It’s About Making Babies!

Alexis Madrigal at Wired.com writes about how traffic on California highways generates more co2 in nine (9) days than all the wildfires.

Only, she doesn’t cover the solution.

Space the cars out. CHP enforces speeding, but are negligent about enforcing other laws. Such as following too close. Nothing in the laws state that the minimum following limit changes when the car ahead slows or stops. The 200 feet limit is set when the posted speed is 45 mph or more. Otherwise it is 100 feet.

All Governor Arnie has to do to solve gridlock on the interstates, is to write tickets to everyone that stops closer than 200 feet to the car ahead.

What this does, is it avoids the accordion effect that happens when cars bunch up. Everyone slows down as the cars ahead slow. But no one can speed up again until the single car ahead moves out. So – everyone can slow at the same time, but each individual car’s ability to accelerate and each driver’s driving style stagger out speed up rates – and everyone behind someone accelerating slower than average is slowed relative to the rest of the road.

Why don’t drivers maintain the ‘safe’ distance? Two reasons. One is aggressive driving – changing lanes more than twice in 1/2 mile, often violating safe separation distances if not aggressively assaulting other vehicles. Leave a bit of space ahead, and you risk getting clipped as an unruly driver targets you for attack.

The other is that following a ways back doesn’t help you. It doesn’t improve the time it takes you to reach your destination, it doesn’t affect whether you will be embroiled in stop and go traffic. What it does do, is make stop and go and slowdowns less likely for every driver *behind* you. Following at a safe distance reduces your risk of hitting the car ahead, and also reduces the stress of driving in traffic. And it is a gift you give those sharing the road behind you.

Slowdowns and stop and goes on the highway can only be solved by the cars in front. And leaving that extra 200 feet ahead of you, whether following the car ahead, stopping behind that car, or changing lanes, can help avoid slowing the cars behind you.

Because the trigger for slowdowns is the ‘flinch’. Someone lets their car slow, causing slowing behind (if they are following closely). Or an aggressive driver cuts in front of someone, causing them to slow to avoid a collision – making the cars following too close behind slow, and rippling back sometimes for miles.

And guess what, Houston and Los Angeles? If you enforce that silly rule, 200 feet between vehicles when the speed is 45 or greater, and everyone comes to a stop – a mile of interstate now emits 20-25% of the emissions as before! And think of how easy to enforce – send foot people into every stop and go lane, ticketing everyone closer than 200 feet to the car ahead!