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I'm pretty sure self-driving cars will make traffic better, because it has been shown that most traffic jams are caused by and exacerbated by poor driving habit

by pyoung 13y ago

I'm pretty sure self-driving cars will make traffic better, because it has been shown that most traffic jams are caused by and exacerbated by poor driving habits.

youngerdryas 13y ago
Traffic jams are caused by volume. If fewer cars pass per minute, due to driverless cars obeying the speed limit traffic will be worse. What are you citing?
- dtparr 13y ago
  The number of vehicles and the max speed at which they're willing to travel aren't the only factors that affect throughput. As the GP mentions, bad driving habits can lead to things like the Accordion effect. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accordion_effect https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accordion_effect
  - youngerdryas 13y ago
    That may be marginally helpful but only if all the cars are self-driving and if there is no traffic have fun going the speed limit the whole way. A good way to foster adoption of self-driving cars may be to let them go faster when on auto.
- Aloisius 13y ago
  Some phantom traffic jams are actually caused by a moving wave caused by the inefficiencies in starting/stopping. If you have a whole set of linked self-driving cars, theoretically, you could prevent traffic waves from being sustained by moving at a slower constant rate. The slower rate means you need less time to break reducing the distance you need between cars and increasing capacity of the road and the constant speed reduces the break/acceleration cycle that is needed to sustain the wave. Then of course other jams are caused by inefficiencies in merging which ripple out to all the lanes as people try to get out of the lane that is going to merge. Self-driving cars of course would have the advantage here since they would no doubt be able to merge at higher speeds. Traffic jams caused by accidents would hopefully be reduced if self-driving cars get into fewer accidents. And finally, it is conceivable that if you are in a lane full of self-driving cars - especially ones that communicate between themselves - and if it is shown conclusively that they could cope faster in case of a catastrophic event, you could allow them to drive faster the speed limit.

by pyoung 13y ago

I'm pretty sure self-driving cars will make traffic better, because it has been shown that most traffic jams are caused by and exacerbated by poor driving habits.

youngerdryas 13y ago

Traffic jams are caused by volume. If fewer cars pass per minute, due to driverless cars obeying the speed limit traffic will be worse. What are you citing?

dtparr 13y ago
The number of vehicles and the max speed at which they're willing to travel aren't the only factors that affect throughput. As the GP mentions, bad driving habits can lead to things like the Accordion effect. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accordion_effect https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accordion_effect
- youngerdryas 13y ago
  That may be marginally helpful but only if all the cars are self-driving and if there is no traffic have fun going the speed limit the whole way. A good way to foster adoption of self-driving cars may be to let them go faster when on auto.
Aloisius 13y ago
Some phantom traffic jams are actually caused by a moving wave caused by the inefficiencies in starting/stopping. If you have a whole set of linked self-driving cars, theoretically, you could prevent traffic waves from being sustained by moving at a slower constant rate. The slower rate means you need less time to break reducing the distance you need between cars and increasing capacity of the road and the constant speed reduces the break/acceleration cycle that is needed to sustain the wave. Then of course other jams are caused by inefficiencies in merging which ripple out to all the lanes as people try to get out of the lane that is going to merge. Self-driving cars of course would have the advantage here since they would no doubt be able to merge at higher speeds. Traffic jams caused by accidents would hopefully be reduced if self-driving cars get into fewer accidents. And finally, it is conceivable that if you are in a lane full of self-driving cars - especially ones that communicate between themselves - and if it is shown conclusively that they could cope faster in case of a catastrophic event, you could allow them to drive faster the speed limit.