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Overtaking and going fast in urban areas is not only dangerous, but also useless: a mathematical demonstration (www.theguardian.com)
submitted 5 days ago by HaraldvonBlauzahn@feddit.org to c/europe@feddit.org
19 comments fedilink hide all child comments

cross-posted from: https://feddit.it/post/28637207

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

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[-] SomeOneWithA_PC@feddit.org 4 points 4 days ago

Bikes and Cars do not work well together. You will never have car free cities, even in small towns in EU, if you can't drive around it with a faster road. Cities should not be build around important short and fast traffic roads, but that is how they are grown historical. Situation in rural areas is also very different to bigger cities. I would also say 30 is far from great for bikes. Most normal people drive slower and some drive faster. Speed is not the answer. Cars and bikes need different lanes. Everything longer than ~25km to work will be for cars or public transport. A good transition to having better transport will take a long time and reducing speeds to 30 is not a good solution.

[-] HaraldvonBlauzahn@feddit.org 2 points 3 days ago

Bikes and Cars do not work well together.

You apparently have not seen Copenhagen. And yes, going 100% car-free is difficult. But in cities, you can get rid of 95% of cars. Myself, I never had one in 40 years, having lived in many different places, not only cities.

[-] SomeOneWithA_PC@feddit.org 1 points 7 hours ago

Isn't Copenhagen and other bike friendly cities using bike lanes specifically to not have Bikes and Cars on the same lane? Cars are also great and super flexible, but cities should be designed in a way you can get easily from one to another by car, bus or train without needing to drive through other cities. For smaller cities it would be ideal to get to its outskirts with great and cheap parking places and can change to public transport or smaller things like bike or e-roller or similar. Historical grown cities and driveways have the drawback of having main roads and only connections going through areas they should not. There is a lot more to good traffic planning than not overtaking and reducing speed limits to 30.

[-] gian@lemmy.grys.it 1 points 3 days ago

Copenhagen is big enough to have a good public transportation and obviously planned better.
Smaller cities cannot support or justify a public transportation system. True, in smaller cities you can walk or bike but you have not (for the same reasons) all the services you need near enough (schools, hospitals, malls, and others)

But in cities, you can get rid of 95% of cars.

In cities you can get rid of 95% of the time the cars are used, not of the cars themself. People do not live only in the city and not everything can be done using a public transport (or it is convenient)

Myself, I never had one in 40 years, having lived in many different places, not only cities.

Good for you, but I am afraid that you are more an edge case than a common case.

this post was submitted on 19 Apr 2026
199 points (100.0% liked)

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