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

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: 5, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 15 2017, @07:51PM (12 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 15 2017, @07:51PM (#610418)

    You drive manual, couple of things you try to avoid is frequent shift and full stop, and you do that by monitoring ahead, modulating speed and the distance to the car ahead. Automatic drivers have no such sense.

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  • (Score: 2) by beckett on Friday December 15 2017, @08:50PM

    by beckett (1115) on Friday December 15 2017, @08:50PM (#610451)

    monitoring ahead, modulating speed and the distance to the car ahead.

    One of the things pointed out in TFA is traffic jams are exacerbated by the lack of 'bilateral control'; i.e. monitoring traffic BEHIND you, as well as in front of you.

  • (Score: 4, Insightful) by Grishnakh on Friday December 15 2017, @09:04PM

    by Grishnakh (2831) on Friday December 15 2017, @09:04PM (#610463)

    Not true, at least of all automatic drivers. Avoiding unnecessary speed changes and full stops is good for fuel economy on any car, so if you have that mindset, you're going to drive that way regardless of the transmission.

    But casting herky-jerky driving as being unique to auto drivers is unfair. For every auto driver that drives like that, I can find a proportionate number (as manual drivers are a small fraction of the population) of manual drivers who also drive erratically. It's just that the erratic manual drivers tend to be young men who think they're Speed Racer, and they're sure as hell not driving for efficiency either, and yes, they usually do tailgate a lot too, worse than the auto drivers, plus they usually drive recklessly in many other ways.

  • (Score: 5, Interesting) by bob_super on Friday December 15 2017, @10:32PM (9 children)

    by bob_super (1357) on Friday December 15 2017, @10:32PM (#610513)

    Automatic drivers hit the brakes to modulate their speed, which causes everyone behind them to react excessively (because brake lights are ON/OFF, not telling you how much braking is applied).
    If you downshift/clutch to slow down just a bit, the people three cars behind you don't drop their phones into their coffee to hit the brakes.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 15 2017, @11:12PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 15 2017, @11:12PM (#610537)

      Don't even need to down shift. If you maintain a decent distance in front, just pulling the foot off gas slows down sufficiently due to the engine brake effect.

    • (Score: 4, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 16 2017, @12:16AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 16 2017, @12:16AM (#610562)

      drop their phones into their coffee

      You say that like it's undesirable. If you had a device that caused that at the push of a button I'd be throwing money at you.

    • (Score: 5, Informative) by TheGratefulNet on Saturday December 16 2017, @02:35AM (1 child)

      by TheGratefulNet (659) on Saturday December 16 2017, @02:35AM (#610600)

      and for the younger players out there, a trick to get people to stop following you closely from behind (during daytime) is to NOT hit your brakes, but instead, put on the headlights! yeah, the rear lights come on, also, and while not as bright as a brake-pedal bright, its a change from total off to non-off. that usually fools the driver behind you and he'll slow down and maybe learn not to drive so closely next time.

      (you're welcome)

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      • (Score: 2) by Mykl on Monday December 18 2017, @02:10AM

        by Mykl (1112) on Monday December 18 2017, @02:10AM (#611216)

        Another thing you can do is to keep your foot on the accelerator, and quickly but firmly tap on the brake with your other foot. It has the effect of lurching you backward a little, but maintaining your speed. Frightens the hell out of tailgaters.

    • (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...

    • (Score: 2) by darkfeline on Tuesday December 19 2017, @08:11PM (1 child)

      by darkfeline (1030) on Tuesday December 19 2017, @08:11PM (#611945) Homepage

      If the guy behind wasn't tailgating, they wouldn't need to react excessively, but I'm guessing you're speaking from personal experience as a chronic tailgater?

      When the guy in front of me brakes, I take my foot off the gas and then rest my foot on the brake, slowly depressing it over a period of ~5 seconds as the situation demands. I have that much time available because I'm not tailgating.

      Even if the guy in front slams the brakes, I still have ~3 seconds to brake and/or change lanes as appropriate.

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      • (Score: 2) by bob_super on Tuesday December 19 2017, @11:39PM

        by bob_super (1357) on Tuesday December 19 2017, @11:39PM (#612057)

        That was a stupid comment, and you should earn a downmod.
        If you spent a bit of time in traffic jams, you would notice that people overreact and slam their brakes. It's exacerbated by cars blocking the view in front, and drivers being distracted (kids, phone, food)...

        In fact, if people didn't overreact, you wouldn't have to stop, because nobody would reach a speed of 0 absent an actual obstacle. I've voiced multiple times my desire to heavily fine the first car to hit a complete stop, for they are the problem.
        I've managed, courtesy of a clutch, many miles crawling through LA jams without hitting the brakes nor ever coming to a complete stop. You can only do that if you pay attention to all other drivers' behaviors, and definitely not if you tailgate.

        But thanks for posting a dumb remark on a 4 day-old thread, dumbass. I'm glad your area's traffic allows you three or five seconds actions without getting cut off. Around here, I just get honked at, until the tailgater sometimes realizes I'm going as fast as traffic will allow, on average.