Breaking Up a Traffic Jam!

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Traffic Traffic-waves Traffic-jams Amasci Science Experiments Physics Chaos Shock-waves DIY Tricks Demonstrations Zen
wbeaty
  • By: wbeaty
  • Subscribers: 118
  • Updated: 04-Aug-08
  • Videos: 7
  • International Basic English
  • Comments: 26
  • Views: 79,608
  • Added: 28-Jul-08

Sometimes a single driver can vastly improve traffic.Drive like a trucker: keep a large space ahead of your car. This can erase the patterns of stop-and-go driving (wipe out the Traffic Waves.) It can also break up the clogged merge-zones at certain highway exit ramps.Also your daily commute becomes a Zen-like experience. No more rage-fest. See trafficwaves.orgNOTE WELL: in this video, I'm driving in the exit-only lane. (It's a merge-zone jam at a major city exit.) The lane to my right is another exit-only lane. The actual fast lane is TWO LANES RIGHT.

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Breaking Up a Traffic Jam!

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  • all sounds nice in theory

    but what about the poor drivers behind you, they must be pulling their hair out.

    By skoolboy 1217248474 Reply Spam [+3] Moderate Up Moderate Down
    • Pulling hair out?

      Nah, since it's fairly easy to pass me. Very few do so (like, only once or twice per week.) Instead, over several years I've noticed that more and more other commuters are "creating holes" and letting people merge there. Perhaps my behavior is infectious, and if one person lets people in, then others start doing it too? Maybe they all noticed that it really does "bust the jam" and speed things up? Or maybe they all read trafficwaves.org

      By wbeaty 1217922257 Reply Spam [+2] Moderate Up Moderate Down
    • yep - it could be helpful

      not in all the big cities though

      By kate-beckinsale-nude 1255627987 Reply Spam Moderate Up Moderate Down
    • This is something that I discovered by a...

      I have been utilizing the tried and true slower speeds because of better gas mileage. By NOT braking and speeding all the time, you save gas.

      There is also another more "Zen" effect that this relaxed and considerate driving has on others. I always if you are already late - You will still be late when you arrive - so long as you arrive. Think safely and and think "Zen"

      By Hypnoscientist 1223665780 Reply Spam Moderate Up Moderate Down
    • It's not "theory"

      I noticed several times that this daily traffic jam in the left-hand exit lane would totally vanish ahead of me. Very weird. How can one driver possibly have such an effect? It was because I'd been maintaining a large forward space. Unexpectedly this allows people to merge early. Since the whole jam was caused by "cheaters" down at the end... if the supply of "cheaters" dries up, the jam goes poof.

      This doesn't happen on most Seattle jams. The jam at the I-5 express lanes exit is "sensitive." It's easy to trigger a jam there... but also easy to wipe one away.

      By wbeaty 1217275593 Reply Spam Moderate Up Moderate Down
  • In Texas

    ... rules say to leave a 2 car gap in front of you at all times for safety reasons. The jam removal is secondary. :)
    Only wish we all followed that rule.

    By REDMATRIX 1219975799 Reply Spam [+2] Moderate Up Moderate Down
    • In reply to REDMATRIX:

      I agree Sir(or Ma'am, lol). The golden rule of leaving atLEAST a gap of 2 car lengths in front of you is just that, golden. This video is just one of thousands of other examples of why being a driver that follows the laws and rules both pays off to avoid hundreds of dollars of tickets but also ironically will get to your destination just as fast if not faster than a speeding/cheating/idiotic driver.

      In fact, if everyone left a decent gap in front of them, not only would traffic run smoothly, it'd run -faster- as well, probably up to(and LIMITING to) the speed limit.

      On a different note.. since I live in a town that isn't very congested or busy, the problems I typically face aren't of traffic jamming up but rather the complete opposite.

      People speed, never use their blinker, accelerate slow at stoplights, never stop at stop signs or right-of-reds, etc. It's quit aggravating to me since in my eyes, if you break one law, why not break another? I come to a full complete stop EVERY time and try my best to be conscious of my speed, while everyone else gets away with breaking the law literally 99% of the time. How do thse people justify themselves, let alone the cops that need to be issuing tickets that are doing the very same thing?

      Ah well.. thanks for reading. :3

      By IceHedge 1252075828 Reply Spam Moderate Up Moderate Down
  • You drive like a trucker!

    This is what truckers do by nature. At slower speeds there is a lot of gear shifting. From a dead stop to 25 MPH I'm already in 7th gear. If you can maintain a constant average speed you don't shift as much and it also saves fuel.

    By wavking 1251636435 Reply Spam Moderate Up Moderate Down
  • Australian freeway driving

    I came up with the same thing during my commuting a few years ago. Also, those electronic speed limit signs are nowhere near smart enough to actually achieve that, but certainly go some of the way. ... And it doesn't need to be backed up by radar speeding cameras. All that's necessary is a means to recommend the appropriate speed — the electronic sign, or a smart cruise control, which I kind of designed in my head, but never did anything with it.

    Also, when I used to commute, in my time for contemplation I realised that's what _marching_ is all about!

