I have figured out the source of traffic jams!!

[Mahaguru]

And that source is... "Exit only" lanes and merging lanes.

Its true. I see it everyday. Lets say a 4 lane freeway. Lots of cars, traffic is slow, but still moving. The traffic jams start happening a mile before one of the lanes becomes an "Exit Only". Some people have to merge into the next lane, and some people don't realize it before its really late and slow down to change lanes.

Same deal with merging lanes.

I R Genius

 

[Capt Caveman]

 

[OdiN]

The cause is people who don't know what they are doing or where they are going and are in the wrong lane and don't know it.

 

[txrandom]

So should we get rid of exit lanes?

 

[OdiN]

Originally posted by: txrandom
So should we get rid of exit lanes?

BRILLIANT!

 

[Sinsear]

Idiots who hit their brakes for no reason?

 

[bonkers325]

the problem isnt just exit lanes, its the fact that lanes will disappear and reappear that cause traffic jams

 

[Ricemarine]

My opinion of sources...

1. Police officers pulling over people on the shoulder.
2. Accidents.
3. Very very very paranoid drivers.
4. Merging crazy nuts or exiting crazy nuts.

 

[Drakkon]

Originally posted by: Ricemarine
My opinion of sources...

1. Police officers pulling over people on the shoulder.
2. Accidents.
3. Very very very paranoid drivers.
4. Merging crazy nuts or exiting crazy nuts.

5. People looking at all of the above or off somewhere entirely different than in front of them

 

[pyonir]

You are the smartest man alive.

 

[Evadman]

I have forwarded your post to IDOT.

 

[Pepsi90919]

usually it's slow idiots in the left lane

and as a result, the fact that we are only responsive to the motion of the car in front of us, like a chain reaction. if every vehicle were to accelerate from a stop at the exact same time, everything would be great

 

[Eli]

Pretty much..

It's not exit only lanes, though, it's mostly onramps....

And curves.

And the position of the sun.

And the day of the week.

And the position of Lindsay Lohan's twat in degrees latitude.

heh

 

[KLin]

I say rubber neckers are a large contribution to traffic jams if there's an accident.

 

[pyonir]

Originally posted by: Eli
And the position of Lindsay Lohan's twat in degrees latitude.

:shocked:

 

[Accipiter22]

burn in hell

 

[clickynext]

I know how we can fix this. When there is an onramp to the freeway, the traffic doesn't merge, a new lane is simply added to the existing lanes! And for an offramp, we don't have exit only lanes, the cars simply turn off the outside lane!

 

[LordMorpheus]

Originally posted by: OdiN
The cause is people who don't know what they are doing or where they are going and are in the wrong lane and don't know it.

No, the problem is that everyone knows it's an exit-only lane so it's mostly empty, then the assholes see this, go flying down the empty lane and suddenly merge in over the solid white at the end, fvcking it up for everyone else on the damn highway.

Hell, there is even one place in houston (I-10 west of the city, the eastbound direction just before it hits 610) where there is no stoplight on the feeder between an exit and the next on-ramp - people get off the highway and zoom down the feeder and cut back in at the on-ramp. The ridiculous thing is that the highway will be moving about 40mph, but when the assclowns get started it drops to almost stop-and-go. Everytime I sit through this I realize that it would be irresponsible of me to own a gun - I'd wind up unloading at these clowns.

 

[Hacp]

Originally posted by: LordMorpheus

Originally posted by: OdiN
The cause is people who don't know what they are doing or where they are going and are in the wrong lane and don't know it.

No, the problem is that everyone knows it's an exit-only lane so it's mostly empty, then the assholes see this, go flying down the empty lane and suddenly merge in over the solid white at the end, fvcking it up for everyone else on the damn highway.

Hell, there is even one place in houston (I-10 west of the city, the eastbound direction just before it hits 610) where there is no stoplight on the feeder between an exit and the next on-ramp - people get off the highway and zoom down the feeder and cut back in at the on-ramp. The ridiculous thing is that the highway will be moving about 40mph, but when the assclowns get started it drops to almost stop-and-go. Everytime I sit through this I realize that it would be irresponsible of me to own a gun - I'd wind up unloading at these clowns.

Solution would be to add a traffic light in 1/10 mile intervals on that lane, up to 1/2 a mile before the exit.

 

[Whoozyerdaddy]

Well, today the problem was a dump truck crushing a mini-van.

 

[Oceandevi]

Originally posted by: LordMorpheus

Originally posted by: OdiN
The cause is people who don't know what they are doing or where they are going and are in the wrong lane and don't know it.

No, the problem is that everyone knows it's an exit-only lane so it's mostly empty, then the assholes see this, go flying down the empty lane and suddenly merge in over the solid white at the end, fvcking it up for everyone else on the damn highway.

Hell, there is even one place in houston (I-10 west of the city, the eastbound direction just before it hits 610) where there is no stoplight on the feeder between an exit and the next on-ramp - people get off the highway and zoom down the feeder and cut back in at the on-ramp. The ridiculous thing is that the highway will be moving about 40mph, but when the assclowns get started it drops to almost stop-and-go. Everytime I sit through this I realize that it would be irresponsible of me to own a gun - I'd wind up unloading at these clowns.

Yeah we have one of these also. I love it.

 

[marvdmartian]

Gee, and all this time I thought it was the simple fact that 90% of the people on the highway were morons!!

 

[Jeff7]

Try I-80 in Pennsylvania. Out of 240 miles of driving, at least 40 miles of it was construction zones, and most of the time it narrows to one lane. I guess they're repaving the entire highway, either because it's deteriorating, or else because PENNDOT is bored and not spending enough money. But they've been "working" on it since last year. ("Working" is in quotes because a few of the construction zones didn't have any work crews - just traffic getting backed up for a few miles.

 

[caivoma]

Originally posted by: LordMorpheus

Originally posted by: OdiN
The cause is people who don't know what they are doing or where they are going and are in the wrong lane and don't know it.

No, the problem is that everyone knows it's an exit-only lane so it's mostly empty, then the assholes see this, go flying down the empty lane and suddenly merge in over the solid white at the end, fvcking it up for everyone else on the damn highway.

Hell, there is even one place in houston (I-10 west of the city, the eastbound direction just before it hits 610) where there is no stoplight on the feeder between an exit and the next on-ramp - people get off the highway and zoom down the feeder and cut back in at the on-ramp. The ridiculous thing is that the highway will be moving about 40mph, but when the assclowns get started it drops to almost stop-and-go. Everytime I sit through this I realize that it would be irresponsible of me to own a gun - I'd wind up unloading at these clowns.

In chicago, it is the exit-only lane got pack up so some a-holes speed down on the next lane and try to cut into exit lane at the end. I hate those assholes.

 

[Rowboat]

Originally posted by: Mahaguru
And that source is... "Exit only" lanes and merging lanes.

Its true. I see it everyday. Lets say a 4 lane freeway. Lots of cars, traffic is slow, but still moving. The traffic jams start happening a mile before one of the lanes becomes an "Exit Only". Some people have to merge into the next lane, and some people don't realize it before its really late and slow down to change lanes.

Same deal with merging lanes.

I R Genius

I for one don't want to hit the exit ramp at 70 mph. At least around here 1/3 are way to short before they have a 90° turn.

The true cause of traffic jams

http://www.amasci.com/amateur/traffic/traffic1.html