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Chaos and Your Everyday Traffic Jam
An anonymous reader writes "What causes these mysterious traffic jams that continually appear throughout the day for no reason whatsoever? Is it simply the fact that most people just don't have a clue how to drive? That's very possible, and in reality there are so many variables involved in something like a traffic jam. But is it possible that the entire traffic jam could be both the continuing and end result of a chain reaction set in motion by a single driver who was in too much of a hurry?"
There's actually a field of study for this: Traffic Analysis. Of course, this is not to be confused with all of the material out there relating to internet/network/packet analysis.
This mainly deals with optimizing freeways and the like, based on people's behavior in traffic, and the ripple affects.
The troll with karma.
Uh, merging in at the end is exactly what they SHOULD be doing. Think of it as a "zipper" that closes at the end of the lane. It works out better for people in both lanes. The people that merge in early actually make the continuing lane slower for everyone.
You are way too optimistic. Accidents don't happen when drivers are paying attention to what they are doing. Even when you aren't paying attention, most of the time nothing happens. Most accidents are the result of failing to plan for the worst case, which every now and then it does happen.
the assumption is that the average person requires about 2/5th of a second to react,
That's very fast. Reaction to an unexpected event is 0.5-1 second. Most safety studies put 1 second as the reaction time.
What are the actual chances of this happening to any responsible, alert driver doing 70 MPH?
Responsible and alert drivers are the minority. Rules are made for everyone, so they take into account the fact that people is chatting with passengers, looking at the mountain on the left, thinking about their children, and so on. When you factor in the boringness of a long drive and all the possible distractions, even 1 second may be too low.
You need to plan for the worst case, not for the best.