When traffic backs up, and drivers volunteer to merge early into a common lane, what irks me is the one that first pulled into the common lane, then sees another driver staying in the vacated lane and driving to the front.
What one usually witnesses are several drivers pulling out of the common lane and back into the empty lane. I expect most people are thinking "Hey, I was here first! Wait your turn!"
The comparison to fluid dynamics is helpful, except that with fluid, the volume accelerates through the restriction. In our traffic examples, the rubberneck syndrome enters. Watch the cars ahead of you and notice that adjacent to the accident, most drivers take their eyes off of the road and want to have a look at what they had to wait for. Only after the obstruction, and multiple open lanes, do they accelerate.
How do we move a maximum numbers of objects past a given point? By having them move faster.
Imagine yourself above the traffic accident in a hovering chopper. You have a stop watch and count the numbers of cars going past the accident in a given time. Fairly low number. (Maybe 10-12 a minute) Now imagine yourself coming back to the same spot during normal heavy traffic that is moving. Count the same cars, in the same lane, going by the same spot. Your count might be as high as 45-60 cars.
The most efficient ways to move the maximum numbers of cars down a road is to get them up to speed and keep them moving.
That is why we often see slow downs at merge lanes. Merging traffic during heavier volume causes most drivers to hesitate, thus slowing traffic and causing backups (or as I call them pileups)
It would be nice, but I know human behavior is not going to allow it, but if drivers would just concentrate on the choke point at moving forward as best they could (accelerating even before the choke point) and getting the speed up, we could slowly begin to build the rate at which a given number of vehicles get past the choke point.
At my freeway offramp we have developed a laboratory to demonstrate rudeness. Housing development in the area has placed a strain on the exit ramp. The exit lane leads for about a 1/4 mile to a light. The left lane must turn left. The right lane must turn right. Another interesting wrinkle is the offramp winds down hill, around curves with trees on both sides. Driver can not observe what is happening at the light until they are nearly there. Most cars are turning right.
What is occurring is traffic is backing up to the interstate causing drivers to pull off in a queue past the fog line up to a 1/2 mile on the interstate. It is a usual wait of about 10 minutes before one reaches the light and the right turn.
What happens is that some of our more brilliant folks exit past the cars that have pulled to the right going down the left lane and jamming (merging) into a space near the light. The high percentage of drivers that have patiently waited become upset and tend more and more of protecting their space. Then the drivers just proceed to the light and instead of turning left like they should, turn right, right into the other cars. Yes, there is the occasional driver not aware of local conditions and find them selves at the bottom of the ramp needing to turn right, but the offenders in most cases are daily commuters and could I say recidivists (repeat offenders).
I call this a laboratory because it is a daily demonstration of rudeness and selfishness versus courtesy and consideration. I bring this example up because those of you that want to drive down an open lane past other slowed vehicles are not demonstrating courtesy, but in effect saying to others that you are more important and will use every advantage the other drivers have allowed to give you a break.
Folks, we are all in this together, trying to get someplace. When you as an individual driver take the opening and deny the others that were ahead of you, for me it is tantamount to "cutting in line"
Thank you!!!!!