• NarrativeBear@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    “speeding to a traffic queue most often just means a longer wait in the queue, not a shorter journey time.”

    Total agree this this statement. I personally drive near the absolute posted limit, or below. I also don’t gun it to the next red light to wait in queue.

    Once you shift your driving style to minimise waiting at the next light (which usually means driving the posted limit) you will find the light turns green just before you arrive at the intersection. Traffic engineers usually time traffic signal this way as well.

    This means your commute will feel less congested, you will still arrive at your end destination at the same time, and personally feel a little more calm and relaxed.

    Though I do have to say if people are speeding behind you and being aggressive, let them pass you (don’t speed-up). They will just get stuck at the next red, and you will just roll up right behind them with no extra time added to your arrival. Them having saved no time all well.

    • Semi-Hemi-Lemmygod@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      Once you shift your driving style to minimise waiting at the next light (which usually means driving the posted limit) you will find the light turns green just before you arrive at the intersection. Traffic engineers usually time traffic signal this way as well.

      There’s a street in my town where the lights are timed such that if you drive the 25mph speed limit you don’t have to stop.

      That is unless there’s a bunch of idiots who insist on speeding to a red light, only to stop for five seconds. Then you have get stuck behind them and you also have to stop.

      I wish there was some way to communicate to people that they’re on a stretch of road like that so they know that going the speed limit is actually faster and easier than gunning it only to stop again a quarter mile ahead.

      Edit: It would be super if car drivers thought streets with bike lanes worked like this. If enough of the streets actually do that, maybe it would get them to slow down next to all bike lanes.

      • AA5B@lemmy.world
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        4 months ago

        The. Problem is too many streets where the lights are not synchronized, or even synchronized well above the speed limit

        My town redid a major street during COViD to cut it from 2 lanes down to one thru lane plus turn lanes. They also synchronized the lights. It’s so much calmer of a street now, and we get through much faster.

        They did a lousy job trying to add a bike lane but I guess that’s all you can hope for when the pavement was unchanged