The Traffic Paradox: How Traffic Starts From Nothing

Let me explain the science…

The Traffic Paradox… how can traffic start from nothing. In this experiment, about 20 car drivers were told to drive at exactly 30km/h. But some people drive slightly faster (maybe 30.1mkm/h) and some drive slower (29.9 km/h). Because of this one car eventually has to stop, leading into a chain reaction of stops that create a traffic jam. No wonder traffic is always so bad!
#science #scienceexplained #learning #traffic

[tomasmartinez]

Fun fact: this is what I remember from a Ted talk, phantom traffic occurs because of human error, people can't accelerate fast enough and every vehicle accelerate at a different rate, to solution this all cars have to accelerate at the same time and rate, something humans can't do but machine can

[whowhatwhydoyouknow]

As a motorcyclist, there are times I will lane split through like 2 km of traffic, only to see there's nothing in front of the queue stopping everyone

[janeylaney]

I'm stuck in LA traffic every day and one thing I noticed is people squish themselves forward (nearly tailgating) because the second you leave a reasonable gap in front of you, five cars start squeezing in front of you causing you to pound on your brakes anyway. They see the empty space as an opportunity for them to occupy that space. It's brutal out here.

[Unaperitafeliz]

-Hey buddy, how long have you been at this roundabout?
-Brother, I was born here

[vincea]

Exactly why it's so important to merge AT THE SAME SPEED as the traffic.

[NOTORIOUS_BASHER]

Driving yesterday, there was a traffic jam, gps said 20 minute delay in my route., so it offered and alternative route down a back road that would skip the congestion, turns out the detour to avoid the jam was the cause of the jam. Everyone cutting back into traffic a few miles away created the original back up.. sometimes its better to maintain your lane and be patient..

[AUT]

so traffic basicly means there is an idiot somewhere infront of me who cant drive on a steady pace, gotcha

[ghosttrain]

It's always that one person that randomly slows down for no reason then speeds up

[vmmense]

traffic starts because someone’s in the left lane going 50 and two randoms driving side by side in the middle lanes. now we all bunched up trying to figure out how to get around them!

[The_angry_swe]

There’s always that one guy going 10mph below the speed limit

[chrisfischer]

It usually just takes that one scary ass driver to ruin it for everyone else.

[kylesunderman]

I wrote a paper in college on this phenomenon. It boils down to differing levels of motor-vehicle skills combines with a lack of awareness and, more often than not, greed.

[lvrrylxrd]

I genuinely had figured this out just always driving and noticed if everyone slowly creeps and not stops completely, we would be less in traffic

[d.j.wattson]

Perfect lesson in why a cushion distance is so important. Not only does it give you enough time to gradually break, it keeps traffic flowing since nobody is abruptly stopping and creating this effect. Looking at you lifted truck drivers(some not all) and luxury car drivers(like 90% of them though).

[additionsubtraction]

So I literally just learned about this in my transportation engineering class a few days ago. What happens is basically everyone starts off driving the same speed and maintains the same distance from one another, eventually someone speeds up causing them to get too close to the vehicle in front which means they have to hit their breaks and the shock wave moves backwards down the circle as one vehicle after another slows down, eventually that vehicle who initially hit their breaks picks their speed back up again and then the recovery wave happens and one by one everyone picks their speed back up.

[Dbofly]

What really gets me is that this is exactly how it looks on a 3 lane sometimes. Cracks me up. You watch the left lane bog itself down, and no one gets over until they see everyone else passing them. Throw in a guy or two with a real ego, and you have lanes that come to dead stop. Now you have to go flat-out, just to merge to another lane. Otherwise, you are trapped.

[Snipethebambi]

One of the best ways you can mitigate this slowdown is to maintain the same following distance at all time which then allows in turn for all vehicles to proceed at a constant pace, not sending a chain of starting and stopping down the line of traffic. This will also be a-lot more gentle on ur car as you have to start and stop less often saving brake pads and gas.

[siopowar]

It's always the people likely to tailgate. Their overcorrection when they get too close causes a chain reaction

[altimuschungus]

All you’ve proven is that it only takes one idiot behind the wheel to cause traffic.

[BountyTheGod]

Ive known about this for years, some people like to get where theyre going in a timely manor and others like to take their sweet time.