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.
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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.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by All Your Lawn Are Belong To Us on Friday December 15 2017, @10:50PM
I think what TFA was suggesting exactly that - you try and cushion yourself between the car in front and the car behind. If the car behind closes in on you, close the distance with the car in front. If it gives you space, take a little more space from the car in front. If everyone averages their distances this way slowdowns have far less impact than if you have an unequal cushion between what's ahead of you and what's behind you. Too little space in front leads to you tapping your breaks and causing a wave. Too little space behind you and that driver will do the same.
You can only push that so far and keep safety with what's ahead of you, obviously. The car behind can't go faster than the car in front, nor can you. But the suggestion is to manage the cushion around your car.
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