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Technology

Solutions for Avoiding Traffic? 151

Posted by Cliff from the plotting-your-route-to-work dept.
gregwbrooks asks: "Technology lets us wardrive and kludge together interesting uses for the OnStar equipment in our vehicles, but what about the one thing I really need: On-demand, real-time traffic information? These guys have a BREW-based app that downloads real-time traffic maps to your cell phone -- it just rolled out in Chicago and Milwaukee, and apparently is going national soon. What other options are out there for someone who doesn't want to fiddle around with tiny web pages on his phone while driving?"
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Solutions for Avoiding Traffic? More

Solutions for Avoiding Traffic?

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  • If only... (Score:4, Funny)

    by Rufus88 ( 748752 ) on Thursday March 25, 2004 @11:18AM (#8667227)
    If only there were some kind of wireless information distribution mechanism where a human could give traffic reports vocally. Reports from different places could be communicated across different "channels" from different wireless broadcasting "stations". Since traffic isn't always a problem, and since people aren't always interested in traffic, these channels could also distribute other types of information, perhaps even audio entertainment. The only problem is how to pay for it. Wait, I got it! Audio commercial advertisements! Perhaps some day all cars will come equipped with one of these receiver devices as standard equipment.
    • Yeah, some cars come with TVs in the dash. But it's kinda dangerous to watch that while you drive, isn't it?
    • Sleep during the day!
    • If only there were some kind of wireless information distribution mechanism where a human could give traffic reports vocally. Reports from different places could be communicated across different "channels" from different wireless broadcasting "stations".

      Ha! I used to call in traffic reports to a local, popular radio station from my 11 pound cellphone (when most Slashdotters were pooping at random) and one trick was to report a blockage in order to redirect cars to somewhere else other than where I was he
    • I was driving home a distance of 10 miles that took me 1 hr and 10 mins to cover due to traffic; the traffic on that road is never that bad (average time is nearly 15-20 min), and there was no apparent cause on it by the time I got off. Yet, I was listening to a radio station with traffic reports, and there was absolutely no mention of that one stretch being busy (in fact, they only mentioned about traffic blockage due to an accident on a completely different road that would not affect the one I was on).
  • the radio station usually broadcast traffic reports every 10 minutes, so its pretty easy to get updates.
    • I find that the traffic reports are generally 15 minutes behind reality, and are not very useful. Many time, I'm idle in traffic, and the radio is telling me the MassPike is clear all the way into Boston....

      The radio reports are generally useless...
      • This isn't as portable as the wireless phone solution but some states publish a website with traffic sensor data (namely traffic flow average speed).

        If anyone's looking for enhancements, some counties even put sensors at intersections that can detect road surface and air temperature. This should help with ice conditions. For a county I used to work at, I produced a web page that displayed this information for the transportation department geographically to assist them in determining road material (type
    • Its obvious you don't live in Chicago.

      They get 20-30 seconds for traffic. We have 16-20 (depending on how you count them) major freeways in the Chicago metro area that most Chicago stations cover. They pick and choose - I'm lucky if I get my Edens report before I have to decide whether to take the highway or not.

      I would HAPPILY pay $2.99 a month for this, if it was offered on my carrier.
      • Every 10 minutes is not on-demand.
        • I often listen to WTOP for traffic reports, which are every 10 minutes, but if that doesn't sync up with your bail-out locations (which it rarely does) you may not hear the news in time.
      • Doesn't always cover your problem or concern
        • (other replies have raised this same point, but ...) even long traffic reports often don't cover what you want and they are very subjective. I almost never get the answer to the question I have every day - "Should I take the bailout

  • Heads-Up-Display (Score:4, Interesting)

    by parvenu74 ( 310712 ) on Thursday March 25, 2004 @11:21AM (#8667265)
    What would be very slick would be an open source system that integrates with wireless data (GPRS, EDGE, WCDMA, WiFi -- take your pick) and GPS to project onto your windshield in heads-up-display (HUD) manner what the traffic conditions are ahead of you. Being open source, you could then add whatever modules interest you so that your HUD could indicate when you are near a Starbucks, state park, 2600 meeting location, weather conditions ahead, or whatever you might want to know while driving. Heck, with a system like that motorists could even pinpoint the locations of speed traps for each other. Imagine your HUD flashing a red warning of "speed trap 1500 meters ahead"...

