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?"

Comments

I know, I know!!

[quokkapox]

"What causes these mysterious traffic jams that continually appear throughout the day for no reason whatsoever?

Too many cars?

Roads and CSMA/CD

[rar42]

I'm inclined to compare roads to shared medium Ethernet. As the traffic builds up you get more 'collisions' and both systems have collision detection built-in.

With Ethernet, as the 'traffic' builds to about 40% of the theoretical capacity, collisions become the norm and the re-tries start to overwhealm the system and it locks. With roadways, as the traffic builds to a certain limit, then awareness of potential collisions magnifies in the drivers, so reactions to situations increases and the road stalls. This is why variable speed limits work, because the road and drivers can cope with more vehicles if there is a lower maximum speed.

Re:On a very busy road...

[Alioth]

Oh, I do that. The thing that annoys me is when I see trouble ahead and start to slow, as soon as the tiniest gap opens, someone in an adjacent lane leaps in. It's so frustrating. Many of the problems are caused by poor 'me first' road discipline, for example, when approaching a constriction, so many drivers go right to the end and try and force their way in - and it's not helped by people not letting adjacent lanes merge in good time before the obstruction.

The art of proper merging should be something taught to drivers and tested on the driving test.

Re:slow ass drivers

[beelsebob]

I'd agree with you partially, slow drivers getting in the way is a major cause here. But I'd suggest that it's usually actually the person in the expensive powerful car being impatient that causes the major tail backs.

Here in Britain, I drive a small Skoda, it doesn't go too fast, but it's certainly no snail (it can do well over 100 if I really wanted to). I tend to drive down motorways at 75 or 80 mph (very naughty, I know, the speed limit is 70). The thing that I observe most often is that if I pull out to overtake some slower moving traffic (a lorry, or someone doing 70), there's usually some ass hole in a beemer, a merc or an audi comes roaring up behind me at 100mph, slams on the breaks because he realises a bit too late that there's someone driving at a sane speed, and then proceeds to tail you 5m from your bumper until you deign to move over and let the selfish twat past.

Re:It's both!

[aderuwe]

Different issue.

The SUV driver should have at least touched the break to clue in those behind. That he didn't is deserving of having his driver's license taken away.
This has nothing to do with car separation. It just so happens that an idiotic separation of hundreds of feet would have helped in this case.

People who drive feeling as though they are _moving through traffic_ are what causes problems.
You should drive _with_ traffic, be a _part of traffic_. There are no individuals in traffic - we are all one whole. The Traffic.
Drive with this in mind, and you'll increase your driving skill by orders of magnitude.

(Of course none of this _really_ matters even if it is the truth, because of all the other individuals considering themselves the most important pricks in traffic / the universe...)

(And yes, this means that I break speed limits whenever moving with traffic requires it. This is a natural conclusion.)

Cheers.