At 9:46 AM -0700 4/20/01, Stuart MacMillan wrote: [...snip...] > >One "guru" stated that the highest efficiency of a highway in terms of >maximum vehicles moved in a given time is achieved at 30 MPH! > >Apparently this efficiency is due to the reduced spacing at this speed >as opposed to higher speeds. It just so happens that maximum fuel >efficiency is also around 35 MPH, so I jumped to the logical conclusion >that we could solve two problems at once with a national 30 MPH speed >limit! ;-) The flaw in these insights in traffic flow is that the description above is only valid for steady flow and doesn't account for flow disturbances such as entering traffic or lane changing by vehicles desiring to exit. Reduced headways, even at lower speed makes lane changing more difficult (as most of us who do battle...err... commuting on crowded freeways already know).
_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/ You can't depend on your judgement when your imagination is out of focus. -- Mark Twain. _/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/ OLTECO Ari Ollikainen P.O. BOX 20088 Networking Architecture and Technology Stanford, CA Ari@OLTECO.com 94309-0088 415.517.3519 |
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