who is smart thank you sir we need to tell people because mass genocide is not the answer to fix traffic
@@codeman99-dev but it fixes the accordion effect.. speeding up and slowing down to a stop speeding up and slowing down to stop a million times in a row instead of eliminating the stop completely and in theory you can slowly speak up again
It also stops the waste of racing to the lights and then converting the energy to useless heat in the brakes, as well as reducing the force needed to overcome friction from a standing start. Your wallet and the planet will thank you.
"Don't happen because of poorly designed roads." State of Massachusetts disagrees.
Eliminate speed limits, and impose heavy fines on people who clog up the left lane by driving too slow.
How to reduce traffic: add a bus lane.
And bike lanes ;)
The ultimate solution would be self driving cars
Not at all. That will only put more cars on the road and will do very little to reduce congestion.
I really loved the editing on this one. Great work, Sarah Meismer!
Summary: selfish assholes cause ALL traffic problems.
Get rid of roads and make them moving sidewalks. Btw this wasn’t my idea this was jaiden animations idea.
Public transportation in the U.S is horrible. There's always a drunk, crack head, or crazy person on the bus or train
thats it!? I wish i lived where you are. our busses are crack-dens, because your allowed to smoke anything that isn't tobacco. weed is legal. I got no problem with that. The problem is you can walk around with a crack pipe and just say you use it for single hits of weed. I used to do that before i discovered Chillums. But yea people are smoking heroin, coke, crack, meth right their on the busses, so the dealers moved to the bus stops. And its pathetic you can sometimes see the ones who are jonesin shaking and sweating near the doors until they hit a bus stop that has whatever they use. the bus drivers get bribed to say nothin but they make so little i cant blame em.
Primarch Ferrus Manus that's terrible to hear...
And their probably defecating on something or someone
Don't think it's any different elsewhere. Public transport is ALWAYS used by the lowest members of the society, i.e. drunks, crack heads, and crazies. Also, the number and effect of these people and idiots grows exponentially even if the population only grows arithmetically.
I'd rather encounter a drunk, crack head, or crazy person when they're on a bus than when they're controlling a two-ton ballistic missile on wheels.
we should send this to BMW to show their customers
"Why is it so hard to fix traffic?" because no politician wants to put the effort into reliable transportation that would easily crush the need for traffic, next
I’m lucky that where we live the traffic is good since you don’t need to drive much due to the walkable design, and due to efficient road layouts. During peak time traffic, the worst roads in my town can jam a bit but I’ve never ever experienced more than 3 cycles, and you almost always get through on the first green, occasionally the second one, but the only times you end up coming through on the third green light is if some terrible driver failed to start, crossed a lane wrong, or if someone was texting or something. You rarely hear horns around here unless someone is actually a terrible driver and crosses lanes illegally or maybe someone’s texting. Of course, if there’s a crash you will get much worse jams but I’ve never had a terrible jam where you’re stuck for 30 minutes or more.
Although, this is just in my town, if you’re on the M25 you’re gonna be jammed up for hours.
Only solution: make obtaining a license a privilege exclusively reserved for the highly intelligent. The driving test needs to include the Multidimensional Aptitude Battery and some physics and chemistry problems.
This also should apply to owning a weapon and reproducing.
I really love it when someone slams on the gas to pass me only for me to slowly pass them later without even trying just because of lane traffic. Happens nearly every day
AndroidDoctorr if you multiply your stupidity by other drivers that are stupid as you then that’s why you can catch up to the person who speeds pass you because they have to slow down because of another version of your slow ass driving impedes them from driving the correct way
That's a sign of a bad driver. If I pass you, you're not going to see me again. If your lane is speeding up, I will have noticed it and moved back into that lane before you get there. If you're gonna lane switch, at least do a good job of it, lol.
That's what they all think until I pass them
G-Boi This
It's only a matter of time now. Traffic _will_ improve.
Autonomous cars will become a thing, soon.
Once the robots are driving and the stupid humans become passengers traffic _will_ improve.
Really? Will it? Have you ever seen computers from competing manufacturers working perfectly together?
When the car was first introduced, did people think it would remove traffic problems because can move so *much* faster?
I'm concerned about letting cars drive independently, because for many websites the "I'm not a robot" test involves correctly identifying STOP-signs in pictures.
SLOWER TRAFFIC KEEP RIGHT! Real simple...
I can solve all the traffic problems. Cause backups are inevitable. But it's all about the basics. Use your blinkers. Use your PROPER turn lane. Drive either speed limit, five over in town/ 10 on highway or I state. Common curtousy... common sense... plan your route, trip, even if it's one you do everyday. Dont be a p.o.s.... or do and let's inact communal reconnecting and stewardship aaaand readjust a few individuals.... :-)
Auto will solve all the traffic problem, AI is still not perfect but they are already better than human and that's good enough for me
AIs are definitely better at coordinating than humans
The solution? Same as nearly every other major modern problem. 1 child per couple until population reaches a sustainable level. At 3 billion humans instead of 7.5 billion, current technology & logistics is entirely functional. Everything else is just dancing around this one real issue.
bali song
that’s immoral
@@visethreachsothy6952 But IS IT IMMORAL? Or is growth - both economic and population - what is actually immoral?
In 100 years our ancestors will all call what we are doing now immoral... Not just some of us... like some of us do now.
The Earth isnt infinite like the Bible tried to tell us. And that logic informed us culturally, and so we keep going.
Until society collapses bc the planet can't carry us.
It's called Intergenerational equity based on the Precautionary Principal... thinking that has been around for decades and decades.
I do get what you mean... but there is a bigger, lo get term piece of thinking that 100% justifies the ideas that feel repugnant initially.