by TheWizard on Sun Feb 22, 2004 8:30 am
"Buff said the definition of a major bottleneck is one in which motorists lose at least 700,000 hours a year stuck in traffic." <-- Not a very good definition of a bottleneck. It should be defined as the decrease of lanes, (i.e. from a four lane highway down to a two lane highway). Onramps and offramps are where bottlenecks are rampant because onramps/offramps only have one or two lanes. If a driver is leaving a major three-lane interstate highway during rush hour and crossing over to another major three-lane interstate highway, chances are he will notice the most congestion in the lane leading up to the off/onramp and the actual off/onramp itself. Not to mention the problem he encounters of merging onto the second major interstate highway; if the traffic there is going 70mph, all the cars on the onramp have to speed up to the same mark in order to merge successfully. But, as we well know, people are cautious when merging onto a highway, and perhaps rightly so, therefore most people merge at a slower speed than the traffic is actually going, which causes more congestion.
Yeah, I suppose the government can spend more money fixing the real bottlenecks...OR...drivers can utilize alternate routes, car pool, and use mass transit. The latter options are the best bet, but it's a matter of convincing people to follow through.
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