In theory, the practice and theory are the same and people actually arrive at the same time. In practice, people just jump the red light, climb onto the footpath, drive on the wrong side, etc. and beat the traffic time by 10-20 minutes

Joke's on the math. In my city people who overtake dangerously also just go through a red light anyway. Idiots.

Edit: only once I witnessed the sweet sweet karma. Very smart person was going in the bus lane to overtake everybody else. But another very smart person just wanted to get into the bus lane as well to overtake everybody else. "Crash" (well, luckily only dented cars) followed, but I guess they were both late to their important destinations than everybody waiting in line.

This doesn't take into account the vast safety benefits of getting away from incompetent/inattentive drivers. I'm not necessarily passing you to "get there" faster, it's pretty easy to tell when a driver has no clue what they're doing and I don't want to have anything to do with that shit.

I actually have no clue if it doesn't take that into account, I didn't read the article, but you see what I'm saying.

This is where you get to properly reducing lanes can improve speeds.

My town has a major road lined with strip malls that used to be two lanes in each direction. It was also one of the most dangerous and aggravating roads as there was always someone maneuvering for position, and sudden stops or lane changes when someone wanted to turn.

Then a few years back they restriped it, plus coordinated the lights. Now it’s one lane in each direction and that lane is a through lane. Every strip mall gets a dedicated turn lane, so there’s no more reason to maneuver, no more sudden stops or lane changes. The stop lights are more likely to let you through.

Now it’s clear and measurable, everyone’s individual speed is down, accidents are down, but stopping for any reason is way down so you get through the busy section noticeable faster. And it’s much calmer

Till first light - yes. But then I won't get the penalty of you being slow or on your phone. You won't be behind me at the second light.

I see this every week when I drive to the office. Most of the route is 20mph and single lane. I go at the speed limit and every 2/3 weeks one will overtake me. I'll then see them at the next light, then there next one, then the roundabout, etc for the next 30 minutes. I'll usually then go past them as theres one junction with 2 lanes and they always seem to go in the "fast" lane so they end up behind me when it goes down to one. Makes me so happy everytime!

Sometimes you see it when walking even in a black traffic spot - you'll get to the lights before the cars you've passed sitting there.

Im doing to build my fitness up to cycle the route and think it'll take roughly the same time.

Unfortunately the route is really difficult and long on public transport - it's easy to get into central and back but trying to go across the edge to the other side was never designed for

You’re also wasting gas accelerating to speeds that don’t get you anywhere any faster

Assuming that the traffic light changes colour based on a set time cycle rather than a sensor, and that the cars are travelling on a single-lane road, the results reveal that, taking into account the probabilities of each of the four scenarios, on average the possible gains and losses in spacing between the cars balance exactly.

... that's the opposite of most lights where I live. Even at midnight hours where many switch to timed-mode, there are many that won't change at-all unless a heavy-enough vehicle is in certain lanes, and even many cars get stuck having to exercise the rules about such that were meant for motorcycles and bicycles.

Unless I am following a very heavy vehicle that takes a long time to get up to speed, I find there is almost no reason to pass the other traffic. Very seldom do the cars dashing around me get to the next light before it changes unless they are exceeding the speed limit by excessive amounts in which they are even more likely to cause a crash and still not beat me to the next light or other destination.

This happens with me all the time in my e-bike, max speed is 40 or 50 in some roads, and I can go confortable at 30. They horn me, overpass me only to me to catch them on the next red and I pass them again

I always say to myself when someone impatiently overtakes me: "See you at the next red light!"

I have experienced this. Someone with a distinctive enough car will get annoyed at my hypermiling and speed around. More often than not having to stop suddenly at the next light while I glide in but maybe they just make it. Later though I will be gliding in just as the green changes and they are there stopped while I just coast on through starting to accelerate as distance increases.

When you filter at a red light on a motorcycle and the driver that was aggressively swerving all over the place yells about how dangerous and illegal it is.

This matches my intuition. I extremely rarely do any city driving (I don't even own a car anymore) but like... You're not going to go that much faster. You're probably not driving very far. The total amount of time can't be that big.

Yeah but what about when you leave the city and you just happen to pass that one car that wants to do 30 in a 60 on a straight road. Worth.

My mental model is slightly different. I think of average speed of the car between source and destination. Every segment of the road will have an average speed at a given time, which may vary depending on the time of the day. This average speed is dictated by numerous factors, including traffic lights, number of slow vehicles on the road, speed limits, etc. You cannot really go significantly higher than this average speed, even if you try as aggressively as possible.

There are exception, especially in Asian roads. If you are a large vehicle, who doesn't care about the law and limits, and they do very aggressive driving, then they go at a larger average speed. I have some completely asshole private bus services in my country.

No surprise there. I think people do it not to be faster but because they like the acceleration. That feeling of being pushed back into your seat pulling 0.1 Gs, man, it gets the small penis going!