Definitely has his grip on reality, this one
You must log in or # to comment.
Gee, I wonder what causes congestion in high speed lanes and roads? Too many fucking cars at the same time? Nah, it must be some communist subversion
It’s wild deer, there might not actually be any but just the idea of them makes people drive in a less efficient manner. It doesn’t help that the deer are communist.
Fun fact: The faster a car travels, the bigger the spacing between the cars gets. That’s necessary to leave enough distance for emergency stops.
While the speed increases linearly, the spacing increases with the square, meaning at double the speed, the spacing quadruples, which in turn means that throughput (number of cars per hour) halves.
This is the reason why many regions use electronic speed signs to drop the speedlimit lower when there’s congestion. Because it increases throughput and thus reduces travel times.
The optimum speed for high throughput is 30km/h.
Counterintuitive as it might be, drivers should be all for 30km/h speed limit in cities, because it would make them get to work faster.
That’s also the fastest speed before sharply increasing the likelihood of fatality in pedestrian collisions
Another related fun fact: Larger vehicles are harder to see around, so people have to leave even more distance which reduces throughput.
The problem is that often streets are not congested, and then 50km/h is much more time efficient.
Yep, and at that speed, 50km/h on an “empty” street INSIDE a city, that’s also the most “efficient” speed to avoid those pesky children bits getting stuck on your windchill were you to tackle one while checking your phone.
Apologies for the sarcasm but most drivers I encounter on a daily basis absolutely do not have the sustained concentration behind wheels to safely drive a 50km/h within actual cities.
I have seen old people driving around with oxygen tubes in their noses more times than I feel is safe.
If children are a factor (residential street, school zone, playground, etc) there’s all the reason to limit to 30, or even 20 (like the street I live where kids are playing around). Optionally time restricted.
Main avenues with clear sidewalks separated by a green strip can have 50 or even 60 km/h limits.
As an adult, relatively big (1m85) who doesn’t randomly run across a street but rather use solely clearly marked zebras I sadly have to report that I had numerous encounter with cars at a very uncomfortable distance to my body, some even touching me (not an accident proper though). I did have of course the occasional wave saying “Oops, sorry I didn’t see you or care for slowing down, moving on!”. When I say occasional it’s probably once a month or more.
To clarify this happened next to a park with very VERY good visibility, a straight line without trees, where it’s slightly higher speed than around. Namely small streets around the park are 20km/h, that avenue is 50km/h. It is actually such a problem a red light has been installed 200m further. I assume that enough cars refused to yield so that this change was made.
This makes me believe that unfortunately, even though MOST drivers are indeed able to safely drive in “Main avenues with clear sidewalks” there is still a non negligible amount from my experience as a pedestrian who absolutely can not and are a danger for everyone, kids and adults alike.
That being said, you have the right to believe that few accidents are acceptable if it allows most people to keep such a certain speed.
deleted by creator
To clarify this happened next to a park with very VERY good visibility, a straight line without trees, where it’s slightly higher speed than around.
That’s not surprising to me (as an engineer); the dangerous encounters probably happened because the street was straight and had a generous clear zone.
Strong Towns “30 days of confessions” series has a couple of good (short! – under 2 minutes each) videos explaining it:
Fascinating, thanks for sharing!
Of course it makes sense. In fact I believe I have a similar problem while cycling on a one way street for cars while cycling on the (non protected) bike lane of the opposite direction. I hate that street because very often cars do not move away… because they don’t look up. They are busy doing I don’t know what in their cars… probably because, if I understood the idea properly, they think it’s all fine, nobody “should” come from anywhere but behind them, so the “can” be “distracted”.
Also makes me think of Jevons’s paradox (or the rebound effect) but for attention or even more broadly cognition.
I’m an adult just slightly bigger and have never had an encounter like you describe, and I lived in a big city decades, using public transport and walking exclusively. If drivers in your environment are that bad, stricter limits are reasonable.
Yet I also see them and a lot more frequently since pandemic. I still claim everyone forgot how to drive safely.
For me the big problem is that it’s legal to “turn right on red”. However people for get that you’re supposed to come to a full stop and to yield to any road user. So many times I’m in the crosswalk with the walk signal lighted yet someone zooms through to take a right on red barely slowing and without concern for pedestrians
We also seem to have gotten a lot worse with “stretching a yellow”. Why is it that I can wait for a light to turn red, then wait a couple more seconds for the walk signal to come on, yet still be endangered by someone blasting through the intersection claiming “my light was yellow, bro”.
Or maybe it’s just the self-centeredness. People have so much trouble being aware that someone is travelling differently than they are. Pedestrians are invisible because “everyone drives”, cars zoom right up to and through crosswalks at a red light because “no one will be in the crosswalk”.
