[geeks] Stuff fo' sale

[Charles Shannon Hendrix]

Wed, 16 Aug 2006 @ 12:52 -0600, Dan Duncan said:

> Can you imagine the increase in rear-endings if everyone suddenly slowed
> at intersections?  It would propagate backwards to the previous intersection,
> etc, until suddenly everyone was slower everywhere.  That won't work.

Holtzman's spring constant seems to model traffic rather well... :)

> On a 40mph road, I feel everyone should be going 40mph at least through
> intersections.  It's FAR easier for people trying to turn if oncoming
> cars are going the speed you expect.  Merging is easier too.  I like to
> accelerate hard sometimes, but I can't necessarily hit 80 in the length
> of some merge lanes.  (I imagine this is partly from intersections built
> when the speed limits were lower?)  There there's the people who won't
> accelerate up to speed to merge or, even worse, go to the end of the merge
> lane and JUST STOP waiting for a huge gap to come along.  

Yeah... you gotta love the idiots that slow down or even stop in the
ACCELERATION LANES.  I call them "ramp turds".  Usage: today I nearly
got killed because a ramp turd kept me from merging correctly on I64.

The other issue is design stupidity: those ramps which are both
acceleration and deacceleration lanes.  Does no one in traffic
engineering and construction see the contradiction of cars both
accelerating and decelerating in the same lane?

> This is why I need smiting power.

I could never get in my car wearing palladin armor though.


-- 
shannon "AT" widomaker.com -- ["The strength of the Constitution lies
entirely in the determination of each citizen to defend it.  Only if every
single citizen feels duty bound to do his share in this defense are the
constitutional rights secure." -- Albert Einstein]