I've often wondered, in busy traffic, whether automatic cars contribute to the jams that have no apparent cause. In the normal way of things, if a driver lifts off, his cars will start to slow down by virture of engine braking. The driver behind will realise he is gaining on the car in front and also lift off, and so on down the line (exclude the effect of people driving too close for the moment). An automatic car in this situation will gain on the car in front much faster due to the freewheel effect of the transmission, so driver applies brakes just for a moment to correct his speed. Result: drivers behind instinctivly hit their brakes for no good reason, and this passes down the line until in extreme cases, traffic stops.
Is this a likely happening, of is it always that everybody drives too close? Except me of course!
Phil.
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its a good theory phil, can't fault it. They also pollute more due to poorer fuel consumption than their manual counterpart. Perhaps they should join the caravans in the after dark club.
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Wait a few more years - we'll all be driving automatics of one sort or another. Sophisticated electronic systems will do away with the gear lever forever.
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and people using cruise control tapping the brakes to cancel it cause a similar issue.
M.
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It seems to me at least as likely that traffic jams cause automatic cars!
I mean, who can have fun in an automatic car, given an open road? But equally, who can have fun in a traffic jam, so why not at least have as little bother as possible?
Best wishes, Alex.
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Alex,
That girl has worked her magic already, think I agree with you on both points.
One thing though an automatic can be fun if the engine has massive power and the change points are really carefully set for sporting use, but that knocks out most of them.
David
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Hello HJ!
I have an automatic for fun, Toyota Celica Supra MA61, wide arch. On the one hand I'd of course rather have a manual, but on the other hand if you can't have it from new an automatic is less likely to have been torn up.
The little sensible car for shopping, transporting the missus comfortably, and very occasionally having a day out is a very comfortable and not totally boring
Proton GTi (the missus having most of the cash is the arbiter of such things! It would be right for everybody except for the iniquitous amenity charge imposed by the insurance industry).
Best wishes, Alex.
PS Still hoping for Mitsubushi GTO (yes, I know its a touring, not sports car)
but fat chance!
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Drivers of manuals in the wrong motorway lane and failint to anticipate what is happening ahead are almost as quilty as drivers of automatics. But I'd disagree with Alex. The Multitronic transmission in the new Audi A4 and the steering wheel pushbutton system on the MR2 are more fun to drive than manuals.
HJ
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Don't know about automatics causing traffic jams, I've always found them to be much quicker around town when using both feet for control. In my neck of the woods (Southampton) the biggest cause of traffic holdups is traffic lights. The local council have installed them at almost every major / minor road junction.
They've even put them up at entrances to superstores. Free flowing main roads have become a stop / start nightmare. The occasional car that does emerge from side road or store to main road would have managed anyway, and the lights stay red for long after the car has vanished, just holding up the main road traffic. Then there's the time lag problem. The first driver in the queue pulls away 5secs after the change to green, the second driver is usually about 10 seconds behind him, the third about 9 and so on. The tenth driver might be moving away at the same time as the one in front - then the lights change to red again. Not too much of a problem with one set of lights, but when you have them every few hundred yards it causes chaos.
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I've posted on this before, and I fully agree with you on the frustration caused by unnescessary and badly timed traffic lights. Romford is an apalling mess to drive through since the opening of a new shopping centre earlier this year, with two new sets of lights within 150 metres of one and other that stay red long after traffic has emerged. The queues in the morning have doubled in lenght going back far enough to block a major roundabout and adding to congestion in the surrounding areas.
And do you know what? I DON'T GIVE A DAMN! Last week I moved to Fishguard in Pembrokeshire, where apart from pedestrian lights, there is not a single traffic light junction in the whole county. The only one in Britain like this I believe. It's motoring paradise down here, the nearest Gatso is about 30 miles away and five cars in a line constitute heavy traffic. Long may it continue.
Only trouble is rainfall is about double the Essex level. Can't have everything, I suppose.
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I too have posted on this before, but to repeat, London is a maze of traffic lights and they are biggest cause of accidents because they are not linked and everybody accelerates away as fast as they can to get to the next set before they change from green to red, then if just too late go through on the amber.
A relatively small amount spent on phasing lights on main roads and installing sensors so that lights only go red when something wants to come out of a side road would not only speed up traffic from the 12 mph average (the same as in horse days but often much slower) but also dramatically cut accidents.
Only last night I came across a recent accident at traffic lights involving two cars. This was followed by another when I got out into the country, this time a car and a lorry on a T junction.
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I wonder.
If traffic "engineers" and town "planners" were given performance related pay tied to traffic speeds: would they introduce more bus lanes, and other measures to discourage car use (and so congestion?).
Or would they suddenly discover some new tricks hidden up their sleeves.
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Tom, alright for some! I remember you saying that you are a driving instructor. Will things change as far as the job is concerned? I suppose you'll be able to spend more time on things like three point turns and so on, rather than sitting in a traffic queue. Will you have take pupils to the nearest traffic lights for experience ? Do you expect more passes or failures ?
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No idea yet Steve, I'm on a two week unpacking break. I have noticed that the sheep are notorious jay-walkers though.
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Have to agree with Steve Paterson, here in Southampton we have squillions of traffic lights.
What makes it worse, though is that we have loads of four way phased lights, where each approcah road has its turn at green, with no two green at the same time. Thus, miss the lights, then wait in a queue full of fuming drivers, engines pumping pollution into the air while three other sets of traffic get the green.
Apparently introduced to improve road safety, they have instead resulted in a driving public down here who simply cannot cope at normal traffic lights where judgment is required. Just watch them dither and panic.
I'll gaze into the future and predict that these multi-phase lights will be with you all in a few years.
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The same is happening in London, Vin. They make progress so painfully slow that the number of red light jumpers is noticeably on the increase, with all the attendant risks.
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Don't forget that they allow you to make a free flowing unrestricted right turn at any junction at which they are used.
And so allow TWO lanes of ahead traffic at the same time as the right turners aren't blocking the road behind them (and waiting for dozens of changes of the light to get their turn, or driving dozens of times as far trying to find a way to turn right if all the junctions are no right turn - greatly adding to congestion).
In fact, because they take a much wider radius turn, the right turners lane should be a lot faster than the left turners.
I don't know why they were recently introduced, but they were common in Liverpool when I lived there over 20 years ago, and didn't half speed up the traffic.
Are you all sure that the problems aren't caused by another factor?
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