15 February

When a commercial plane flies, it occupies an area in space. But it also occupies an envelope of time. A schedule. This spaces planes out to allow them all to fly as quickly and as safely as possible. This is a key function of speed limits on roads too. A speed limit isn’t just there for safety, it’s designed to spread cars out, so they won’t all bunch up and form traffic jams. ‘Jamitons’ (read the article), they’re fascinating. The thing that frustrates me most on the roads is that so many won’t follow the speed limit. Always either too fast or too slow. Both types of driver create traffic jams, by closing up gaps and this then cascades to other cars. As the article says, the increasing use of automation in driving will help fix this, individual human drivers are too stupid to do it.