Automobile traffic passes a point P on a road of width w ft at an average rate of R vehicles per second. Although the arrival of automobiles is irregular, traffic engineers have found that the average waiting time T until there is a gap in traffic of at least t seconds is approximately T = teRt seconds. A pedestrian walking at a speed of 3.5 ft/s requires t = w/3.5 s to cross the road. Therefore, the average time the pedestrian will have to wait before crossing is f(w, R) = (w/3.5)ewR/3.5 s. (Round your answers to one decimal place.)
(a) What is the pedestrian's average waiting time if w = 25 ft and R = 0.36 vehicle per second?
(b) Use the linear approximation to estimate the increase in waiting time if w is increased to 26 ft.
(c) Estimate the change in waiting time if the width is increased to 27 ft and R decreases to 0.35. s What is the new estimated waiting time?
(d) What is the rate of increase in waiting time per 1-ft increase in width when w = 30 and R = 0.32 vehicle per second?