Can somebody please do the math for me?
Okay, this one has been simmering under the surface since I moved here and I've been keeping it to myself so I don't sound retarded. I don't care anymore.
Can somebody please solve the following puzzle for me?
When you are driving on the 101 Eastbound during rush hour there is a section of the freeway between Fallbrook and De Soto that usually moves at a pretty good clip. Then suddenly, there is an extra lane (yep, an extra lane, one more whole lane for people to choose from and drive fast on) and the traffic grinds to a halt.
How is that freaking possible? There is no on ramp just before the new lane appears. It pains me every day. It hurts all of my sensibilities. Is there something about the physics of freeway traffic that I don't know about that can explain this phenomenon?
Can somebody please solve the following puzzle for me?
When you are driving on the 101 Eastbound during rush hour there is a section of the freeway between Fallbrook and De Soto that usually moves at a pretty good clip. Then suddenly, there is an extra lane (yep, an extra lane, one more whole lane for people to choose from and drive fast on) and the traffic grinds to a halt.
How is that freaking possible? There is no on ramp just before the new lane appears. It pains me every day. It hurts all of my sensibilities. Is there something about the physics of freeway traffic that I don't know about that can explain this phenomenon?
4 Comments:
Because further on it goes reduces back down by 1 lane and the freaks in LA (or here in Seattle for that matter) are unable to plan ahead for this so they are suddenly slamming on breaks and causing the back up?
I always wondered why there would be random slow spots with no reason. I could see it if there were an accident or a freeway joining another freeway... but those spots that just suddenly slow and like 5 min later are fast again. WTF??
Sorry I can't help you with that one. Maybe you have an answer for this one: Why do people who were going 80 on the upside of the hill suddenly lose their nerve and slow down to 60 on the downside of the hill?
The physics of freeway traffic are notoriously counter-intuitive. To begin to grasp the concept, it is requisite to have a decent understanding of chaos theory and suspend your logical capabilities altogether. (With the exception of holiday and storm traffic, which are imminently predictable.) The result is that, anywhere you think traffic will slow down, it will be find; and anywhere you think traffic should flow smoothly it will grind to an irritatingly inexplicable stop.
As for those hill drivers, that is explained by the following truism:
People, as a whole, are morons.
I'm so there with you. Happens here, too, and always makes me wonder: WTF?
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