Those who use the bike know this very well: in the city, speeding motorists overtaking other cars, only get one thing: they arrive first to the next red.
With a simple model, the author estimated the probability that one car that overtakes another, will then be reached again at a later red light. Then he estimated the probability that the same thing will happen when there are multiple successive traffic lights, as usual in the cities.
The result is that as fast as an aggressive driver goes, the presence of multiple traffic lights makes it virtually certain that a slower driver will catch up
So, if someone aggressively overcomes you, when you reach him at the next traffic light, you can tell him that it is mathematically proven that he/she is an idiot.
In addition, this study has implications for the 30 km/h city, demonstrating how in urban areas the traffic lights determine the travel times, not the maximum speed reachable between one traffic light and the next.
The original scientific article is here: https://royalsocietypublishing.org/rsos/article/13/4/260310/481212/The-Voorhees-law-of-traffic-a-stochastic-model
crossposted from: https://poliversity.it/users/rivoluzioneurbanamobilita/statuses/116419204210303856
I live in the midwestern US. There you go assuming things again. Although, considering how much sanity and common-sense have anything to do with the decision-making of the powers-that-be in this brave, beautiful land, you’ve got me wondering if we’re neighbors, or you could be, idk, my mayor?
That said, the traffic light situation in my town seems insane at times, but if I visit the nearest larger cities in any cardinal direction, the streets and traffic alone make me glad to come back home, so I guess you can keep knocking it out of the park and throwing facts of negligible-relavence to me in this thread, Mr. Mayor from Aussie-land.