Entries Tagged 'Cars' ↓

Thanks to reddit, I read this article today about how one person can change traffic waves. This is a topic I wind up thinking about a lot as I sit in traffic. Compared to most people (if you believe the news reports), my commute isn’t too terribly bad (i.e. mine is less than 30 minutes most days), but reading this article did make me think.

Traffic waves are what happens when there is a slow down for some reason in the flow of traffic. The cause could be an accident, a glare from the sun that blinds people, or just about anything that causes traffic to slow down. As people slow down, the drivers behind them also have to slow down. As the first drivers pass the “distraction” that caused them to slow down, they begin to speed up. But this speed up does not get propagated to the other drivers right away, so the drivers further back in the pack are still going slow (and thus causing the drivers behind them to slow down). The result is a “standing wave” where the cars slow down. As long as there are more cars heading to wave, the wave will persist (assuming the original distraction is gone), once the rate of cars coming towards the wave slows, the wave breaks down and disappears.

Anyways… The article has an interesting idea of using Police patrol cars to help break up the wave by having them in the traffic (several miles before the slowdown) driving at a “slower” speed than the normal traffic flow. Because people are not likely to drive fast past a cop, this effectively slows the rate of cars flowing into the wave, which helps to break it up. Its a really interesting idea, and I think it could really work.

One thing that I’m not so sure about is the authors assertion that he could affect the same thing by driving at a steady rate (i.e. avoiding stop-and-go and trying to keep a good buffer distance between himself and the car in front of him). His idea is that once he does this it encourages the drivers behind him to do the same thing. I’m not sure I agree with this, I see a lot of impatient drivers on a daily basis. Maybe its just here in Atlanta, but if there’s a half a car length in front of you, and your lane is moving, someone is going to try and get in there.

Having said that, I do like the spirit of the idea and I’m going to try it out next week as I drive in traffic. Who knows, maybe a few other people will read that article and try the same thing. Anything that keeps the traffic moving is a good thing in my book.

Lately google has been sending a lot of hits my way (for some reason I was the #5 refrence for sudoku strategy because of this post). A while ago I had written about getting better gas mileage (see here and here) but those pages are getting next to no hits, which struck me as odd seeing how gas is still fairly high these days.

A closer look revealed that I misspelled “mileage” about 20 times. D’oh! If anyone was looking for “milage” tips, they probably would have been flooding onto this blog…

In my post yesterday I gave two ways to increase your gas mileage in your car right now. It turns out that you can affect your mileage by the way you drive. Below are today’s two tips for the road.

1. Don’t slam on the brakes, coat to a stop if you can.

Think about it, if you are coming up on a stop sign, why would you keep pressing the gas until you had to stop? Not only are you burning gas you don’t need to (why would you accelerate to get to a place you need to stop?), but you are also wearing out your brakes faster. Plus, I’m convinced there is a connection between slamming the brakes and slamming the gas.

1. Don’t be afraid to go the speed limit. Slow and steady wins the race.

This one is hard to do, but it is very true. Don’t go 80mph just because you can, try to stick to the speed limit. Most cars are setup to run efficiently at a certain speed, which is probably somewhere between 55 and 65 mph. But no matter what speed you drive at, try to keep your speed constant, that’s where a big fuel savings comes from. Every time you have to speed up you are burning more gas. Plus by driving at the speed limit, you are more likely to be going the same speed as the people around you (which hopefully would help in the event of an accident).

I hope you are finding these tips useful. If you have any you’d like to contribute, please feel free to put them in the comments below.

I bought a Honda Civic Hybrid this year, partly because I’ve always been fascinated with fuel economy. I’ve been keeping a notebook in my car to track my mileage (yes, I am a dork like that) for my last two cars and I’ve noticed something. You don’t have to drive a hybrid car to get good gas mileage.

The reason I say this is because people seem to think that just because you drive a gas-electric hybrid that is advertised to get 48mpg you automatically get 48mpg. This is not the case. Your driving habits will get you to that 48mpg, not the car by itself. The first 2 months I had my car I was getting in the low 40’s. Then I discovered two tips that increased the milage to 45 mpg. By watching other drivers in traffic I’ve learned that its not what we drive necessarily (but still, please don’t drive a big SUV unless you really have a need to), but how we drive.

Here are two important tips to getting better mileage:

1. Don’t slam on the gas.

When you are at a stop light and it turns green, there is no need to floor it. All you are doing is burning gas. Use a slow steady acceleration to get up to speed. Plus if you are in the city, more than likely you are going to need to stop again soon, so why are you racing to get to the next light?

1. Keep your tires properly inflated.

Doing this increased my car’s fuel efficiency from the low 40’s to the mid 40’s. It turns out most people don’t have their tires inflated to the car manufacturer’s specs. Having your tires at the right pressure helps the car run better by not only increasing your milage, but also allowing you to grip the road better (for cornering, etc.)

I hope you find these tips useful, I’ve got a few more that I’ll be posting over the next few days, so check back soon! Also, if you have some tips, feel free to leave them in the comments section below.