    • Re:Heads-Up-Display (Score:4, Funny)

      by Ummagumma ( 137757 ) on Thursday March 25, 2004 @11:27AM (#8667337) Journal
      Hmmmm. Id have to find a way to wire up a heat-seeking interface to this. I dont need a missle or anything, I just want the coolness of hearing the GROWWWWLLLLLL of the heat-seeking lock on when someone pisses me off in traffic.

      On second though, maybe a Sidewinder would be cool, too....
    • One simple acronym: CB

      CB Radio is simple, it's been around for many years, and while it's not exactly open source, it is available for everyone.

    • Anyone go to Internet World last year?

      Yogesh Gupta spoke on just such a technology and how useful it would be. His big theme was integration of technologies, and he talked about your PDA interfacing with your car. So your car would look for Starbuckses, Starbucksss...coffee shops near your 2:30 meeting. I sounds like a good idea to me.

      I always thought cars should be equipped with some sort of short distance communication (wifi, bluetooth?) and a HUD so you can receive messages from other drivers. Thin

  • If you tell everyone to avoid street 1, out of 2 streets, then you flood street 2. If it can be clustered or load balanced (beowulf?) so that people are distributed evenly on alternate routes.. this could be REALLY viable.
    • If you tell everyone to avoid street 1, out of 2 streets, then you flood street 2. If it can be clustered or load balanced (beowulf?) so that people are distributed evenly on alternate routes.. this could be REALLY viable.

      What would be really viable is if *only I* knew about the traffic free route. Now THAT would be technology.
      • What would be really viable is if *only I* knew about the traffic free route. Now THAT would be technology.


        You'll need to join the Stonecutters for that.
  • These [wa.gov] devices/apps are just what you want.

    This was also talked about previously [slashdot.org].

    • I recently installed PDA Traffic [pdatraffic.com] onto my Visor Prism w/VisorPhone for my once-a-week commute from Federal Way to Bellevue and back... It's been working great -- when I use it.

      Last week I didn't use it because I assumed that I-90 would be the best route, as it usually is, but I was wrong... there were multiple accidents and I-405 was actually the better route!

      If only I had consulted the all-knowing PDA...

      • I followed your link and the service looks wonderful, but I live in the Los Angeles (Orange County) area. While I've seen other traffic services online [tann.net], none of them were optimized for PDAs or portable computing. Does anyone out there know services available down here that are equivilent?

        (Venture capitalists take note: this would be huge in L.A.)

        • Actually, if you're browsing on a PocketPC tann.net will detect the user agent and reformat the page accordingly. It looks as good as you can reasonably expect on a 320x240 screen. It could be useful if you have a cell modem and have a decent data calling plan. Not useful to me since I only have WiFi. If you're commuting and not making trips all around town, it's easier to just check the traffic maps from a computer at home or the office before you leave.
          For me, the way I beat traffic is take my motorcycle.

  • NPR Did a Story on 511 (Score:5, Informative)

    by dcocos ( 128532 ) on Thursday March 25, 2004 @11:35AM (#8667438)
    You can dial 511 on your phone in San Fransico and give your starting point end and end point and it will give you a real time traffic assesment and the time from point A to point B. With some pretty cool voice regonition software.
    Story about automated traffic in SF [npr.org]

  • 511 (Score:2, Interesting)

    by GodWhacker ( 690850 )
    I heard a story on All Things Considered just yesterday about a phone based system for finding drive times between two locations. It is called 511 , it is available only in the Bay Area right now, it uses a variety of data including road sensors and speed pass data for near-real time traffic data calculations. It sounds iteresting : http://www.npr.org/features/feature.php?wfId=17889 73 [npr.org]
    • Actually we have 511 in Virginia [511virginia.org] as well. I only know this because my university [vt.edu] helped develop [vt.edu] it.
    • 511 is also available in Minnesota [511mn.org]. After the NPR story yesterday I dialed it on a whim and it told me where the accidents were in my area.

