2 ms·
What I find to be one of most annoying trade-offs of latency and throughput (and etiquette) are single lane bridges. If there are three cars on either side, th
by neogodless 7y ago
What I find to be one of most annoying trade-offs of latency and throughput (and etiquette) are single lane bridges.
If there are three cars on either side, the fastest way to get all six cars crossed is to allow all of the cars on one side to go, and then all of the cars on the other side to go. There's some increased latency on the side that goes second, but 4 of the 6 cars end up crossing sooner (1 is the same either way, and 1 is slower) than they would with what actually happens.
One car goes on one side. Then one car goes on the other side. They continue to alternate. It's so slow that what was once six cars quickly becomes twenty. But if you "sneak" in behind the car in front of you, you see unhappy faces and the occasional middle finger!
- bowmessage 7y agoWhere do you live? I've usually encountered the high throughput strategy in the PNW and UK.
- neogodless 7y agoNortheast U.S. outside of Philadelphia. We have lots of one-lane bridges in this area. They say "Yield to oncoming traffic." One could interpret that to mean - if cars in front of you are going, you can go, too, since the others will yield! But instead everyone interprets it as "wait for the next person to come across, then go."
- lonelappde 7y agoThat's because the most important thing is that no one blocks a car getting off the bridge. Who get on the bridge first is less important.
- JacobDotVI 7y agoI'm not sure where you are from, but when I encountered one of these bridge in Kawaii, Hawaii a few years back it had specific instructions to follow the car in-front of you. I always admired whomever had the foresight to design such instructions and never realized it was not like that elsewhere. From a quick google, looks like this is the the norm throughout Hawaii: https://www.hawaii-aloha.com/blog/2014/01/08/one-lane-bridge-ahead/ https://www.hawaii-aloha.com/blog/2014/01/08/one-lane-bridge... https://vacations.hawaiilife.com/blog/misc/one-lane-bridge-etiquette https://vacations.hawaiilife.com/blog/misc/one-lane-bridge-e...
- neogodless 7y agoAs if I didn't need one more reason to move to Hawaii? That's subtle genius. I like this version of the etiquette: 5-7 cars at a time!