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0 pointsmarcosdumay10y ago0 comments

People that are too defensive on transit tend to cause congestion, not avoid it. Of course, that's dependent of the streets being full of people a bit more violent, but until we have all cars driving themselves, that condition will be true, what may take decades.

Also, if the car is self-driving, people will be want to make more trips. For example, if we send their cars back home once they got to work, we'll save on parking, but get more congestion. I'd love to automatically send my car to a mechanic when needed, what's also more congestion... I'm sure people will find lots of good reasons for sending their cars around.

Anyway, what will probably reduce congestion is a smart bus system. Imagine a small bus that takes you door to door, and takes only slightly more time to get there than your own car, but is way cheaper. I've seen that on the news just recently, I think it's Japan trying it.

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collyw10y ago· 1 in thread

>People that are too defensive on transit tend to cause congestion, not avoid it.

Have you any proof of that? I would guess that both "agressive" and "defensive" drivers cause problems in different ways.

For example when I am waiting at a pedestrian crossing to cross, if a driver comes up fast and brakes hard close to the stop I won't start walking until I am sure he is stopping. If another driver slows down well in advance it indicates to me that he is inteding to stop, I'll start crossing earlier, and consequently he will start again earlier. I have also read articels about traffic waves being caused by people basically driving faster than the car in front then needing to slow/stop when they catch up with the one in front.

Idiots not moving from the middle lane must cause a lot of congestion in busy motorways, as they are effectively reducing 3 lanes to 2 for others around them who want to use the road properly (though I wouldn't class them as either defensive or agressive).

wtallis10y ago

I like to characterize is as unpredictability being the real harm. If you don't behave as expected, everyone around you will have to react at short notice, and that disturbs the flow. And those disturbances cascade, because laminar traffic flow is highly unstable.

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