"Brent P" > wrote in message
. ..
> In article ews.net>,
Mike T. wrote:
> > was even out of the planning stage. Adding one or two lanes does
NOTHING to
> > a road that is seriously congested, unless it was only one lane each way
to
> > begin with.
>
>
> I've argued the same thing here many times. I am consistantly told I am
> wrong. The problem is that on a road that has so many users on it is that
> there is always another lane blocking sloth to screw up the additional
> lane(s). So many that they can easily establish blocking. The lane
> growth has to out pace the traffic by a very significant margin.
>
> This is why driver behavior is so important to capacity. I came to this
> conclusion when I experienced traffic that would have crippled a flat
> straight chicago 4 lane arterial with such frequent traffic lights flow
> smoothly on a 4 lane road in Germany laid out along a winding path
> probably laid out in 16whatever.
>
>
Driver behavior isn't always acceleration. Driver behavior isn't always high
speed. Driver behavior IS, however, at least using a large enough following
distance so that others can merge or change lanes.

In fact, just focusing on Norwalk, that traffic jams up frequently on the
I-5, because of two major factors:

1) Drivers trying to merge onto the freeway, being blocked out by thru
traffic that won't create sufficient gaps. As the right lane force-ends,
thru traffic and merging traffic jam with merging traffic trying to force
its way into narrow gaps while thru traffic still refuses to open up larger
gaps. This jams the right lane.

2) Drivers trying to merge into the right lane from the left lanes, to
access the I-605 junction, while again, thru traffic refuses to open up
suitable gaps to allow these lane changes. As lane changing traffic starts
to slow as they approach the junction so they can try to force the lane
change, this also slows at least the middle lane.

The partial solution, of course, is to engineer every merge as a protected
merge/exit only lane, so that merging traffic can at least go from onramp to
onramp if thru traffic won't let them in.

The other solution, regulating following distances so that traffic can lane
change, is something the drivers must (unfortunately) do on their own, until
close proximity forced throttle cutoff/forced engine braking is incorporated
into newer vehicles as an sensor/ECU function.

And yes, there are occasions where--even though certain group members may
disagree--it is completely necessary to let someone into a lane. When that
breaks down, using technology to govern that behavior does become a viable
secondary solution.