We have all been caught in a traffic jam with no actual cause. One minute, you’re cruising along at road speed, and the next minute you’re hissing and spitting at the windshield because the moron in front of you has stopped. Usually it’s not that moron’s fault, because someone stopped before him. The theory behind this sort of traffic congestion is called a shockwave traffic jam, and until recently, it has only been studied in computer simulations, not real life experiments. But now, the Japanese have replicated this daily phenomenon in the laboratory setting.
The only issue I have with this whole study is why it took so long to replicate, or possibly why someone actually bothered to do it. I mean, honestly, it seems like a huge waste of time to bother doing this in a controlled lab setting when anybody who has ever driven in any major city could have told you how it happens (morons slow down for no good reason) and why it happens (morons who can’t drive are allowed to drive). Write me a check, I just explained traffic jams!
Explaining how something happens, and why it happens, is not as important as stopping it, at least in this case. Who cares about the why? All I want to know is how do urban planners keep it from happening, so I don’t curse and snarl through yet another drive to/from work. It’s not good for my blood pressure.
Tags: urban planning, traffic, traffic jams, traffic flow
