um why are there sections of freeways (no interchange) that just suddenly stop

[holden j caufield]

I always run into these sections, there is no accident, no cars pulled to the side, no interchange or anything and I'll be going 70mph and all of a sudden there is a sudden stop. Then traffic speeds up to like 60mph again? Socal traffic I will never understand

 

[Brainonska511]

People want to stop and smell the roadside garbage.

 

[aphex]

its the same everywhere, don't worry.

 

[91TTZ]

um, when you start your sentence with "um", you sound like a, um, mouthbreather.

But to answer your question, I don't know.

 

[holden j caufield]

Originally posted by: 91TTZ
um, when you start your sentence with "um", you sound like a, um, mouthbreather.

ok?

 

[91TTZ]

Originally posted by: holden j caufield

Originally posted by: 91TTZ
um, when you start your sentence with "um", you sound like a, um, mouthbreather.

ok?

I'm just messing with you.

 

[Twista]

Originally posted by: aphex
its the same everywhere, don't worry.

 

[mwtgg]

Hmm, SoCal? Maybe someone thought they saw a drop of rain.

 

[aswedc]

Traffic jam at its peak

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>Interchange> > > > > > >

Dying traffic jam

>>>>>> > > > > > > > > > > Interchange> > > > > > >

>>>>>>> being heavy traffic
> > > > being flowing traffic

 

[DaiShan]

I saw something on the discovery channel a while back. Basically, any time that someone slows down to answer a cell phone etc, the car behind them slams on their brakes, then the car behind them does the same, so even though the car that started it only slowed down from 70 to 60, eventually it's come to a complete standstill, and each car takes a few seconds to get moving again.

 

[myusername]

I remember an article, I think in Discover magazine, 10+ years ago about a particular strecth of road that always became congested at rush hour, even though it theoretically had enough "bandwidth". The people doing the study decided to apply computer modelling, and they discovered (caveat: the following numbers are pulled out of my ass, as I read this a long time ago. The gist holds though.) that a single car, slowing (for whatever reason) from the speed limit of 45 down to 25 through a particular curve at like 4PM would cause a traffic jam that lasted to 6PM. It was really quite an interesting article.

 

[drinkmorejava]

it doesn't mean that anything is happening there, it could be dozens of miles up and is just migrated backwards, traffic patterns can get pretty crazy when you break them into a science.

 

[91TTZ]

It's like ripples in a fast moving stream.

 

[lyssword]

here look at this diagram the arrows describe the cars, and the dots represent one car slowing down. < < < < ... <...<...< ...<...<...<...< and all of this is taking time and also not everyone has same reaction time, so all of this reaction times/acceleration are added up and multiplied by total amount of cars that are in the traffic. So if there is a 1000 car lenghts road, if every person stopped for 3 seconds and then resumed their speed, the last guy in the line would wait 3x1000 seconds = 3000 seconds to start, whereas the guy in 10th car from the 1st wuld have to wait less than 300 seconds, driver in the middle only 1500 seconds. This is how I see it at least So either very well trained drivers or the computer-aided driving will stop traffic jams if the computers are connected to network and the cars are routed efficiently and without "lag"

 

[mugs]

Originally posted by: myusername
I remember an article, I think in Discover magazine, 10+ years ago about a particular strecth of road that always became congested at rush hour, even though it theoretically had enough "bandwidth". The people doing the study decided to apply computer modelling, and they discovered (caveat: the following numbers are pulled out of my ass, as I read this a long time ago. The gist holds though.) that a single car, slowing (for whatever reason) from the speed limit of 45 down to 25 through a particular curve at like 4PM would cause a traffic jam that lasted to 6PM. It was really quite an interesting article.

So if we kill that ONE GUY it'll solve our traffic problems forever? Who wants to volunteer?

 

[weirdichi]

Originally posted by: 91TTZ
um, when you start your sentence with "um", you sound like a, um, mouthbreather.

But to answer your question, I don't know.

Sheesh Lumberg, lay off! Maybe he just didn't get the memo!

Is this kinda the same theory for cars stopped at the stop light also? When the green light is on during a race, EVERY car moves because they know the car in front of them will move. On the streets, when the green is on, not every person is paying attention or can see the green light, so they wait until the front car moves before they go. The whole line of cars will move if they can see the light and move with the flow of traffic, right?

 

[Rubycon]

http://www.amasci.com/amateur/traffic/traffic1.html

 

[Zolty]

OMG, I was so pissed off yesterday on the express way. I was in bumper to bumper traffic on a divided highway for 5 miles, I figured there was an accident or something. I get to the end and yes it turns out I was right there was an accident, ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE FVCKING HIGHWAY. After I passed it traffic immediatly speeds up to normal speed, god I hate gawkers.

 

[SparkyJJO]

Originally posted by: Zolty
OMG, I was so pissed off yesterday on the express way. I was in bumper to bumper traffic on a divided highway for 5 miles, I figured there was an accident or something. I get to the end and yes it turns out I was right there was an accident, ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE FVCKING HIGHWAY. After I passed it traffic immediatly speeds up to normal speed, god I hate gawkers.

QFT x100000000000000000000000000............

 

[olds]

The only time I have ever seen a section of a freeway just stop is in movies. They generally don't build roads that go no where.