Re:Traffic Simulator
by kkarpkkarp on Sunday February 13, 2022 @11:07AM
(#30322677)
> I suspect this happens less often than people think.
depends what you think is "less often than people think", plus you need to put it in country context.
In Poland it is a real problem. On the distance o 100 km (60 miles) it can happen 3-4 times. If you travel for 300 km it means you will be swearing 10 times when stuck in a line after some lorry.
My read of your parent's comment was that elephant racing due to speed limiters happens less often than people think... Not the races themselves.
Depends on the country I guess. In Poland there is really no other reason than slight differences between speed limtliters callibration (+-2kph). No uphills on Polish highways, no other variables, just that one. 2 minutes of trucks overtaking each other on 2-lane is still very common view even though there are more and more places when overtaking is explicitly prohibited for trucks only to prevent these situations from happening in critical areas.
Also the speed difference is much higher on Polish highways because cars can legally go as fast as 140kph while upper limit for trucks is 90kph. This is a huge difference, lots of brakes to burn before you slow down to match that speed.
I suspect this happens less often than people think. Most elephant races are up hills and are at speeds significantly under the demonstrated maximum of the truck on level ground. I routinely get passed by tractor/trailers when I'm doing 65mph in the right lane of the freeway with my travel trailer. Even a slight incline and I end up blowing right past them.
My guess is that two fully loaded trucks just have a similar maximum speed in a given power-limited situation, and when combined with the natural desire to not give up even 1 mph of hard-won kinetic energy, we end up with elephant races.