The Voorhees law of traffic: when overtaken slow cars seem to always catch up at a red light
www.theguardian.com
Maths researcher explains seeming inevitability of phenomenon experienced by many motorists

cross-posted from: https://feddit.it/post/28637207

Those who use the bike know this very well: in the city, speeding motorists overtaking other cars, only get one thing: they arrive first to the next red.

With a simple model, the author estimated the probability that one car that overtakes another, will then be reached again at a later red light. Then he estimated the probability that the same thing will happen when there are multiple successive traffic lights, as usual in the cities.

The result is that as fast as an aggressive driver goes, the presence of multiple traffic lights makes it virtually certain that a slower driver will catch up

So, if someone aggressively overcomes you, when you reach him at the next traffic light, you can tell him that it is mathematically proven that he/she is an idiot.

In addition, this study has implications for the 30 km/h city, demonstrating how in urban areas the traffic lights determine the travel times, not the maximum speed reachable between one traffic light and the next.

The original scientific article is here: https://royalsocietypublishing.org/rsos/article/13/4/260310/481212/The-Voorhees-law-of-traffic-a-stochastic-model

crossposted from: https://poliversity.it/users/rivoluzioneurbanamobilita/statuses/116419204210303856

  • SomeOneWithA_PC@feddit.orgEnglish
    122·
    2 days ago

    The red light timings sometimes incentivizes to go faster as with 55-60km/h you can have a green wave and don’t need stop at any red light. for that it is totally worth it to drive faster. i hate when red light phase is longer than green phase. there are some really bad decisions on how red light timings work. Most do drive their path to work twice and know the timings and those do know when to drive faster/slower and will drive more aggressive to not wait at that one stupidly timed red light and have to wait and have like 25% more time to commute twice! (20->25min). It’s nice to calculate it with statistics but the way to work and back is better known and a slower driver might cause you to need to wait at multiple red lights while you could have driven a bit faster (and not always faster like in my first sentence but driving as fast as is allowed) and did not have to wait at any of that stupid red lights. I’m all for speed limits and better bike lanes etc. but driving slow when it’s stupid and stealing others precious time is fucking awful. What i also like are those that drive 60-70 constantly. Fuck man drive 100 if it is allowed and you can and drive 50 in the city but know, slow you down and than don’t even drive slower for the safety of entices in the city.