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Study Shows Tailgating Can Slow Everyone Down

posted by Fnord666 on Friday December 15 2017, @07:36PM   Printer-friendly
from the automate-that-already dept.

Phoenix666 writes:

Gotta keep 'em separated:

When unexplained traffic jams happen, says an MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) study, you can probably blame tailgaters. The researchers say that if drivers kept an even distance between cars rather than driving too close to the vehicle in front, traffic flow would remain even. This "bilateral control," could double the speed of the average vehicle on busy highways.
...
This ideal is very different from what is the norm in most thinking about traffic, especially by those stuck in it. Drivers (and, consequently, vehicle control systems) tend to be looking ever forward, responding only to what's ahead and largely ignoring what's behind. Thus, in stop-and-go or slow-and-go situations (traffic jams), each vehicle reacts to the vehicle in front, causing intermittent slowdowns or stops (jams) in wave-like patterns. When vehicles are working to maintain equal distances both from the car in front and the vehicle behind, the MIT paper contends, these wave patterns are minimized and traffic flows more smoothly.

Maintaining even spacing facilitates lane changes and merges as well.

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  • (Score: 2) by jdavidb on Saturday December 16 2017, @04:21AM (2 children)

    by jdavidb (5690) on Saturday December 16 2017, @04:21AM (#610614) Homepage Journal

    Automatic drivers hit the brakes to modulate their speed

    I simply take my foot off the accelerator when possible.

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 16 2017, @03:00PM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 16 2017, @03:00PM (#610701)

    As does anybody else with any sense. Controlling the speed of a car is about both the brake and the accelerator. I'm not sure where people got the idea that they had to always have their foot on one or the other.

    • (Score: 2) by bob_super on Sunday December 17 2017, @08:02AM

      by bob_super (1357) on Sunday December 17 2017, @08:02AM (#610901)

      Auto trans cars do coast a lot when you don't touch the pedals. Manuals slow down.
      A modern 2-ton view-blocking auto-trans monster is also likely driven by someone who doesn't optimize their traffic-jam speed...