Is Our Road System Effective?

stormblaze (62)in #mathematics • 8 years ago (edited)

Hi Steemit, Stormblaze here! I have recently started driving and noticed how easily traffic jams can form, even without any accidents! But why does this happen? Is it because we have more cars than the lanes can handle, or is it because of ineffective traffic rules and regulations?

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Note: the majority countries have one highway rule in common. The slowest cars ride far left or right side lane and the fastest cars on the opposite side. This is only applicable to highway travel.

We humans are emotional beings, and we usually tend to make a mess of even the best systems.

We humans usually have one of two things on our minds: how fast or safe can we get to our destination. This usually leads to two types of people on the road, the slower drivers and the fast drivers. I am (or was) a slower driver, because I thought it made sense to drive a bit slower than the speed limit. My logic went like this: If I drive a bit slower, then I would have enough reaction time to swing out of something bad. But unfortunately my theory was statistically flawed. In fact I am at bigger risk than someone driving a bit faster than the average traffic flow, and even worse, I was contributing to traffic jam formation!

We humans are really impatient and egotistical on the road (once again it is what makes us human) When we find a slow car in our lane we are probably going to overtake this slow car (statistically proven to be very likely). This means we need to switch lanes like this:

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This movement on the road has little effect on in a less dense traffic lane, but when there are more cars on the road, then it starts to bring down the average traffic flow speed. Why? Well the driver behind you in the other lane has to reduce his speed a bit. Then the person behind him has to do the same ect. ect. Now when you have successfully passed the slow car you will move back to you old lane. Believe it or not but the car behind you has to slow down a little bit for you to move in!

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Now you must remember, we are all constantly shifting around the lanes! Even the fast lanes have people moving around! This is not a good thing, statistically. This means more space for human error and then from minor to huge accidents! Causing accidents! And eventually cause more accidents!

But we could fix that with more lanes right? More lanes mean more space for the same number of cars etc. But statistical answer is actually NO! According to the Braess' paradox this extra lane would actually slow down you travelling time! This is one of the most famous game theory games, that disproves a general idea! It is important to state that the Braess' paradox only applies to a road network where drivers can selfishly choose the lane of their desire.

So how should we design our road network system? Well first of all, reduce the number of roads that we must use and ditch the slow to fast lane system. As stated above, we humans are emotional beings, we do not always make the most logical choices when it comes to the road community. So to fix this problem, we need to take out the choices a driver can make. This would cut out the number of bad choices we can make. The optimal amount of traffic lanes would be 2 to 3 Lanes. With this comes a new traffic system where we can boost the the speed limit a bit. All the cars would also drive in one lane. You can overtake a car by driving on the empty lane next to you and simply accelerate and overtake the car in front of you, like this:

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This system will help by getting the fast cars in front and the slower cars at the back. This is nice because the chances are that you will be more likely happy with you current speed that you are traveling. But can this faster car speed limit be safe? Here is some real world statisctics.

In Germany they have the autobahn system. there is no speed limit, You only have a minimal speed restriction. You would be supprised to see how much less car accidents happening on it. It is important to note that it is illegal in the Autobahn to overtake cars on the right, but that is because the drivers are really driving ridiculous speeds. More US states are adopting this type of road system that I mentioned above (not Autobahn). They are also seeing less traffic james and less rural accidents.

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The verdict :

Basically what I am basically saying is, the most highway systems around the world, is not statistically the most effective. However one thing is certain. Human emotion causes a good system to fail. What do you think? Should we make more autobahns or do you like your country’s current system? Give and upvote and a like if you liked what you read!

As always
thanks for reading!