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I disagree. Let's say we are in an area with a 60km/h speed limit. Going 60 km/h you do need a wide gape between cars. But once you stop at a traffic light y

I disagree. Let's say we are in an area with a 60km/h speed limit. Going 60 km/h you do need a wide gape between cars. But once you stop at a traffic light you should leave enough of a gap to see where the types car in front of you touch the road. That way you are not too close to get around the car if it gets stuck. When the light goes green, lets say the first car accelerates slowly and only reaches 30km/h by the time they cross the traffic light. If every car behind waited until there was 1.5 car length gap, then only half the cars would get through compared to if they all accelerated at the same speed at the same time, maintaining a smaller gap until they cross the traffic light. You only need the large gap once you've accelerated up to a much higher speed.

Drew_ 7y ago
Any extra space you leave between you and the car in front of you is artificial traffic you're creating. That's space that could be used by more cars. Ideally, at a traffic stop every car would sit literally bumper-to-bumper to maximize throughput but that's obviously not reasonable. You can see clearly from the simulation that having the opportunity to move around an obstruction doesn't stop the ensuing slow down from occurring because you have to slow down and reduce the bandwidth of the road to move around the obstruction.
yason 7y ago
You only need the large gap once you've accelerated up to a much higher speed. Going from small gap while standing in lights to large gap at a higher speed cannot be reached in unison. The later cars must inevitably accelerate slower or the first cars must accelerate faster in order for the larger gaps to appear. So even if all cars did in fact start rolling at the exact same time when the light turns green the acceleration of any tailing car is bounded by some safety margin as a function of speed.
- executesorder66 7y ago
  > Going from small gap while standing in lights to large gap at a higher speed cannot be reached in unison. I agree. But my point is that people can maintain the small gap at lower speeds until they cross to the other side of the traffic lights. (So that more people can get through) then they can spread out.

Drew_ 7y ago

Any extra space you leave between you and the car in front of you is artificial traffic you're creating. That's space that could be used by more cars. Ideally, at a traffic stop every car would sit literally bumper-to-bumper to maximize throughput but that's obviously not reasonable. You can see clearly from the simulation that having the opportunity to move around an obstruction doesn't stop the ensuing slow down from occurring because you have to slow down and reduce the bandwidth of the road to move around the obstruction.

yason 7y ago

You only need the large gap once you've accelerated up to a much higher speed. Going from small gap while standing in lights to large gap at a higher speed cannot be reached in unison. The later cars must inevitably accelerate slower or the first cars must accelerate faster in order for the larger gaps to appear. So even if all cars did in fact start rolling at the exact same time when the light turns green the acceleration of any tailing car is bounded by some safety margin as a function of speed.

executesorder66 7y ago
> Going from small gap while standing in lights to large gap at a higher speed cannot be reached in unison. I agree. But my point is that people can maintain the small gap at lower speeds until they cross to the other side of the traffic lights. (So that more people can get through) then they can spread out.