Saturday, July 30, 2005
Traffic Engineering Exam
Problem: Reduce 3 lanes of traffic with an average speed of 70mph with 1 car every 70 feet to an average speed of 10mph for a distance of 8 miles. You may not close more than 4 lane-miles. Explain your answer.
Solution: Close 2 of the three lanes of traffic for 2 miles each, resulting in 4 lane-miles of closure. Now, begin indicating the closure of those lanes approximately 10 miles before it actually happens.
Rationale: By indicating the closure so soon, the three main types of drivers will be sorted and put to the most efficient use. The drivers who understand the concept of a Queue will immediately and efficiently merge into the open lane of traffic. The jackasses of the bunch will move to the lanes to be closed with their level of jackassishness being clearly indicated by how far from the open lane they venture. For example, the fuckers who drive on the shoulder exceed all bounds of jackass and deserve to die a horribly painful death to the delight of all of the other drivers they are attempting to pass, wrongfully. This is only the beginning of the speed reduction. At this point the cars begin to move closer together as people vie for spaces, but the speed remains mostly unchanged as cars can easily merge into position as determined by their level of jackassness.
When the jackasses in the closed lanes determine they have passed enough of the people that they believe themselves to be better than (fuckers can burn in hell), they attempt to merge into the open lane. This is when the second party of driver emerges. (too often I fall into this category). The self-righteous decide it is their turn to help slow things down. At this point, they have determined that they, having done the right thing and gotten into the open lane when the sign told them to, should not allow any of the jackasses into the open lane. As a result, they follow very closely on the tail of the person in front of them, often increasing the risk of a fender bender, but at least the jackasses who attempted to jump to the front of the queue will get what's coming to them, now they'll have to wait until the end of the line for their turn.
But they don't have to wait. The third and third-and-a-half group of drivers finishes the speed reduction. This group is the group that lets the jackasses into the open lane. Some of them do it purely out of incompetence/safety. They don't really want to let the jackasses in, but they either are incapable of following the vehicle in front of them close enough or they realize it is foolish and not worth it. The other part of this group is 'nice' (this is how I try to be when I have the strength to look past the fact that I'm extremely pissed off at the jackasses for not merging when they should have).
The three groups of drivers combine their powers to turn a freeway with relatively little traffic moving at high, yet reasonable, speed into a clusterfuck.
Solution: Close 2 of the three lanes of traffic for 2 miles each, resulting in 4 lane-miles of closure. Now, begin indicating the closure of those lanes approximately 10 miles before it actually happens.
Rationale: By indicating the closure so soon, the three main types of drivers will be sorted and put to the most efficient use. The drivers who understand the concept of a Queue will immediately and efficiently merge into the open lane of traffic. The jackasses of the bunch will move to the lanes to be closed with their level of jackassishness being clearly indicated by how far from the open lane they venture. For example, the fuckers who drive on the shoulder exceed all bounds of jackass and deserve to die a horribly painful death to the delight of all of the other drivers they are attempting to pass, wrongfully. This is only the beginning of the speed reduction. At this point the cars begin to move closer together as people vie for spaces, but the speed remains mostly unchanged as cars can easily merge into position as determined by their level of jackassness.
When the jackasses in the closed lanes determine they have passed enough of the people that they believe themselves to be better than (fuckers can burn in hell), they attempt to merge into the open lane. This is when the second party of driver emerges. (too often I fall into this category). The self-righteous decide it is their turn to help slow things down. At this point, they have determined that they, having done the right thing and gotten into the open lane when the sign told them to, should not allow any of the jackasses into the open lane. As a result, they follow very closely on the tail of the person in front of them, often increasing the risk of a fender bender, but at least the jackasses who attempted to jump to the front of the queue will get what's coming to them, now they'll have to wait until the end of the line for their turn.
But they don't have to wait. The third and third-and-a-half group of drivers finishes the speed reduction. This group is the group that lets the jackasses into the open lane. Some of them do it purely out of incompetence/safety. They don't really want to let the jackasses in, but they either are incapable of following the vehicle in front of them close enough or they realize it is foolish and not worth it. The other part of this group is 'nice' (this is how I try to be when I have the strength to look past the fact that I'm extremely pissed off at the jackasses for not merging when they should have).
The three groups of drivers combine their powers to turn a freeway with relatively little traffic moving at high, yet reasonable, speed into a clusterfuck.
# posted by Kyle @ 1:53 AM 
