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Old 06-13-2001, 03:21 PM   #5
russotto
Professor
 
Join Date: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,788
Eliminated right-on-red in center city won't do much; people will continue to turn right (and go straight!) on red anyway. As for this guy's experiment... who knows how many traffic jams he caused BEHIND him? He may merely have caused the wave to jump miles back. His technique will only work when there's enough lower-than-capacity traffic behind him to absorb the additional load he's going to put on it by opening a gap.

The waves on I-76 seem to be caused mostly by the entrances -- the Blue Route in particular causes a big one. These aren't the same as the waves in the article, which remain without apparent cause. In any case you can't maintain a steady speed when traffic comes to a dead stop.

Speed limits are there so the cops can give you tickets for violating them. Red lights are there to regulate traffic, but they are often mistimed (Chestnut Street in West Philadelphia has been mistimed for months, the Kelly Drive lights near Falls Bridge have been mistimed for weeks) or even maliciously timed -- I've run into traffic lights timed for 10mph OVER the limit. And there's some traffic lights which won't give you a green under some circumstances.
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