The Real Cause of Traffic
Last Modified: 03/07/2020
Find out how the laws of physics apply to the flow of traffic.
- 1Drivers know that accidents, construction, stalled vehicles...
- 2...and just the sheer number of people on the road all contribute to traffic.
- 3The real culprit, however, is speed...
- 4...or rather, sudden random fluctuations in speed.
- 5When drivers travel at a constant rate, traffic flows freely.
- 6But when even a single driver hits the brakes, the flow is interrupted,...
- 7...causing a chain reaction among the vehicles behind that driver.
- 8A traffic jam occurs when drivers brake abruptly.
- 9This causes the vehicles behind them to slow down or even come to a stop.
- 10Vehicles enter the back of the jam at a faster rate...
- 11...than the slower moving lead vehicles can accelerate out of it.
- 12The result: a traffic jam persists until the volume of incoming vehicles...
- 13...drops low enough to allow the lead vehicles to restore the flow.
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