Brent's Two Cents

Erasing the Stupid Lane

I just read the most fascinating set of web pages by William Beaty, a Seattle commuter who has been doing Traffic Experiments. In a nutshell, he's been doing experiments during his daily commutes on the Seattle highways, trying to understand the dynamics of traffic and traffic jams. His description of results makes me almost wish that I drove more often.

My brother used to always curse the traffic around him. A particular situation I remember is when he'd switch lanes and the new lane would almost immediately grind to a halt. He'd say "D'oh! I'm in the Stupid Lane!"

According to Mr. Beaty, it's possible for a single driver to have a profound effect on traffic jams, in some cases even eliminating them. Quite interesting. Posted by Brent Marykuca at January 5, 2004 10:09 PM