Brake gently and in good time ...

[LordGrover]

An interesting article here explaining why many traffic hold-ups occur.

[henrycrun]

Or just roll off the gas if possible.
Seem to remember reading this theory in New Scientist back in the 90's

Edited by henrycrun on Friday 21st December 10:57

[Tankman]

Which just brings us back to the age old problem that the driving test, at best, teaches us how to drive a car mechanically and within the confines of the law, but neither trains anyone in the mental preparation required for driving a car nor the anticipation of potential hazards that will prevent this problem from occurring.

[GreenV8S]

LordGrover said:

An interesting article here explaining why many traffic hold-ups occur.

Isn't that rather obvious, though? Each driver has a chance to 'damp down' the wave by slowing early and gently, or amplify it by reacting late and sharply. To enable this you have to have an adequate gap to the vehicle in front, and be alert.

[Timberwolf]

It's fairly obvious, especially when you drive on a clear day on a motorway that goes down into a valley then back up again and you can actually see it all happen. Nice to see it replicated in experimental form, though.

A shame it's got little chance of reaching the channels that actually matter - any chance of repackaging it up into a "save the environment by slowing gently" format and bunging the press release to the BBC the next time the government gets itself in a mess?

[Tankman]

brickwall said:

And the "hazard perception" test seems to me an utter waste of time. In theory it's a nice idea, pity it doesn't work. It's an exercise in clicking the computer mouse.

Cor blimey guv!

They got a dukes of hazzard conception test now?

I passed mine a long time ago now although, as I was told by the examiner, "Not on my knowledge of the highway code"! Must have caught him on a good day . . .

[Retard]

Isn't this one of the reasonings behind the variable speed limits on the M25?

[vonhosen]

Retard said:

Isn't this one of the reasonings behind the variable speed limits on the M25?

Yep.

[BertBert]

Retard said:

Isn't this one of the reasonings behind the variable speed limits on the M25?

Interestingly, the findings of that article are rather old. We looked at the research when I was at exeter er nearly 30 years ago!

So it's interesting socialogically speaking, as it takes a good piece of research and has to find "someone to blame". What actually happens is that the effect is guaranteed as the traffic density increases and careful driving has only a slight mitigating effect. This is despite what the article says and it is definitely not new news.

The major mitigating factor is to slow the traffic down which allows greater traffic density before the effect kicks in.

So sorry Advanced Drivers all, we can't really make it much better!

Bert
PS bit dissapointed with the old hall of learning here doing a rehash of old stuff and claiming it as new.