Seeking clues to your highway traffic mysteries

[cpzilliacus]

Washington Post: Seeking clues to your highway traffic mysteries

There's a consistency in the D.C. region's traffic congestion: Commuters know where it's most likely to be bad. What many don't know is why.

We'd like your help in identifying a few of the highway zones that are chronically congested, then we'll get some help from the INRIX traffic data service in figuring out the causes.

The areas that will be the most interesting are the ones that you find the most mysterious.

[jeffandnicole]

Easy.  There's one Grandpa that likes to go out on a daily basis and drives 20 mph while swerving across the road.  Everyone else has no choice but to slow down. 

[agentsteel53]

because this isn't a major infraction with tickets, points, court date, fine, etc.

[1995hoo]

I wish instead of the sign you've posted they would use the unambiguous "KEEP RIGHT EXCEPT TO PASS." All too many people think it's OK to say, "Well, I'm going the speed limit, so I'm not 'slower.'"

[Brandon]

I wish instead of the sign you've posted they would use the unambiguous "KEEP RIGHT EXCEPT TO PASS." All too many people think it's OK to say, "Well, I'm going the speed limit, so I'm not 'slower.'"

MDOT (Michigan) has been posting signs that say "KEEP RIGHT - PASS LEFT" on the freeways.

[agentsteel53]

I think something even stronger is required.

"merge right if faster traffic is behind you".

[1995hoo]

I wish instead of the sign you've posted they would use the unambiguous "KEEP RIGHT EXCEPT TO PASS." All too many people think it's OK to say, "Well, I'm going the speed limit, so I'm not 'slower.'"

MDOT (Michigan) has been posting signs that say "KEEP RIGHT - PASS LEFT" on the freeways.

There used to be something similar on the Pennsylvania Turnpike. I believe theirs said "DRIVE RIGHT–PASS LEFT–IT'S THE LAW."

[jeffandnicole]

All well and good, but in states where "Keep Right Except To Pass" signage exist, there's still traffic congestion.

[agentsteel53]

All well and good, but in states where "Keep Right Except To Pass" signage exist, there's still idiots that keep left.

fixed your sentence there.

[1995hoo]

All well and good, but in states where "Keep Right Except To Pass" signage exist, there's still traffic congestion.

Yeah, I didn't mean to suggest it would solve the problem, I just meant it's better wording than "Slower Traffic Keep Right."

[corco]

All well and good, but in states where "Keep Right Except To Pass" signage exist, there's still idiots that keep left.

fixed your sentence there.

I'm as big an advocate of the roadside execution of left-lane campers as anybody, and traffic would be better during non-peak hours by strictly enforcing that, but once you're at 5-10 MPH speed keeping right except to pass doesn't work so well.

[froggie]

I'm as big an advocate of the roadside execution of left-lane campers as anybody, and traffic would be better during non-peak hours by strictly enforcing that, but once you're at 5-10 MPH speed keeping right except to pass doesn't work so well.

THIS.

One would think Jake would realize that, espeically in a chronically congested region such as DC.  "Keep Right Pass Left" doesn't do squat once you're at capacity, or if there's an incident.

[agentsteel53]

I do my absolute best to not drive when/where speeds are 5-10mph.  thus, I am much more concerned about when, and why, we're losing 25mph of speed of traffic (say, 55 vs 80) because of obvious problems by obvious problem drivers.

"lack of capacity" is neither interesting nor mysterious.  what is interesting is when the same number of cars can be serviced, with very little driver behavior modification, at 25mph faster, and people refuse to sign up for this because of various cultural tendencies - the most important one of which is the American driver bovine habit to "pick a lane and stay in it".

[1995hoo]

I do my absolute best to not drive when/where speeds are 5-10mph.  thus, I am much more concerned about when, and why, we're losing 25mph of speed of traffic (say, 55 vs 80) because of obvious problems by obvious problem drivers.

"lack of capacity" is neither interesting nor mysterious.  what is interesting is when the same number of cars can be serviced, with very little driver behavior modification, at 25mph faster, and people refuse to sign up for this because of various cultural tendencies - the most important one of which is the American driver bovine habit to "pick a lane and stay in it".

Heh. You would go ballistic listening to the afternoon-drive traffic reports on WTOP here. One of Bob Marbourg's favorite slogans is "Pick your lane, stay with it."

A guy on the UVA forum recently told us that, to his chagrin, when he told his teenage daughter who's learning to drive to get out of the left lane when someone wanted to get past, she told him that the California DMV manual says the left lane is the "fast cruising lane" and thus it was OK for her to drive there. We all told him to tell her to ignore the DMV on that one because regardless of what they say, it will piss off everyone else if you don't move back over.

