The Phenomenon Known As... ... a traffic jam

[Qop 0]

Everyone knows this horrible event:

 

"The traffic jam"

 

I don't if you have super long traffic jams where you live, but here in holland (where I live) it can get very mean. While I was in a jam, a thought suddenly struck me:

 

"How can there be such a thing as a traffic jam? Why doesn't everyone just drive forward?"

I came up with three possible explanations:

 

Traffic lights

At smaller highways (2-4 lanes of traffic) it can happen that a few roads can cross it, for example from village to village. This requires traffic lights, otherwise it would be chaos. When traffic lights turns red, you stop. So does the car behind you, and the one behind that one, and the on behind that one, and ... (you get the picture). That holds the traffic up big-time.

 

Accidents

Accidents happen. Sometimes even serious accidents, spread over 1-2 lines. So they require to 'shut down' these two lanes. Everyone slows down, cause they need to switch lanes, and when it's busy on the road: a traffic jam is the result. After you pass the accident, the lanes are free again and the traffic jam ends.

 

But this reason really surprised me:

 

The harmonica-effect

For some reason, a car on the highway suddenly needs to brake. That has a minimal effect on the whole highway behind him: the car behind him has to brake too. And the car behind the first one, and the next one, etc. This 'wave' developes and grows until it gets so big that after a while you get whole traffic jams due to braking cars.

 

The first car brakes.

 

The second car has to break if he doesn't want to crash into the first one.

 

This causes the third car to break. Meanwhile the first car can accelerate again.

 

Can you see the harmonica pattern in it?

 

 

 

For those disbelievers out there, I searched the net and came up with this little handy explanation:

 

Traffic waves

 

So there you have it. Some research in the strange, collective happening know as 'traffic jams'. But I feel there must be more reasons than just these three. Can anyone come up with some more?

[@non 0]

I don't really go out often so bad traffic doesn't really affect me much..it is still an issue in this country though..

[Brian1405241474 0]

Traffic in the United States has become a problem. From small towns with just a few stoplights to large cities where it could take an hour just to get downtown, the problem with increased traffic needs to be dealt with by our government officials.In times passed, most high school students were not allowed to drive cars to school. Now those who don't drive are in the minority and yet, many could take the bus home.It used to be in the first year of university, a student was expected to stay on campus and study, so cars were forbidden until they were upper classmen. Now, each student has a car, which has to be driven to the local restaurants or stores, and they don't know the town. Not knowing where the drug store is can cause a traffic jam when one person makes an illegal u-turn and an accident occurs.I know someone who lives near Houston, Texas and when they make plans for an evening out, they have to take into consideration the traffic situation. They will go very early to avoid the heavy traffic, not to mention construction. Then, to avoid traffic on the way back, they often leave early. This takes careful planning. Traffic is made worse by those who do not know the area and drive slower to look for street signs. Cell phone using drivers don't make traffic situations less stressful, they are an accident waiting to happen.I wish there was a solution for traffic jams and accidents. Maybe the state police and local police could offer some suggestons that the traffic engineers have failed to take into considertation.Maybe one day, traffic jams will be a thing of the past. I certainly hope so.Keep on posting.

[iGuest 3]

Traffic in the U.S. has become a big problem, it is almost horrific at what people will do just to get ahead of the other car. Like yesterday for example, a lady on her cell phone beeps at me for crossing the street when she had to stop and didnt even have her eyes on the road.

[Aryan1405241506 0]

there could be various other reasons for traffic jams, one of them being lane driving...or the lack of it rather.if a car does not stick to its lane and changes to the next one there my be disturbance.another is police posts where cops put blockades on the road to allow only one car to pass at a time....this is when they might be looking for a car.

[Moody 0]

Of course there are various reasons why traffic jams occur. Most of them are mentioned before. But I think getting rid of them is more important.What causes traffic jams is mainly human behaviour. Agressive driving, accidents. There are other reasons as well, but we are the reason in general. So what should get us rid of traffic jams? We should! But that seems to be the problem: when the person in front of you starts driving, you don't start the exact same moment. The delay might just be a couple of seconds, but a hundred cars later people are still standing still. Of course this problem is not solved by just starting to drive. But then, what does solve the problem? Suggestions, anyone? And why are we not social enough to prevent traffic jams from starting?

[organicbmx 0]

sorry to be not very specific but i just want to back up about that wave effect: i have this on the authoity of a person with a very high qualification in the field of the flow of object that even with no blockage at all changes in speed can cause traffic jams.

[Neverseen 0]

heh.. the answer is very simple.. too much cars and not enough of roads.. yup, that's it only the rich cities are actually having this problem.. go to some village in Russia or Africa and ask them if "traffic jam" is a big problem for them you'll see that a lot of them don't even know what that means. In fact it's all about money. Car dealers want to sell cars and rich people want to buy them. Here in Europe almost every family has more than one car. One for the husband, another one for the wife, if their children are old enough they have their own cars as well... that's how it works. I think the solutution would be: taking one car for several persons instead of one car per person... or another solution would be building more roads.. but the last one isn't as easy as that because there's not enough of space for that in the big cities.

[sickgrrl723 0]

sorry to be not very specific but i just want to back up about that wave effect: i have this on the authoity of a person with a very high qualification in the field of the flow of object that even with no blockage at all changes in speed can cause traffic jams.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

i've found that the majority of traffic jams i've been in have been for this reason... most of the time it's because of merging. ex: the entrance lanes of the freeway merging into the actual freeway...

[ASR1405241491 0]

Yeah, nobody enjoys being in traffic... Like myself I spend probably half of my work hours stuck in traffic... I hear on average, a person spends probably 2 to 3 years in traffic their whole life... Thats horrible, considering a year takes so long... Well have a great day...Chin chin...