It’s become a running joke with my kids that you always have to look the wrong way before crossing the street. We regularly cross a one way street where we have twice had close calls with someone going the wrong way. Knowing the layout, I’m pretty sure it’s intentional. It would be difficult to do on accident and I can see the “short cut” being much more convenient
My guess North American (because of the turn right on red) and European car cultures are different. European cities are much more walkable and drivers are used to pedestrians. I rarely have a car not stop if I come up to a cross walk, and basically 100% if I’m with my kids.
And there’s where we invent roundabouts. Even when the streets are not congested the time to cross any urban area is dominated by the stops. It much more beneficial to eliminate stop signs and red lights, to keep you moving consistently than to let you speed a little more to your next stopping point
Yeah, big thumbs up for roundabouts.
deleted by creator
Why’s it a problem? I crossed them every day, cars usually drive quite slowly around them.
“Please bro one more line on the highway bro please just one more lane”
See not congested at all.
There’s quite some room in between the lanes. If they all move in a bit, I bet there’s plenty of room for an extra bike lane on either side.
this line makes me think of ai:
bro just a few more power plants, gimme a nuclear one and some coal fired, please bro, it’ll all be worth it with just a few more gigawatts. It’ll make sense then, just a few more plants broooo
It’s crazy how our 18-lane highway, with none of the stuff mentioned, is gridlocked all the time. 🤔
Maybe one more lane, bro!
It’s the stoplight’s fault! Ban stop signs, traffic lights and remove speed limits and we’ll never have gridlock again!!!
I’m unironically all for removing stop signs, traffic lights, and speed limits. If you build streets and roads properly, you don’t need those, frequently ignored, control devices.
It would remove gridlock, but not necessarily congestion.
This person urban designs.
Round about gang for life
As an often pedestrian, i often prefer lights. If it’s a busy dual carriageway roundabout It can often be hard to route pedestrians across. You end up with elaborate and winding pedestrian subways.
Roundabouts are ok on rural junctions, but round here we often have to have traffic lights on roundabouts as you start to get closer in to urban areas - and they do seem to help flow.
I just don’t believe road design alone can remove the need for coordination as population density gets above a certain level. Fuck in central London you need traffic lights just to coordinate all the buses never mind cars. Of course they need an overhead s-bahn type light rail system there though, but planning rules/landowners won’t allow it. At this point they just need less people - but again the govt/electorate/landowners won’t allow that because they’re all a bunch of tw4ts.
As Jason Slaughter (Not Just Bikes) says—and I agree—any city street with more than one car lane in each direction is an abject failure of urban planning. Multi-lane roundabouts should never exist in places where people are expected to walk.
If enough people are going the same direction at the same time that they need more than one lane for cars, then that’s the perfect route for transit.
Abject failure of urban planning, or democracy?
Oh there are many other intersections
Round abouts, peanuts, uncontrolled, yielded, modal filtered, raised, edged, sunken, and more.
There are a lot of ways to give clear cues to all road users on what to do, and how to do it, without relying on signage. Traffic lights in particular are extremely low throughput; their primary advantage is allowing vehicles to drive really fast between intersections, so they are great for roads/highways but not for streets.
Ok with that, but you also need to remove other cars from the road. Every time I’ve been stuck in traffic, it was because there were so many other cars. This has got out of control! Who are all these people and where are they all going?!?
All these bums without cars trying to cross the road made me late! Do they really need a crossing every five blocks? /S
There was a guy who took his guitar before the Portland City Council and sang a song about induced demand. If you build more lanes, more drivers will come and fill them.
OMG, I love this man! That video is 7 years old… Did they add more lanes? 🫣
The project actually still hasn’t started due to ongoing litigation and budget constraints. It did get redesigned with more bike infrastructure and pedestrian bridges to cross the freeway, but local bike and pro-transit groups still oppose the project.
One of the main arguments is that the state’s proposal is not consistent with the city’s regional plan, which says that the interstate can only be expanded if congestion pricing is also implemented to discourage additional traffic.
At this point, the state is planning to fix up some bridges while the rest of the legal fight plays out. Expansion probably won’t start until 2028 in any case… at which point this song will be an “oldie.”
You’re right. They don’t create congestion.
They ARE congestion.
This, exactly.
You’re not sitting in traffic … You are traffic .
The guy in the OP also gives off small dick energy. Just saying.
Is water wet?
Bikes are not usually allowed on the highway, yet the highway experiences congestion. How is that?
I once had the pleasure of cycling the Shimanami Kaido in Japan, a bike route that connects the islands of Honshu and Shikoku, hopping between all these minor islands on the way over suspension bridges carrying the main highway.
The bike lane is protected the whole time. In one case, the bike route is actually below the deck of the bridge, and you’re on a fenced-in catwalk hundreds of feet over the channel between the islands. Views for miles over Osaka bay.
Honestly, when I look back at my life, it’s probably my favorite thing I’ve ever done. If only the U.S. invested in bike infrastructure like that.
Current plan for the new cape cod bridges include a protected bike lane with a great view over the canal!
