Data shows Hybrids have no effect on HOV traffic

My daughter goes to a school which makes the kids to a senior thesis. After hearing me complain so much about hybrids, she did a study with some classmates. They observed HOV traffic on 33 different days for three hours each day over the course of five months at different locations and calculated the number of HOV's which were using the lanes.

The result? Only 12% of the vehicles were hybrids. While that's not "no effect" on traffic, it is a pretty small effect. Considering how much I have complained about hybrids, I was amazed.

Maybe thinking there are a lot of hybrids is the same as thinking that the lane next to you in stop/go traffic is always moving faster.

From middle school math class ....
12% of A Lot = Still A Lot

Keep on sluggin'! [:)]

quote:

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Originally posted by Undisclosed
[br]My daughter goes to a school which makes the kids to a senior thesis. After hearing me complain so much about hybrids, she did a study with some classmates. They observed HOV traffic on 33 different days for three hours each day over the course of five months at different locations and calculated the number of HOV's which were using the lanes.

The result? Only 12% of the vehicles were hybrids. While that's not "no effect" on traffic, it is a pretty small effect. Considering how much I have complained about hybrids, I was amazed.

Maybe thinking there are a lot of hybrids is the same as thinking that the lane next to you in stop/go traffic is always moving faster.

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Pareto's Principle

In 1906, Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto created a mathematical formula to describe the unequal distribution of wealth in his country, observing that twenty percent of the people owned eighty percent of the wealth.

Dr. Joseph Juran, working in the US in the 1930s and 40s recognized a universal principle he called the "vital few and trivial many" and reduced it to writing.

As a result, Dr. Juran's observation of the "vital few and trivial many", the principle that 20 percent of something always are responsible for 80 percent of the results, became known as Pareto's Principle or the 80/20 Rule.

Pareto's Principle, the 80/20 Rule, should serve as a daily reminder to focus 80 percent of your time and energy on the 20 percent of your work that is really important. Don't just "work smart", work smart on the right things.

Applied to traffic, Pareto's Principle says that one percent of the cars cause 99 percent of the congestion. Or as they say on the oasis, that was the straw that broke the camel's back.

Traffic flow is nonlinear. Sprecher's rule is linear. A little is good, more is better. Traffic flow is nonlinear. Politicians think linearly.

Traffic flow, in cars per hour, depends on the speed of individual cars in miles per hour and the density of cars in cars per mile. The product of speed and density is flow. What is tricky is that as density goes up, speed goes down. As cars get closer together, drivers slow down to compensate for the greater work load of scanning and making steering and speed change decisions.

For Shirley's reversible lanes, the target should be about 1,500 cars per lane per hour to maintain posted speeds of 65 MPH safely. That works out to about 220 feet per car, about 200 feet between cars. The road will look empty. Add one more car per lane and the speed slows. Ten miles back in the line, traffic comes to a standstill.

"Capacity", the greatest number of cars per lane per hour would be about 2,400 cars per lane per hour at about 45 MPH. One day in twenty will be breakdown congestion.

Watch the brake lights in the adjoining regular lanes. Do the brake lights come on at the same place, or is there a backward wave of brake lights?

The age of the student was not mentioned, but if they are high school seniors doing field studies, they should be aware of non-linearities and what causes them. Those 140 some drive alone clean fuel vehicles per lane are doing more harm in the reversible lanes than the relief they provide for the regular lanes.

Work it out. You can even use a sly drool, should the mood strike you.

Brought to you by Boyd's Blivets. Motto: We guarantee eight pounds in every five pound bag.


dickboyd@aol.com

To paraphrase Mick Jagger:

Here comes the writer and his name is Boyd
He's got the script right in his hand
Talkin to the slugs
While he's checking out the band
His name isnt pretty
Not even the boils on his face
I feel like running
But there's no hiding place

Everybody getting high
High high high high high high
Boyds getting high
High high high high high high

What grade did they receive?