08-28-2014, 02:23 AM
"Even if all traffic joined the bypass at Hwy 11, the same volume will be trying to get through the bottleneck so I can't see that helping.”
Tom, the merge is still an obstacle, but I don’t think it is the largest factor. While I don’t commute, the times we have been caught in the afternoon madness (usually returning from the airport), I have noticed a change over the years. As more drivers became courteous and used the “zipper” style (as Greg named it here a long time ago), the merge became much smoother and more efficient.
The point of closing the side roads is that traffic will move continuously, not stop and go. I think a far larger “portion of the variance” of the backup is due to the stopping and starting rather than the merge (at least until some large saturation volume of cars is reached). I’m sure there’s an analogy to hydrodynamics here. In any event, on the human level, continuous movement certainly seems far preferable to a long stop and a short go. I would be willing to bet a continuous flow would reduce the transit time through the bypass compared to the current situation of multiple stoplights and left turns.
Tom, the merge is still an obstacle, but I don’t think it is the largest factor. While I don’t commute, the times we have been caught in the afternoon madness (usually returning from the airport), I have noticed a change over the years. As more drivers became courteous and used the “zipper” style (as Greg named it here a long time ago), the merge became much smoother and more efficient.
The point of closing the side roads is that traffic will move continuously, not stop and go. I think a far larger “portion of the variance” of the backup is due to the stopping and starting rather than the merge (at least until some large saturation volume of cars is reached). I’m sure there’s an analogy to hydrodynamics here. In any event, on the human level, continuous movement certainly seems far preferable to a long stop and a short go. I would be willing to bet a continuous flow would reduce the transit time through the bypass compared to the current situation of multiple stoplights and left turns.