Traffic Jam
Thursday, June 11, 2009
Iain Couzin, assistant professor in the department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at Princeton University, and Anna Nagurney, professor in the department of Finance and Operations Management at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, apply science to the problem of traffic.
Event
Professors Couzin and Nagurney are participating in The World Science Festival's panel “!@#$% Traffic: From Insects to Interstates” on
Friday, June 12, 2009, 7 - 8:30 PM at NYU's Kimmel Center.
Comments [8]
We were 100% for congestion pricing until we visited London last week. Despite having the plan, downtown London traffic crawls along at the same pace as the most gridlocked streets of midtown Manhattan.
Three different cab drivers told us the promised traffic improvement lasted about a week. Then people decided that the convenience of driving into London was worth the price. It is, however, a great revenue raisers, the cabbies agreed.
How wonderful that we now have pedestrian malls in Time Square, Herald Square and west of Madison Square Park. As a bicycle commuter I have felt the ease in congestion and noticed the new "No Turn" signs. BUT as a biker I have a BIG problem... I live in West Harlem and used to bike down from 125th Street to Union Square in 25 minutes, taking Broadway straight down from Columbus Circle, without any interruption. However, there are now breaks in the bike lane, espically right around Macy's, with no thought to how a cyclist will continue down Broadway. Instead signs that say "Walk Bike" or giant planters and cones discouraging bikers to continue their ride. HELP DOT, Mayor Bloomberg and mostly HELP bikers Brian Lehrer!!
NO food on the subway! Unless you like finger nail clippings in your Micky D's!
... NAIL CLIPPING ON THE SUBWAY - WAY DISGUSTING!!!
What kind of uneducated SLOBS do this!!!
I'm an entomologist, and I find this discussion laughable. Ant columns do not cross! So intersections are not present. Have you ever watched ants trying to move anything? They all pull in different directions; finally, the direction being pulled in by the most ants wins out. Hardly a paradigm for efficiency.
If you look at Central Park pedestrian traffic you will see obnoxious people who cause problems by not honoring the general direction that accomodates at one time - horses and buggies, cabs, cars, runners, skaters, walkers and more...
The selfishness mentioned by the guest in the analogy to ants is exemplefied by the commonplace occurence of the phenomenon known as "rubber-necking". Someone can sit in traffic, cursing for an hour, and then as he pulls up to the congestion point, he has take a good long look at the car on the shoulder of the road craining his neck, before speeding up. (Even though there is almost nothing surprising to be learned by looking!)
Our mayor believes that closing down Times Square will actually cut down on traffic because he does not comprehend the concept of bottlenecking. Just take a look at 9th Avenue below the Lincloln Tunnel. A formerly uncongested stretch now has been at a standstill for over a year since the turning lanes were contstructed to accomodate the bike lane and we who live there need to take our medicine and take comfort that he knows what's best for us.
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