Experiment Shows Traffic 'Shock Waves' Cause Jams

Galactic_grub writes "Japanese researchers recently performed the first experimental demonstration of a phenomenon that causes a busy freeway to inexplicably grind to a halt. A team from Nagoya University in Japan had volunteers drive cars around a small circular track and monitored the way 'shockwaves' — caused when one driver brakes — are sent back to other cars, caused jams to occur. Drivers were asked to travel at 30 kmph but small fluctuations soon appeared, eventually causing several vehicles to stop completely. Understanding the phenomenon could help devise ways to avoid the problem. As one researcher comments: 'If they had set up an experiment with robots driving in a perfect circle, flow breakdown would not have occurred.'"

Comments

Brakes. Not breaks.

[caluml]

1. It's brakes. Brakes. Breaks is when something stops working. 2. This is obvious to anyone who has driven much. Try not to use your *brakes* on the motorway. Try to "iron out" the waves by ever so slowly dropping back when you see them approaching.

physorg

[_14k4]

It's already been done here, on Slashdot - already solved by the math guys, outlined on physorg.

But really any time I can see math at work in my day-to-day commute, is a good day to me. Also, it's fun to reach out and "touch" the asshole 200 yards behind you...

1998 called!

[bigattichouse]

1998 called and wants Its amazing news back Except he even built animated Gifs to illustrate!

Re:Not that simple

[cbiltcliffe]

I really hope that this isn't truly a "new" discovery.

It's not. This guy was an amateur looking at the problem a decade ago.