      We're just not as cool as SF...

    • 511 is a national mandate, but the states (usually the state Departments of Transportation) have been left to figure it out and implement it. This means the service offerings (to say nothing of the quality) vary a *lot* from state to state.

      It also means that, worst-case, you have road-centric DOT people looking at what they can do quick, simple and without a lot of hassle. That's why you see a lot of 511 weather and weigh-station info, but less of the useful-to-real-commuters data.

  • Doesn't matter (Score:4, Insightful)

    by bluGill ( 862 ) on Thursday March 25, 2004 @11:44AM (#8667548)

    I had a 55 mile commute for a while, right through the heart of Minneapolis, and through the worst strechs of traffic in the twin cities. I looked at all the traffic info I could, but in the end I rarely changed my route. Sure I had a few alternates, but a couple miles of stop and go is still faster than any of the alternates that take me 20 miles out of the way. Side streets do not go through, nobody wants traffic in their neighborhood (the kids can and do play ball in the street) so they make it impossible to take anything but major routes. Combine that with traffic lights timed to stop you on the secondary streets and you are much better off stoped on the freeway than moving on a "empty" side street.

    Course public transportation would be better, if it worked... I'm not holding my breath.

    • Course public transportation would be better, if it worked... I'm not holding my breath.

      Yeah - if we could get the metrotransit folk to pull their heads out of their @#$% and go back to work.

  • Q: What other options... (Score:1, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward
    ...are out there for someone who doesn't want to fiddle around with tiny web pages on his phone while driving?

    A: Pull over and then fiddle around with tiny web pages on your phone.

  • XM Radio (Score:4, Informative)

    by bacontaco ( 126431 ) on Thursday March 25, 2004 @11:50AM (#8667616)
    XM Radio just added over 20 channels for most major metropolitan areas that give you a quick 5 minute traffic and weather report. Find out if your city is listed here [xmradio.com].

    Of course, the cost of the hardware and the monthly subscription fee may turn many off.

  • Telecommute or move (Score:3, Interesting)

    by raider_red ( 156642 ) on Thursday March 25, 2004 @11:54AM (#8667652) Journal
    Talk to your managers about telecommuting a day or two a week. That way you only have to worry about the traffic between your bedroom and your home office.

    The other solution that I've found is to live no more than five miles from the office. This gives me a typical commute of about 10 minutes from the front door to my desk.
  • Remember, the #1 cause of traffic jams is traffic. The best way to avoid traffic jams is to not drive.

    As soon as everyone starts using fancy new technowidgets to find alternate routes routes to traffic jams, traffic will be routed to those alternate routes. Unfortunately, the alternate routes usually won't be able to handle alot of traffic, so the alternate routes will get jammed up as well.

    If you get some new device today it would probably give you the edge up for a few years. But just think of what else you could spend that $1000 on.

    Around here, we have spent $billions to build new freeways and roads to reduce "Traffic congestion", however these new roads always end up being just as clogged as the old routes.

    I've been riding my bike & taking public transit to work for 7 years now, and it's great.

