Re:The Suez Canal will be widened
by MereInterest on Sunday May 16, 2021 @09:31AM
(#27173582)
For option #2, do metered highway entrances provide a similar effect? On the one hand, the goal is to prevent that last 10% of cars from being able to enter the highway during peak hours. But on the other hand, unlike tolls, it isn't known until you reach a highway entrance whether they'll be present, so they wouldn't impact trip planning as much. So I could see it going either way.
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I think that metered entrances don't necessarily reduce the number of cars on the freeway, for exactly the reason you mentioned. Instead, it is designed to break up 'platoons' of cars from trying to merge in at the same time which cause ripple braking effects and traffic jams. The net result of meters is squeezing more cars at the same speed and maximizing flow rate of traffic.
So you wait a little bit at the meter but your (and everyone else's) overall travel time is actually faster. I recommend this YouTube video (and the whole channel) for great explanations of the traffic dynamics.
Metered entrances help a bit (I've seen the difference in traffic when they went from being installed to operaring in santa clara county), but you would have to run them very aggressively (long cycles) to eliminate congestion, and people would not be happy to wait for that long.
When the line from the meters spills onto the adjancement roadway, some people will take alternate routes, but mostly people want to get onto the freeway because it's the best route, even if it's congested.