Too many people complain we could fit an extra lane in that space without thinking. Sure there are huge backups, but those are addressed with the new design not making cars slow down and not having entrance and exit ramps right there. Most importantly, you’re crossing to a two lane highway so there is no benefit to more than two lanes. Allowing continuous flow to the amount that the other side can handle reduces congestion. Anyone you can get on a bike is the one that will reduce congestion. And for all that is holy, let’s run the Cape Flyer often enough to be useful
That’s great to hear! I was actually living in Somerville when I did that Japan trip. The extension of the bike path and really that whole rails-to-trails project were wonderful for the community. We need more projects like that - glad to hear the cape is getting some.
What… next thing you know you’ll ask people to use reason. /s
Because of the bike lanes in the other streets of course.
If you’re stuck in traffic, you ARE the traffic.
“Hi boss, I’ll be a bit late into work. I am traffic.”
“Hi boss, I’ll be a bit late into work. I’m stuck in me.”
“Goddammit Phalange, I don’t need to know what kinky shit you’re into. Go to the hospital if it’s that bad.”
“Can’t. I’m stuck.”
Call your step-brother?
Yeah! Thanks! That’ll help. 🤣
“I’m the main character and everyone else is the NPC traffic!”
What it wrong with that guy? Did a bike fuck his wife or something?
My car doesn’t create congestion. It’s everyone else’s that’s the problem.
Like people driving during the pandemic and talking how amazing it felt to drive
It amazes me that this country literally has state borders built around rail systems, a huge dependence on rail for shipping, but decided to just pave over trolley rails, and jack prices of train transit to thousands of dollars for just a few hundred miles. Then the government forces us to pay shittons of money into our vehicles in taxes, insurance, etc without regulating the private companies that we’re forced to pay. Meanwhile other countries have super fast trains to travel, subsidized with tax money, and travel seems to be more efficient.
travel seems to be more efficient.
And they just ignore the negative health outcomes here vs countries where cars are not the norm.
That’s the American system working as designed.
Provide no public benefit for your taxes while forcing the populace to funnel money into predatory private businesses. This ensures the powerful can rob the population with impunity and without pesky competition while making the populace distrustful of public programs that might benefit them and deprive those wealthy, powerful robber-barons of their golden eggs.
Congestion is literally made out of cars. Without cars, there would be no congestion.
You know what would REALLY fix congestions?
MORE CARS!!
Just one more lane bro. Just one more.
I swear I can stop anytime I want man!!
What’s the solution after EVERY. SCHOOL. SHOOTING?
Moar guns.
This could not possibly be said any better, I think.
Communism is when bike
tell me more 💕
The people sieze the means of commuting, and install bike lanes and public transport.
I’m stuck on this rock with people like that. The worst part is they speak with such confidence and authority that their opinions will carry more weight than mine in the real world.
I despair.
yes but i will upvote you :3
To fight despair, organize. Find and join your local advocacy groups for transit, cycling, etc. Many improvements that happen are the result of fierce advocacy behind the scenes.
Or at the very least, participate in a critical mass in your city from time to time.
Their entitlement truly knows no bounds.
Oh how naive I was when I used to think that spread of the internet would mean spread of intelligence. Who knew that the dumb-and-the-loud would have an easier time than the smart folks when spreading information.
Communism is when you don’t like cars. Apparently.
I wish they’d follow that mental thread backward, and question why they have a kneejerk response to call anything that’s about caring for other people communist, and then why they think that’s a bad thing.
That’s the thing. They don’t really do the whole “thinking” thing. Their argument is based entirely around emotion, parroting words they’ve heard before which correspond with the emotion they are feeling rather than actual meaning. If you tried to engage this person in a meaningful dialogue, they would likely dodge your questions, or start engaging in ad homenim attacks, or start talking in circles.
Ah yes. Words as magic spells to be rearranged into weapons until you’ve won the argument or else exhausted your “opponent,” rather than trying to communicate thought. And only ever used offensively, to manipulate. If you actually think about what the enemy is trying to communicate rather than just skimming for keywords, then you risk having them infect your mind and changing you.
At least that’s how I imagine they would put it.
According to him, communism is when the state 💀
This must be a bot.
I’d say he’s right. In a way. Cars don’t create congestion, they are congestion.
Fine. And with this realisation let’s end the phrase “I’m stuck in traffic”. Cars aren’t stuck in traffic, they are traffic.
Every bike on the road is one less car.
Other than that this guy seriously needs to get out into the fresh air and spend sometime around people (if it is a guy, it’s overwhelmingly most likely a bot and so a genuinely harmful thing to engage with, get angry about, republish here, or do anything with other than ignore).
Social media is just getting worse, and although there is much to like about defederation, a lot of the content here is not healthy.
let’s end the phrase “I’m stuck in traffic”.
I’m contributing to traffic? I’m doing my part joining the traffic?
So many tempting options highlighting our individual responsibility to the collective problem… yet none of them actually used. Ever. I wonder why. Surely it’s because of “others”!
I like “I’m traffic.” Succinct, to the point.
