Date:         Fri, 20 Apr 2001 16:24:58 -0700
Reply-To:     Ari Ollikainen <Ari@OLTECO.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Ari Ollikainen <Ari@OLTECO.COM>
Subject:      Re: Traffic solution (Friday)
Comments: To: Stuart MacMillan <macmillan@HOME.COM>
In-Reply-To:  <3AE067D5.A8A4E1D0@home.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" ; format="flowed"

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).




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   You can't depend on your judgement when your imagination is out of focus.
                                                          -- Mark Twain.
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         OLTECO                    Ari Ollikainen
         P.O. BOX 20088            Networking Architecture and Technology
         Stanford, CA              Ari@OLTECO.com
         94309-0088                415.517.3519