05-12-2019, 09:46 AM
(05-12-2019, 09:31 AM)SammyOES Wrote:(05-12-2019, 08:52 AM)jamincan Wrote: I wonder as well how the higher speed limit may affect highway capacity. Generally speaking the highest throughput per lane is supposed to be at speeds quite a bit lower than this (80kph or so I seem to recall reading?), but I suppose if volumes increase, the speed of traffic would drop down naturally anyway.
I would have assumed that theoretically the higher the speed limit the higher the capacity. And that in practice you’d see increasing the speed limit increase capacity up until some speed that reflects human abilities (but at which point you’d just stay at that capacity figure). I can’t think of why a lower speed limit would have a higher capacity.
In practice I don’t imagine anything would change. I find increased congestion increases the average speed people go (I think people are willing to speed up to match the flow of traffic but much less willing to slow down) up until some point where average speed falls because of general congestion.
Higher speeds mean greater separation between vehicles, which counteracts the higher speeds.
How does congestion increase average speeds. Isn't congestion by definition when there are too many vehicles to fit in the available capacity, which necessarily reduces speeds because of queuing....if you have lots of cars, but all traveling at the normal speed, you don't have congestion, you just have lots of cars.