One of the most annoying things to me is when I am going a steady 65 mph on the way to the beach, then so unexpectedly, just stop. I am in bumper to bumper traffic for twenty minutes, and there is no way around it. Then, like magic, the road is totally clear and I am back to 65 mph as opposed to 10. Why do these random traffic jams happen? And how do they all of a sudden go back to completely normal?
There are many main causes of traffic jams. First, traffic occurs mostly within rush hour. Based on a normal 8:00-5:00 work day, traffic jams on major highways can start as early as 7:00 and stay that way for an hour. Then at the end of the day, during the hours of 4:30-6, traffic picks up heavily again. Personally, on my way to high school, I would plan accordingly on when the best time to leave in the morning was, to avoid work traffic. I learned if I left at 7:28, I would not hit any traffic at all; however, if I left just three minutes after, there was a possibility of me being late for school. Everyone just has to find that time that is right for them.
Second, if there was many traffic jams during this rush hour, it is more likely for a crash to happen. People get irritated and just want to get home after a long work day, and sitting in traffic is not helping that. People will try to swerve in and out of others cars who are moving at a slow pace with the traffic. When they try to get around people and beat the system, traffic accidents happen. This then leads to grabbing the attention of other drivers. For example, if someone is passing an accident, at rush hour, many cars are going to stop and look. If this is during rush hour, and many cars are slowing down to see the damage, this can cause the traffic to be backed up even more. According to the link above, construction is also a factor into traffic jams. When cars need to merge into one lane of traffic, it can also delay you getting home even more than it already has if it is rush hour, an accident occurred, and now construction all in one.
Looking for the scientific approach on why traffic jams occur, I came across an article on ZME Science by Tom Vanderbilt. Vanderbilt states, “You are not driving into a traffic jam, a traffic jam is basically driving into you.” He claims that traffic jams are ultimately our fault and gives multiple reasons for why this may be so. His main solution for helping there be less traffic is for more people to use public transportation. First, this would reduce the number of cars on the road, which would make it less likely for jams to happen. His next reasoning revolves around an experiment that proves people cannot drive at a constant speed. You can see while watching this video in the link, that at random times some jams occur within the circle of cars, merely because some are slowing down then going fast again at random times.
I believe the experiment that Vanderbilt explained, when the cars were all put in one big circle, can be a reason why there are random traffic jams, then it all of a sudden clears up. Vanderbilt also relates the “familiarity effect” to people avoiding traffic laws when close to home. For example, you are less likely to stop at a stop sign a mile from your house because you have gone through it a million times. We do not realize that our lazy driving techniques at times have a negative effect on traffic.
One more reason for traffic jams occurring randomly is related to the emergent phenomenon. This link states, “Tiny random motions can trigger large results.” These jams can just emerge randomly from a couple peoples’ tiny mistakes. Traffic jams are quite annoying, but happen anywhere. Hopefully, at least for the people reading this blog, we will become more conscious of why traffic jams happen and the little things we can do to try and avoid them.
Cool topic! I think something else you could’ve taken a look at is the science behind the time it takes for a person to react (specifically when to move forward when in traffic). This can be affected by a number of things: stress, time of day, lack of sleep, music being played on the radio, etc. The sum of everyone’s reaction times makes traffic so much slower. Another interesting thing you could look into if you want to continue to research about traffic jams would be a comparison of an automatic car in traffic to a stick shift. Aside from it being a very different experience for the driver, it could also potentially impact reaction time, the possibility of crashes, etc. Just an idea 🙂
Traffic is not anyones favorite. Living in New York, I am a pro at sitting in traffic. Going to the city is always a hassle and going to the Hamptons on weekends in the summer feels as if its never ending. People have suggested adding more lanes to reduce congestion but I do not think this would be very beneficial. In fact, I think it would just hurt our environment more by knocking down millions of wild life habitats that exist in the unknown woods lurking on the side of almost all highways.
The fact that traffic jams occur is certainly frustrating in all regards. The problem seems to be logically fixed by adding more lanes or having drivers give less regard to other accidents on the road. However this solution would not be cost effective and would not defer drivers from slowing down. So in the end there may actually be no plausible solution to fix it altogether. I think the problem could be reduced by educating drivers that are on the road. They could be taught to remove the vehicles from the road if they are involved in a smaller accident, and have other drivers pay attention to the road instead of the accidents that occur (know as rubbernecking I believe). I also agree with your comment of proximity to home. I personally tend to drive faster close to home because I am familiar with the area. I could see how in an urban environment this affect could cause more accidents.
It is clear that traffic is an extremely annoying occurrence that seems unavoidable a certain times of day. I often ponder of ways that it may be prevented. Unfortunately, in our society, I do not see a substantial popularity increase in public transportation unless a significant market decline occurs. It takes millions of dollars to expand highways as well making it often unfeasible to do. I would love to see a test of traffic if a speed limit in the left lane was lifted. Would this improve accidents increasing traffic or would this allow more aggressive drivers to get home without having to constantly change lanes? I was unable to find a clear study that shows this would have a beneficial outcome, but it should certainly be considered.
Everyone hates traffic. I feel as though every single time I drive on the highway there is road work. When the road work closes off one of the lanes, the speed slows down quickly, and the drivers have to maneuver through the narrow lanes. I have also realized that our natural curiosity to stare at incidents on the road do cause the pace of the traffic to slow down immensely. They are coming up with ways to avoid traffic now. I don’t know if you’ve heard of the app called Waze but it’s a navigation app that has a lot more perks to it than the regular GPS apps.