Funny you should be writing about this now. I just read a "Letter to the Editor" in the "Montgomery [County, MD] Gazette" espousing driver education about the effects of lane-changes on congestion. The author was expressing opposition to HOT lanes, because s/he thought it would make our local 270/495 congestion worse as people moved from the far left HOT lane to stay on 495 where 270 and 495 split.

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Driver Education? How about engineer education? How about road operator education? Once upon a time, there were fire drills in schools that taught staying in line. But that instruction seems to be missing in the United States. Ever been in an elementary school at class change? Movement gets worse in Junior High and High School. The students can't walk in a group, how do you expect them to behave behind the wheel? For traffic flow theory see Gazis or Haberman. [ISBN 0-13-561738-3] Fundamental equation of traffic: Flow equals denstity times velocity. But velocity is a function of density. As cars get closer together (increasing density), drivers compensate by slowing down. Level of Service is a red herring, in my opinion. LOS detracts from operating a road at free flow. LOS detracts from identifying driver work load that causes drivers to slow. There is too much emphasis on "capacity" flow and not enough emphasis on free flow. Capacity is at about 75% of the posted speed with a one in twenty chance of congestion. Most roads free flow at about 1,800 vehicles per lane per hour. Those same roads will capacity flow at about 2,400 vehicles per lane per hour. Shirley Highway is afffected by surface streets and too many entrances and exits too close together. Talk to some driving instructors and ask how they teach relative motion to students who have never ridden a bicycle. Want better drivers? Start earlier with walking, marching, dancing and bicycle formations. There are some places, like the old Woodrow Wilson bridge that would flow 3,000 vehicles per lane per hour at 20 MPH if the entry ramps were controlled. Get the engineers out of the mind set that a little is good, more is better. Visit Japan and pay close attention to how the two year old children walk to school. Then follow that group mentality as you watch Japanese ride elevators or public transit. Then there is always Shirley Highway's reversible lanes, where Clean Fuel vehicles cause congestion. What happened to the effort to get passengers so all lanes would flow smoothly? Not passengers for VRE or METRO, passengers for the empty seats in the cars of the drive alones. Then there would be peer pressure, where the local camera monitors would provide object lessons of what causes backups.

I agree, but In Tennessee and North Carolina, the pressure for more exits comes from people who think it is going to do something for Economic Development. Aditional ring roads and added exits have been blessed by the politicians with out consulting with traffic analysist. Charlotte has had three rings roads around it and still has congestion problems. they are rapidly making it worse with their push to get light rail. There is enormous pressures to build anything at the expense of building what would relieve congestion. There is no effective economic utilitarian method of picking among good and bad road projects as proven by the large percentage of earmarked projects in the past highway bill. The FHWA administration is encouraging this behavior by calling it "best practices." Amature economist at Chambers of Commerce look upon federal monies as "free." There has been an encroachment on non-traffic considerations into picking good projects among all projects by looking at the incremental increase in property values instead of what it does for traffic flow. This gives projects in rural areas the advantage in any calculation be cause the leap in post construction land value appears to be the greatests. It is my opinion that(TN) TDOT only uses engineers when they need construction contract drawings for bidding purposes. They use outside hired guns (economists) to promote projects that are already blessed by the governor and his politically appointed head of TDOT. It does not matter what party, both do it. This is an ethical crisis for the engineering profession that has been slow to develop but engineers have not had the clout, will or whatever to oppose it, even at the level of the ASCE. The neglect of congestion related problems is killing people. I would add HOV lanes to your list of ineffective policies. I was in Seattle when it was proposed that HOV's be discontinued for just the weekend and the Eco Freaks came unglued. I think they were afraid that the public would finally see how much they are a problem for free flow of traffic.

As a matter of fact, yes, we are pursuing it. Instead of the old, "Speed Kills" speech, we teach that differences in speeds, on any given roadway, lead to collisions. Just as we teach children to say "excuse me" when crossing to a seat in a theater, the turn signal is used as a way of saying, "Excuse Me" as we POLITELY wend our way to an adjacent lane, not skipping over two or more lanes. Speeding to be first in line, rapid-fire lane changes, and tailgaiting in an attempt to force the driver ahead to go faster...these are what kills, not just speed alone. People who would never think of "line crashing" at a theater or amusement park, see no harm in doing the exact same thing in the society of drivers...and make no mistake, it is a SOCIETY of drivers, not just you and I, or me versus them. Societal manners SHOULD prevail in driving, just as they do at a cocktail party.