    • Re:Best way to avoid traffic jams is to not drive (Score:5, Informative)

      by cpeterso ( 19082 ) on Thursday March 25, 2004 @04:50PM (#8671891) Homepage

      William Beaty studies traffic for a hobby. He created some "traffic experiments" and describes his results and theories in "TRAFFIC WAVES: SOMETIMES ONE DRIVER CAN VASTLY IMPROVE TRAFFIC" [amasci.com]. It's pretty interesting stuff.
    • Good one less car on the road. Alternate transportation methods are nice but they all fail in the time catagory thats an important one for a lot of people. It's nice if you can combine your excersise and your commute. The only mass transit method that seems realy viable as an alterative to cars is high speed trains I'm talking about 150mph+ they can reduce the commuting time and arent subject to traffic as they use highly regulated and planed routes.

      Bikes are nice if your talking a short distance or level ground.

      Busses are allways a joke they are allways slower than a car offer no real bonus besides possibly being cheaper than a car.

      Low speed trains are good if traffic is normaly bad if your on a well served route.

      One of the problems with building new freeways is they are just that another path not an increase in the existing paths capacity. Adding alternate routes is good if you have a management systemt hat can divy things up in the right porportions.

      • Re: No panacea (Score:2, Insightful)

        by tcgroat ( 666085 )
        The only mass transit method that seems realy viable as an alterative to cars is high speed trains I'm talking about 150mph+ they can reduce the commuting time and arent subject to traffic as they use highly regulated and planed routes.

        This moves the traffic and parking problems from downtown to the high-speed train stations. High speed rail lines need widely spaced stops; the train's high peak speed is wasted each time the train must brake, wait for passengers to board and disembark, and re-accelerate ba

  • 1. Telecommute - don't leave the house, but still get paid.

    2. Move - be closer to work or be somewhere where there's less commuter traffic hindering your journey.

    3. Change jobs - ie, commute somewhere else instead.

    4. Use public transport - use your travelling time productively, reading a book or something.

  • The traffic picture is on the web (Score:3, Informative)

    by netringer ( 319831 ) <maaddr-slashdot@NospaM.yahoo.com> on Thursday March 25, 2004 @12:10PM (#8667853) Journal
    The Gary-Chicago-Milwaukee traffic web site [uic.edu] gives the real-time traffic information from sensors embedded in the highways. It also tells you where the scheduled highway construction is. The only problem is that some highways, like the Illinois tollway system, don't participate.

    With that all you need to see the traffic situation is wireless web access. Maybe you could use Wardriving. Ironically, then the worse the traffic backup is, the easier it would be to see the traffic map!
    • That link is outdated, find the updated website here:

      http://www.gcmtravel.com/gcm/maps_chicago.jsp [gcmtravel.com]

      My complaint about the site is that it's notoriously unreliable, is often subjected to pre-rush hour slowdowns (right when you need your rush hour data the most), and often (once-twice a week during these times) just doesn't return data. It sorta renders Blue-Cove's solution useless. :-)

      Fortunately, tollways times are now posted (as measured by people that have I-Pass units), the I-80 corridor west of I-2

  • > Solutions for Avoiding Traffic?

    Not getting a post on /. would be my first suggestion...

    What do you mean, not THAT type of traffic?

  • One technique that works for me (Score:3, Insightful)

    by anomaly ( 15035 ) <tom DOT cooper3 AT gmail DOT com> on Thursday March 25, 2004 @12:16PM (#8667913)
    I've noticed that the slow lane (far right) appears to have the optimal flow rate for a highly congested highway.

    I used to drive on a major highway daily where the traffic was literally bumper to bumper, stop and go. During rush hour, the fastest route (except HOV lanes) was to stick to the far right, even to stay in the "local lanes" on the right of the jersey wall.

    It doesn't make sense to me, but that tactic has shaved hours off my commute time over the years.

    Just a thought.

    • I've noticed this quite a lot too over here in the UK. It may even be more pronounced since, over here, you aren't meant to undertake people - ie. to overtake, you move to the lanes nearer the divider in the middle of the road. Hence, everyone piles into the third lane (far right in the UK [1]) as nobody wants to be stuck behind lorries and slow vehicles. As soon as a jam happens, the first lane, having less vehicles, invariably becomes the faster.

