Posted by
Waski_the_Squirrel on Friday, July 25, 2008 4:33:53 PM
Yesterday, I outlined a
Business Week article and spoke on the importance of general skills. Today, I wanted to look at a specific application of Physics that could face any ordinary citizen. Imagine your town wants to redo an intersection to improve traffic flow.
Let me describe a terrifying moment in my driving life. I was about to move to North Dakota. I drove down town to pick up a few last minute things for my trip. At that time, my hometown still had only one stoplight. It was one of the older style that ran on a timer, regardless of traffic. I happened to stop right at the red light, so I had a front row seat. When the light turned green, something made me stay in place. A car to my right decided to run the red light. Another car collided with it. Had I gone, I'd have hit the car that ran the red light.
Now the accident isn't really the point of the story. The point is the frustration of a red light intersection, especially at a point like this where two busy highways cross in the center of town. Cars sit at wait, even if there is no traffic going through the light. At this intersection, it was possible to wait through two light changes. In college, I even did a computer simulation of red lights to illustrate how they bunch traffic up and slow it down.
Now, suppose I could just pull through the intersection (unless a car was coming). I would turn right, travel around a circle, and get out where I wanted to. Such a structure is called a
roundabout. If a yield sign were put at every entry into the roundabout, traffic could usually flow smoothly. In fact, this traffic structure has been quite successful in the UK. Look for the "magic roundabout" in this
Wikipedia article.
However, just try getting one into an American city. Americans are scared of them because they are unfamiliar and because America has tried them before...badly. Such an intersection has many advantages, but it will be fought tooth and nail. However, this is a great chance to use a little Physics. It's very simple Physics, and it goes to show that science is a great general skill. A blogger in Anaheim, CA did a very basic
analysis of stoplights and fuel efficiency.
It is a simple example of how a little understanding of Physics can help taxpayers make intelligent decisions on the things they are going to pay for with their own taxes.
Now, I've gotten a bit long, so I'll finish the science and arts in yet another post.