Have you ever been stuck in a dead crawl for miles, only for the traffic to suddenly clear with no accident or construction in sight? You were likely a victim of a "phantom traffic jam" or a traffic shockwave. These are caused by a single driver tapping their brakes too hard.
When one car slows down, the car behind it slows down slightly more, creating a ripple effect that travels backward through the lane. Mathematicians call this "emergent behavior." The solution is counter-intuitive: to stop the jam, you shouldn't speed up to fill gaps; you should maintain a steady, larger following distance to "absorb" the ripples. By being less reactive,we actually make road faster for everyone.
No comments:
Post a Comment