      It gets even worse (or better if you know) around juncti
    • I've noticed that, too. I live in Los Angeles and my job took me all over the greater southern California and even northern California.

      If there's traffic, I always stayed in the righter lanes. Either in the number 3 or 4 lane on a four lane highway (I believe you count lanes where lane 1 is on the far left).

      Anyway, I notice two things during rush hour traffic. It seems majority of the drivers are rushing (obviously). They think the left lane is the fastest of all the lanes. Therefore, these drivers w
    • Quiet, you fool! Do you want to ruin it for us?

  • XM Radio Traffic (Score:4, Informative)

    by mknewman ( 557587 ) * on Thursday March 25, 2004 @12:23PM (#8667990)
    XM Radio just started broadcasting about 25 channels of 24 hour Traffic. It's great, as my city is one of the ones covered. No affiliation, just a happy user.

  • Change your schedule (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Strange Ranger ( 454494 ) on Thursday March 25, 2004 @12:34PM (#8668127)
    Not as drastic as giving up driving or moving closer...

    Change your schedule by 15-30 minutes.

    Awhile back, I realized that if I left my house at 7:30 I'd get through traffic and land at work at 8:30, BUT if I left my house at 8:15 (45 minutes later) I could get to work by 8:45. That's a half hour cut off my commute each way, or an hour a day, gained by simply letting everybody else fight to get to work first. When the masses are mostly in town and parked, I leave my house. My work hours are only shifted 15 minutes! I arrive at 8:45 instead of 8:30, I save an hour a day on my commute, not to mention the reduced gas consumption, pollution, and aggravation.

    Leaving 45 minutes earlier just to sit still on the parkway did seem pretty silly. Am I the only one with a wee bit of flexibility in my schedule?
    • I do this too. I work at a school and commute 40 miles from Providence to Boston. I've found that the commute is worst from 7:30-8:30am, so I aim to get to work at 9:00am. I leave at work 6:00pm, giving me a nice 'quiet hour' after everybody else leaves to do preparation for the next day and organizational stuff.

      There's another guy in my office who gets here at 7:00am and leaves at 3:00pm. He gets his 'quiet hour' before the day starts.

      As long as yourr boss is someone who is a reasonable person you can ge
    • I usually work from 10 AM to 7 PM in Santa Monica where I work. I travel about 35 miles (one way) through 10 and 60 FWYs (carpooling with someone). It doesn't seem to matter what time we leave (8 AM /9 AM) and (6 PM/7 PM) on week days. Even at 10:30 AM/7:30 PM, the traffic is still slow. The best hours seem to be like 11 AM and 8 PM or later.

      However, I have to be in the office by 11:00 AM sharp and meetings usually start at that hour. Also, I wouldn't have any time to prepare my workday (e.g., read e-mails

  • In the UK... (Score:3, Informative)

    by stu_coates ( 156061 ) * on Thursday March 25, 2004 @12:36PM (#8668150)

    ...we've had realtime traffic updates for a while now: TrafficMaster [vauxhall.co.uk] (Another [trafficmaster.net]). It updates every few minutes onto a small portable device in my car. When coupled with a Sat-Nav system, it's quite easy to avoid major traffic jams.

  • Koan (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Stavr0 ( 35032 )
    Ponder this: You are not stuck in a traffic jam, you are the traffic jam.

    Only when you truly understand this that the solution will become evident.

  • sigalert.com (Score:2, Informative)

    by sideshow ( 99249 )
    LA has a whole bunch of traffic sensors and these guys use them to build a realtime map of freeway speeds. They cover a few other cities and they also carry all the Caltrans accident reports for cities with no sensors.

    The best part is that you can login with your WAP enabled phone and check your predefined routes and see which one is the fastest.

