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Originally posted by russotto
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.
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I disagree. First off, many Philadelphians are going to be up Shits Creek when red light cameras start popping up. This city sorely needs them. Too many morons jumping the gun--I have never seen this type of phenomena anywhere else. Now, regarding this pattern...there can be two (or more) arguments here--first, you should go with the flow of traffic. If everyone seems to be doing 75 on the Schuylkill, then you better do it too. But then the other argument (although these two may not be related)--slow and steady always wins in the end. I have found that even thinking about driving the speed limit on the westbound Schuylkill in the afternoon is pointless. Yet, if I gently ease on my accelerator, stay in the far left or second left lane, and relax, I tend to get over to the Boulevard from 676 faster than folks that attempt to pass me earlier on. Am I holding up traffic? Absolutely not...I'm just following basic traffic and driving rules. Plus, it doesn't hurt that I drove on one of the busiest highways in the US every day for almost 6 months (The Capital Beltway between I-270 and I-95 in suburban DC). ;-)
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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.
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I can agree with this. But I think this can be regulated in three ways--1) Morons on the road should give thought as to when they're getting off the highway. For example, if you get on 76 at 30th St and you're driving out to Devon, then you know damned good and well that you've got a ways to go and can stay in the left two lanes. 2) Use on-ramp signals, as some cities already have. 3) Courtesy--let people over to get onto the highway. It's a hell of a lot easier than squeezing people off until the last minute.
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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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I don't doubt this. One of the worst stoplights IMO is at the Boulevard and Grant Ave. The timing just sucks...and too many people try to run through a red light to turn onto the Boulevard from either direction on Grant.
On a side note, I'm wondering what the hell is going on--they've lowered the speed limit on several streets here in the Northeast, particularly Academy Road north of Grant Ave. and Frankford Ave. between Linden Ave. and the City Line (both went from 35 to 30). I could understand Frankford--it has houses on the street, Torresdale Playground, and Holy Family College. Academy Road is relatively barren between Red Lion Rd. and Grant Ave., other than the Farm and the NE Airport. NO ONE seems to do the speed limit anyway--I'd say the average speed is around 50.