[agentsteel53]

"pick your lane, stay with it" seems to be decent advice for when traffic is moving 5-10mph.

people actually read the California DMV manual?  I think I glanced at it once in preparation for taking a written exam.  if people look at that, instead of real-world conditions, it surely explains the prevalence of morons who think they are "good drivers" because they know how many cigarettes their children can smoke when approaching an exempt railroad crossing in light to moderate fog wearing nothing but a booster seat.  (answer: "blind pedestrian has right of way only when standing still".)

[jeffandnicole]

While I've seen slow people in the left lane slow up traffic, I can actually see that at faster speeds, such as the guy today who wanted to go 65 mph in the left lane (with 65 mph being the limit, but free-flowing traffic normally would go much faster), with a lot of traffic in line behind him, until he decided to get over to the right lane less than a 1/4 mile before his exit.

Or the trucker, with his hazards on, going about 25 mph...in the middle lane, greatly creating and adding to congestion?  Luckily it was normally a congested area, but once we got by the truck, traffic moved at much more normal speeds.  At what point are truckers so oblivious to their own profession that they induce such congestion-causing actions???

[froggie]

If the truck was going that slow and with his hazard lights on, there's probably a reason why.  And with traffic likely passing him on the right, he probably couldn't get over.

[Alps]

I wish instead of the sign you've posted they would use the unambiguous "KEEP RIGHT EXCEPT TO PASS." All too many people think it's OK to say, "Well, I'm going the speed limit, so I'm not 'slower.'"

I'm in a KRETP state, with others around me. Signs do diddly-squat.

[agentsteel53]

All too many people think it's OK to say, "Well, I'm going the speed limit, so I'm not 'slower.'"

yes, you are.  if I'm faster, then - by definition - you are slower.

[1995hoo]

I wish instead of the sign you've posted they would use the unambiguous "KEEP RIGHT EXCEPT TO PASS." All too many people think it's OK to say, "Well, I'm going the speed limit, so I'm not 'slower.'"

I'm in a KRETP state, with others around me. Signs do diddly-squat.

I didn't say they'd solve the problem. I said they'd make the point more clearly. I mean, hey, "left turn only" and "exit only" don't seem to mean anything either, but the signs are still posted.

[cpzilliacus]

I wish instead of the sign you've posted they would use the unambiguous "KEEP RIGHT EXCEPT TO PASS." All too many people think it's OK to say, "Well, I'm going the speed limit, so I'm not 'slower.'"

I'm in a KRETP state, with others around me. Signs do diddly-squat.

KRETP is the right approach on all roads with four  or more lanes total, divided or not.

Only exception are approaching annoying left-side exit ramps, and aside from reconstructing interchanges to always exit on the right (which has been done in some instances), I am not sure what can be done about them.

[Brandon]

Only exception are approaching annoying left-side exit ramps, and aside from reconstructing interchanges to always exit on the right (which has been done in some instances), I am not sure what can be done about them.

Nuke them from orbit.  It's the only way to be sure.  Seriously though, left exits and entrances seem to be one of the biggest banes of the freeway system.  One of the worst areas of congestion around Chicago is caused by two exits that exit and enter on the left on I-290 at Harlem and Austin.

[machpost]

Easy.  There's one Grandpa that likes to go out on a daily basis and drives 20 mph while swerving across the road.  Everyone else has no choice but to slow down.

Or it's some idiot texting or otherwise paying attention to their smartphone instead of paying attention to traffic.

[Big John]

Only exception are approaching annoying left-side exit ramps, and aside from reconstructing interchanges to always exit on the right (which has been done in some instances), I am not sure what can be done about them.

Nuke them from orbit.  It's the only way to be sure.  Seriously though, left exits and entrances seem to be one of the biggest banes of the freeway system.  One of the worst areas of congestion around Chicago is caused by two exits that exit and enter on the left on I-290 at Harlem and Austin.

Yet WisDOT is proposing them for the US41/I-43 interchange in Green Bay and the Bridgeview Interchange (US 41/US 10/ WI 441) reconstruction by Menasha.

[1995hoo]

Easy.  There's one Grandpa that likes to go out on a daily basis and drives 20 mph while swerving across the road.  Everyone else has no choice but to slow down.

Or it's some idiot texting or otherwise paying attention to their smartphone instead of paying attention to traffic.

I almost got hit this afternoon by some woman driving on the wrong side of the road. She had a phone in one hand and was trying to turn left after an intersection–I assume she was playing with her phone and missed her turn and just decided she would turn left through the dedicated right-turn channel going in the other direction, never mind that traffic coming the other way had a green light!

Wouldn't you know the time this happened was the one time I drove the convertible but didn't bother to move the dashcam over to that car! The red solid line shows her path, although she was actually even further to the left than the line indicates. Notice she was in the left-turn lane going the other direction. The dotted red line shows where she had decided she wanted to go. The green line shows my path.