  • Solution: Keep a decent buffer in front of you (Score:4, Insightful)

    by talexb ( 223672 ) on Thursday March 25, 2004 @02:20PM (#8669751) Homepage Journal

    On the nights I have chorus rehearsals [northernlightschorus.com] I drive to work. Because that's after the morning rush hour, I drive to work in the fast line, but I leave a decent space in front of me in case the cars in front get nervous.

    In the evening, traffic on the 401 can be bad .. that's when I start in the slow lane while everyone else is battling for space in the fast line, but by the time they're fighting their way off the highway, I'm back in the fast lane again.

    Whatever lane I'm in, I always try to leave a few carlengths in front .. what that does is to allow me to absorb the shock waves that propogate back through traffic during rush hour. It looks like I'm being an idiot by the cars behind me, but they probably don't realize that they're going at a constant speed rather than speeding up, braking, speeding up, braking, speeding up, braking. Which one do you think is better for your car and your mileage?

    And please, Slower Traffic Keep Right!

  • Comment removed based on user account deletion
  • AT&T Wireless already offers this on their mMode [attwireless.com] service. There's a picture of what it looks like in this [primus.com] forum post.

  • It's called TMC. (Score:3, Informative)

    by morzel ( 62033 ) on Thursday March 25, 2004 @03:45PM (#8671003)
    TMC, or Traffice Message Channel [tmcforum.com] basically does what you are proposing.

    It's been in production in Europe in a number of countries; I have a TMC-capable navigation system in my car, and traffic jams show up nicely (and I'm rerouted accordingly).

  • Relax (Score:5, Insightful)

    by DynaSoar ( 714234 ) * on Thursday March 25, 2004 @05:28PM (#8672509) Journal
    "What other options are out there for someone who doesn't want to fiddle around with tiny web pages on his phone while driving?"

    Just sit back, relax and enjoy it. People, especially in the US, seem to develop a habit of making themselves frustrated over traffic. Poor time planning, habitual generalized aggression, assumed impatience for no real reason, whatever, people get irritated over something that getting irritated about only makes worse.

    Give yourself plenty of time, take it easy and relax. How often do you get a good excuse to get away from everyone and chill? Use it. Hell, take the slow route.
    • I left 45 minutes to ship a package all of 5 miles away. Thats' roughly 20 minutes to get there and back, and 25 minutes to get stuck.

      So turn down the road and the first light is blocked because of a cop car. Fine- he's in a hurry to an accident, go. Miss that light.

      The next light I'm stuck behind Grandma that won't turn on red, with no vehicular traffic in either direction. 2 minutes gone.

      Drive down the lane and come upon a ford truck pulling a tractor bed. Must have been some stupid commercial. J
      • "45 minutes to ship a package" "20 minutes to get there and back, and 25 minutes to get stuck" "Miss that light." "2 minutes gone." "- 1 more minute gone." "wait 2 minutes." "wait 2 more minutes." "wait 2 more minutes." "By now I'm pretty livid." "waiting for 4 freaking minutes" "I waited 3 minutes, 22 seconds there." "speed bumps at 5 mph. I passed him on a residential street"

        Thank you for proving my point. You are suffering from Time Sickness.

        "You say to relax, well, that's a typical day"

        I most certain
        • No, I'm not the original poster but I'll continue...

          That 45 minutes is a time where I have to keep concentrated on a task I don't enjoy. It's not as if I'm able to relax when driving lest I miss the grandmother of twenty-six stopped in front of me reading each individual sign to find the bingo club.

          Driving is a state of alertness, and the only reprive is auditory media. Most of the radio stations are mediocre at best (though I have a community radio station in my city, it's uneven.) I'm not thrilled at bu
  • This sort of discussion always amazes me, nobody thinks of the obvious solutions to avoiding traffic jams. Here are some solutions that worked for me. Notice that none of these solutions involve spending money on computer gadgets.

