LA traffic

[Mr. Pedantic]

Can someone explain to me the following situation:

I'm driving along, mid-Saturday afternoon (so shouldn't be too much traffic) at 50-70. You know, speed limit, flow of traffic, etc. etc. Then, out of the blue, everyone starts stopping. I go from 60 to literally a standstill in a quarter mile. We crawl along at 5-10MPH for around 5 minutes, then again, with no apparent trigger, everyone starts speeding up. Within another half mile, you're up to 70 again, and it's like everyone's forgotten it ever happened. And then in another couple miles, it happens again.

There is literally no reason I can see for everyone to stop. There's no accident, there's no merging traffic, there's no random truck cavalcade stopping everyone then magically disappearing. It's like out of the blue someone's like, hey, let's just screw over everyone behind me!

/r

I have a few theories for why this happens, but I wanted to hear what you guys thought.

 

[olds]

It's because people are dumb as rocks. I always joke that someone must have been on the side of the road tying their shoes and everyone had to slow down to look. Tying shoes? What is this witchcraft?!

 

[xanis]

Some good explanations here: http://trafficwaves.org/

 

[Mr. Pedantic]

Some good explanations here: http://trafficwaves.org/

HOLY SHIT

That's my theory exactly. I had no idea other people knew of this.

Do other people know about how the traffic lights are stupid as well?

 

[IronWing]

Traffic jams propagate upstream. The jam remains and continues to propagate long after the original impediment is cleared.


Also, watch the movie Koyaanisqatsi sometime.

 

[bradly1101]

Sometimes there's a hot chick who had a flat tire and stands beside hes car waiting for AAA, but she'll be gone by the time you get there. Also are you sure there is no billboard with more than two words or another hot chick on it in these areas?

 

[purbeast0]

it is because people in major metro areas are just shitty drivers. i see it all the time around here. i pretty much know when i will hit traffic before i get to the place because people are just stupid and slow down for no reason.

 

[IronWing]

The thing that puzzles me is that as one approaches an urban area the traffic congestion increases well before one reachs the first significant feeder ramp. It's like people majically appear on the highway just because there is a city ahead.

 

[Brian Stirling]

Face it, driving in socal just plain sucks almost any time of day. If it weren't for the hot women and amazing weather nobody would want to live there. But, because of the hot women and amazing weather too many people want to live there...


Brian

 

[db]

Residual slowing from previous incident.

 

[clamum]

I was wondering about this too recently, driving around the Ann Arbor, MI area to and (especially) from work. Interesting link that xanis posted. I actually usually try to drive at a constant slower speed like that link described, instead of the stop-and-go bullshit, but never noticed if there was constant spacing of the cars behind me. I'll have to remember that next time I get in a jam.