Really TRUE odd factoids

[Supersuperleeds]

HERE is something totally counter-intuitive that I spotted earlier today... Building new roads can INCREASE traffic congestion! (Conversely, closing some roads can reduce congestion.)

Ben Elton did a great routine on this using kitchen bins as part of the analogy (not sure if that is the correct word?)

 

[Beebo]

Were you listening to Radio 4 at about 9 in the morning about a month ago?

Pod cast

 

[ColinJ]

Exactly what the M25 did because they added all the extra junctions. Let’s say it had one junction you might use it once for the novelty. Add two junctions north and south and suddenly it’s a quick way to get north / south round London. So more traffic uses it. Add two more junctions and suddenly it makes sense east / west. But junctions are now closer so it gets used for shorter trips and so on. The M25 encourages lots of short journeys which otherwise wouldn’t happen. Whilst the M25 might just about cope (it doesn’t really) all the adjoining roads do not.

Now imagine M25 didn’t exist and if you want to cross London to get somewhere. All those short journeys wouldn’t be made as crossing London wouldn‘t appeal.

All road building does is bring more vehicles out on the roads at any time.

I'm sure that you are right in that, but apparently even if all of the journeys are still made, average speeds can go up after removing road capacity because drivers modify their behaviour.

 

[Beebo]

If you started receiving £1000 a day some time in early 2017 by now you would be a millionaire. Just 3 years ago.

to be a billionaire you would have to start receiving £1000 per day in 719 BC

that’s the difference between a million and a billion.

 

[Pale Rider]

I'm sure that you are right in that, but apparently even if all of the journeys are still made, average speeds can go up after removing road capacity because drivers modify their behaviour.

Similarly, reducing speed limits on a crowded motorway can reduce journey times.

Transport engineers talk of the 'flywheel effect' - once traffic slows to a crawl it takes a long time to get it up to speed again.

This is less pronounced the slower you go.

 

[ColinJ]

Similarly, reducing speed limits on a crowded motorway can reduce journey times.

Transport engineers talk of the 'flywheel effect' - once traffic slows to a crawl it takes a long time to get it up to speed again.

This is less pronounced the slower you go.

I was just thinking about that! I saw a computer simulation somewhere which demonstrated it. Hang on - here you go ...

No speed limit:

Speed limit:

 

[cisamcgu]

Earthworm were extinct in Northern United States 10,000 years ago - an ice-age killed them

 

[wheresthetorch]

The one that reliably does my head in: there are more stars in the universe than grains of sand on the earth.

However . . . There are more trees on Earth than stars in the Milky Way galaxy, apparently.

 

[classic33]

99.86% of the solar system’s mass is found in the Sun. The majority of the remaining 0.14% is contained within the planets.

 

[classic33]

Each winter there are about 1 septillion (1, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000 or a trillion trillion) snow crystals that drop from the sky.

 

[twentysix by twentyfive]

There is a puzzle about the angular momentum in the solar system. I forget the details now but the puzzle suggests current theorising about the formation of the system is in error.

 

[wheresthetorch]

I may have posted this before, but if you fold a piece of paper 103 times, the thickness of the paper will be larger than the observable Universe. But you would need long arms.

Also, if you laid out all your arteries and veins in a long line, you would be dead.

 

[Ming the Merciless]

If you built a true scale model of the solar system with earth the size of a marble, it would be 176m away from the sun (which itself would have a diameter of 1.5m)

Pluto would be the size of a tennis ball and would be 7.6km away

The solar system is actually almost totally empty

There is a true scale model of the Solar system along the cycle way between York and Selby.

 

[Ming the Merciless]

I'm sure that you are right in that, but apparently even if all of the journeys are still made, average speeds can go up after removing road capacity because drivers modify their behaviour.

Yep it’s well researched and covered by those who know all the numbers and what impact it had.

 

[Ming the Merciless]

I may have posted this before, but if you fold a piece of paper 103 times, the thickness of the paper will be larger than the observable Universe. But you would need long arms.

Also, if you laid out all your arteries and veins in a long line, you would be dead.

You can’t fold paper 103 times