Let me get this straight, you think that on average our roads are only carrying 5% of their theoretical maximum capacity because of incompetent drivers? Or do you meant that 95% of our roads don't carry their maximum capacity at some point in time becasue of incompetent drivers? Or are you averaging in the fact that many roads are empty for significant periods of time (which of course is not the result of incompetent drivers)? It is a poorly worded question and a non-sensical answer. Heck, I suspect many roads are running at well over their designed capacity during peak traffic hours. I suppose if everyone drove perfectly, the capacity would be higher, but unless you know the buttumptions, how can you decide the roads are at, below, or above capacity? If everyone drove at the same speed, say 70 mph, you would not need more than one lane in each direction, and the capacity for the road would be directly related to the space between cars. If cars maintained a 2 sec interval, one car would pbutt any spot on the road every 2 seconds - right? At 70 miles per hour, 2 second is equivalent to around 200 feet, which is equivalent to 26 cars per mile and 1800 cars past any point per hour. Is this capacity? I don't think so, but don't know what would be. I suppose if cars were bumper to bumper in the right lane, all doing 70, you could have 330 cars per mile, and a car pbutting a spot every 1.62 seconds - 2,200 per hour. I am buttuming everybody is in the right lane, since they are all driving 70, and no one needs to pbutt (you know keep right except to pbutt). Is this capacity? I am pretty sure I-40 from Raleigh to RTP carries a lot more than this every morning during rush hour, but then all 3 or 4 lanes are filled. So do you think capacity for an 8 lane highway (4 in each direction) would be 4 lanes filled with cars bumper to bumper at 70 miles per hour? This would be somewhere around 8,800 cars per hour in each direction, except it makes no allowance for cars changing lanes as they get on or off the road or for semis, or even medium sized trucks. For my theoretical 8 lane highway, I suspect maximum capacity is probably less that 3500 cars per hour in each direction. So do you think many 8 lane highways are only moving 175 cars per hour in each direction (5% of 3500)?
Ed