    1. Get a new apartment that's closer to work.
    2. Take mass transit. The subway never has traffic jams.
    3. Live downtown, that way you're commuting the opposite way from rush hours and have the other side of the freeway all to yourself. You're trying to get out of downtown when peopl
    • 5. Find alternate routes on surface roads that avoid freeway congestion. I knew a secret route between West Hollywood and Downtown LA that took only 15 minutes, freeway drivers can't even get off at the downtown exits in 15 minutes. What is it, what is it? I usually take San Vicente to Venice or La Cienega to 10. Is there a better way??
      • Damn HTML line breaks, I forgot them again. When am I going to learn to use preview?

        5. Find alternate routes on surface roads that avoid freeway congestion. I knew a secret route between West Hollywood and Downtown LA that took only 15 minutes, freeway drivers can't even get off at the downtown exits in 15 minutes.

        What is it, what is it? I usually take San Vicente to Venice or La Cienega to 10. Is there a better way??
        • Well, I don't know if it still works, this was a few years ago. Back in those days, I lived downtown so I knew every shortcut and alley. My friends used to call me "The Duke of Downtown" (a lame reference to "Escape from New York").
          The trick is getting out of downtown, there's a way through the tunnel (2nd street I think) that gets you into a tricky interchange under the freeways, you end up on Beverly. Take Beverly to the Pico-Rivera area and you have multiple choices from there, I usually stick to Beverly
  • Huddle in your living room like a frightened cat. Throw rocks at any neigbours who come by to investigate. Sell your car on ebay for $40. Chances are, when the 'authorities' are done with you, the only traffic you'll be facing is the cafeteria line at the funny farm.

    Problem solved. No need to thank me.

  • What other options are out there for someone who doesn't want to fiddle around with tiny web pages on his phone while driving?"

    Trains.
    Busses.
    Taxis.
    Bicycles.
    Feet.

  • Translated:

    I'm the sort of person who likes to take up a ridiculously large amount of road space, but the problem is that there are too many other people like me! What should I do?

    Answer: Traffic is not a problem if you don't drive. Ride a bike, walk, or catch public transport. If you live in a place where this is difficult, move somewhere where it isn't.

    • > If you live in a place where this is difficult, move somewhere where it isn't.

      Not all of us have the luxury of being rich & able to move on a whim just because the local area has no public transportation.
  • Here's my solution for sunny Los Angeles where I'm currently living: motorcycles.

    LA has huge urban sprawl and a fairly inept mass transit system. It's there, but unless you can take a Metrolink train, using the system will take you a LONG time.

    So here's my plan: turn one lane of all the major freeways into a motorcycle-only lane. It doesn't have to be wide enough for a vehicle. Then require people to take a stringent safety test before being allowed to use the lane, and offer tax breaks or some other

  • I avoid traffic by driving round it.

    Alternative routes are useless (other than providing a sometimes welcome change of scenery), as a previous poster pointed out, because eventually they become known to everyone, and equally clogged. Then councils install schemes to stop the traffic clogging up those roads and you're back to the main road. Sat Nav may provide some short term gains, but eventually when everyone has it there'll be no benefit. Sat Nav will probably only help with one-off journeys.

    Cue usua
  • Affordable housing. That doesn't mean rent controlled. It means exceeding demand.

  • Here are some good things to read:

    Traffic Patterns and How To Erase Traffic Jams [amasci.com]

    Traffic Psychology [hawaii.edu]

  • I don't know about ya'll but I live in a tiny town. No, I don't mean I live in a town with 25,000 people (I swear, you city folks). I don't even live in a town with 10,000 people. My town has 231 residents, not counting cats or dogs. That's it. We really don't have much of a traffic problem in these parts. The only traffic delays we encounter might be cattle on the road, road construction, a tractor [google.com] or combine [google.com], or a trooper on a ticket binge. If you want to avoid traffic congestion then move away fro
  • My replacement will be permitted to telecommute from India.

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