    For thousands of years, if you want to move a great mass of thousands of people as efficiently as possible, you''ve got to get them all to move in lock-step! Otherwise you've got all of these waves of people stopping and starting all the time!

    ... And I used to think that marching was just some stupid brainless thing military people did for no apparent reason!!

    By iangre 1251400059 Reply Spam Moderate Up Moderate Down
  • jeeez

    just watching your speed was pissing me off lol

    By slingblade05 1226178723 Reply Spam Moderate Up Moderate Down
    • So don't drive slow

      I'm driving at the same speed as the car ahead. But I'm preserving a large space and not zooming ahead for a 1/2 sec.

      But also I'm LETTING DRIVERS MERGE!!! But doesn't that slow everyone down? No, since tje flow is 1 to 2 seconds per car, and if I let someone merge ahead, I'll be two seconds late for work. That's nothing when compared to even a small jam.

      But if I don't let people merge, they'll force their way in anyway, which takes ten seconds or more. Or it triggers a persistant jam, which adds many minutes to my commute.

      So... attempting to speed during congestion makes you slow. Backing off will speed you up.

      Think like this: during a fire in a crowded restaurant, every second counts, right? So ...shouldn't everyone push hard ahead towards the door? Nope, since that clogs the doorway. Then you burn to death.

      By wbeaty 1234317408 Reply Spam Moderate Up Moderate Down
  • Great Video!

    When I lived in a city I used to practice smoothing out the flow of traffic. Most drivers behind me seemed to understand what I was doing. Only a few didn't get it, and you could always tell who they were!

    The DMV did a research study of two cars driving 20 miles over streets and highways. One car drove slowly and one car drove as fast as legally possible - you guessed it - there was only 2 minutes difference!

    There is a comedian who jokes about how folks act differently when they get in a car, verses standing in line at a grocery... funny but true.

    By Amazing Prostate 1221853377 Reply Spam Moderate Up Moderate Down
  • a new level of enlightenment

    Thank you Bill! I've always loved finding those pockets of space on the road. Recently I've started driving slower and leaving space for the calming effect, but I never realized that I could create space and help others too. I can't wait to get in the car tomorrow morning!

    By NarfBLAST 1221787715 Reply Spam Moderate Up Moderate Down
  • i drive this way

    all the time. It's funny I never really thought about until you pointed it out.

    By mattchapman 1220506556 Reply Spam Moderate Up Moderate Down
  • Another tip: double the impact

    I've been doing this in The Netherlands for years and indeed it works wonders! You mentioned the trucks, and a way to 'double your positive impact' is to stick next to a truck or a similar driver. Perhaps frustrating some of the people behind you (so don't leave a TOO big a gap), but generally making it easier to loosen the knots in front of you, since more people keep moving at the same speed.

    By noodlesoup 1219204389 Reply Spam Moderate Up Moderate Down
  • Epiphany!

    I've been driving this way on the Long Island Expressway for years. I have to admit that the reason I leave lots of room ahead of me is that it's more relaxing than being crammed up against the tail of the driver ahead.

    I even have little contests with myself to see how long I can go without hitting my brakes or coming to a full stop.

    And, yes, sometimes the people behind me seem to think that the four or five car lengths that I leave ahead of me is going to cause a huge delay for them. Well, that's just irrational but, as you say, they can pass me if they like.

    I like to think of the road as a river, with eddies and rapids. I'm the 'Huck Finn' of the L.I.E.

    By Constant Driver 1218843948 Reply Spam Moderate Up Moderate Down
  • Drive Like an Australian

    A friend of mine in Australia tells me that during rush-hour, they have have digital signs that dictate the speed limit in high density areas.

    This forces everyone to drive the same constant speed (could be as low as 15-20 mph on the highway). The same stretch of highway could have a different speed limit each day depending on the traffic volume.

    If everyone is driving the same speed limit with photo radar to enforce it, this helps eliminate the 'speed-up and brake' habits of drivers.

    By sheldoncoles 1218479738 Reply Spam Moderate Up Moderate Down
  • wow

    unfortunately, i cant do this in my country. no lane discipline or speed limits...

    By Chase me 1218399381 Reply Spam Moderate Up Moderate Down
    • In your country do truckers do it?

      > i cant do this in my country

      Watch the large trucks in your local traffic jams. If they can't maintain large forward space, then small cars can't do it either. But if you see trucks performing the "traffic smoothing" trick...

      By wbeaty 1218410462 Reply Spam Moderate Up Moderate Down
  • Wow, I got into the NY Times

    I was interviewed for NY Times article last week:

    THE URGE TO MERGE: SF CALDECOTT TUNNEL
    nytimes com/2008/08/03/magazine/03traffic-t html

    Amazingly enough, experts interviewed say the same thing: best driver behavior involves leaving large spaces. Then all lanes merge late. (I've always noticed that early merging opens an empty lane and creates "zoom-ahead cheaters," while late merging fixes this problem.)

    By wbeaty 1218360522 Reply Spam Moderate Up Moderate Down
  • It's worth a try

    In Jersey and New York this could be a real timesaver..I'm going to try it..Thanks for the tip..

    all the best,
    Doc

    By Doc Jakson 1218309215 Reply Spam Moderate Up Moderate Down
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