Name: Anonymous 2006-04-16 12:35
in seattle...
during rush hour, all the freeways will be filled for about an hour
I will guess the average commute with time actually on the freeway is about half an hour
...meaning that the entire system empties and refills once each rush hour.
there are two of these cycles per day.
the traffic backup will extend from the northern suburbs to the southern suburbs on I-5, giving a length of about 30 miles with an average lane width of about 8 (4 in each direction)
traffic backup on 520 will be about 5 miles at 4 lanes
405 will be about 20 miles at 6 lanes
I-90 will be about 10 miles at 6 lanes
240+20+120+60=440 lane-miles of backup
*2 for empting and refilling is 880 lane-miles of backup.
an average car will take up about 20 feet, including stopping distance
20 feet = 0.00378787879 miles
this gives 232,320 cars that pass through during rush hour.
at about 1.5 people per car, this gives 348,480 people, about 5% of the population of the greater seattle area.
if each person spends half an hour in the traffic, this gives 174240 person-hours wasted per rush hour
348480 hours per day.
at an average of 70 years lifetime, this is 96 lifetimes per day wasted in traffic.
my estimates consist of guesswork at all points, but even if I am off by several orders of magnitude, this is still more than signifigant.
during rush hour, all the freeways will be filled for about an hour
I will guess the average commute with time actually on the freeway is about half an hour
...meaning that the entire system empties and refills once each rush hour.
there are two of these cycles per day.
the traffic backup will extend from the northern suburbs to the southern suburbs on I-5, giving a length of about 30 miles with an average lane width of about 8 (4 in each direction)
traffic backup on 520 will be about 5 miles at 4 lanes
405 will be about 20 miles at 6 lanes
I-90 will be about 10 miles at 6 lanes
240+20+120+60=440 lane-miles of backup
*2 for empting and refilling is 880 lane-miles of backup.
an average car will take up about 20 feet, including stopping distance
20 feet = 0.00378787879 miles
this gives 232,320 cars that pass through during rush hour.
at about 1.5 people per car, this gives 348,480 people, about 5% of the population of the greater seattle area.
if each person spends half an hour in the traffic, this gives 174240 person-hours wasted per rush hour
348480 hours per day.
at an average of 70 years lifetime, this is 96 lifetimes per day wasted in traffic.
my estimates consist of guesswork at all points, but even if I am off by several orders of magnitude, this is still more than signifigant.