Who are the Idiots...

...that change lanes on the freeway in dead stop traffic? I live in California, Southern California to be exact and for those of you who share this joy with me it is one of the most congested freeway systems in America. The physics of traffic however are very simple. First, you will never move much faster than the flow of traffic. Whether it be 5mph or 50mph. Second, dead stop traffic is caused by cars stopping dead in the middle of the freeway. Lets wait right there for a moment. It's a "freeway", so why are there cars stopping? Lets eliminate the things out of our control like police and accidents. What we are left with is driver initiated slowing or stopping. What causes this? Yep, you guessed it, people changing lanes. It's simple really, you take 10,000 cars traveling in a straight line of 4 rows. If they all stay in their own lane (excepting intangibles) traffic will flow fairly normally(if slowly). What happens when a car changes lanes is that the car behind it is forced to slow down or stop, which in turn causes a chain reaction not only in your lane, but in the next to the right and left because freeway drivers are a heard mentality. One hears a lion in the brush and starts runnin', everybody follows blindly. Multiply that by 5,000 and it is no wonder why the 405 and other freeways are frequently bumper to bumper at times and in places where there seems to be no other logical explanation. Now onto why the ones who change lanes do what they do and the stupidity/futlity of such an act. Reasons people change lanes vary from wanting to get over to an offramp, to just plain impatience. For this example lets deal with the impatients, because they are the guilty party. You are either late getting somewhere, hate sitting in traffic, or just really believe you can get somewhere faster by changing lanes every 5 seconds in heavy traffic. Either way can I tell you something? STOP IT!!! It just makes everything worse for everyone including you and you absolutely do not get anywhere any quicker! Did you know that it is a fact that you only add 1.5 or so minutes to the time you save driving for every 10 mph faster you travel? Well its true, and if you apply that logic to a situation where nobody is traveling faster than 5mph...IN ANY LANE, it would be stupid and futile to change lanes anyway even if you weren't making everyones life more miserable by doing so. It would be one thing if there were actually a point to your actions, some underlying trick of the freeway that only you knew about that would magically move your car through the cluster F that is rush hour, but there is not and it does not. Truly people, next time you are on any freeway, USA and you find yourself in slow or stopping traffic, stay in your own lane, leave plenty of room between you and the car in front of you and everyone will be happier for it...Especially your Uncle Tim!! Honk Honk