The next time a traffic jam materializes in front of you for no apparent reason, think about Japan. That’s where scientists have, for the first time, recreated “shockwave” traffic jams, in which one driver’s slowing down creates a ripple effect that moves backwards through traffic, grinding everything to a halt for miles. They say recreating the phenomenon successfully is the key to finding ways to defeat it.
Their experiment found that human error is a major cause of these most frustrating kinds of traffic jams (there are, of course, other causes). But if driver error is the source of the problem, don’t drivers also have the solution? Clive Thompson points to one idea, the classic “slow down and keep a constant speed” method, which seems to be effective in breaking these shockwaves. Any other solutions?
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Take the public transit. Live where you work. Work from home. All of these options are available now! Although I know not for everyone…
I don’t know if the average driver is willing to give up their “right” to drive as fast/slow/reckless as they want in order to benefit the whole, as would be necessary with automated driving. Besides, what fun would your commute be if you didn’t have a maniac weaving in and out of traffic? It seems like the automated driving idea has transformed your car into an individual *just for you* “train” car that can go no faster or slower than the car ahead or behind.
I read this article a long time ago, which espouses the constant speed philosophy: http://www.amasci.com/amateur/traffic/traffic1.html
Queing theory can explain traffic patterns, but here are a few practical suggestions for reducing congestion.
Several public service announcements on TV and radio regarding the impracticality of “rubber necking”. Why do we engage in this pratice?
Increase the speed of removing minor accidents from all travel lanes. How many times have I driven by a fender bender after a mile or more back up.
Working with employers and employees to stagger arrival and departure times to work and home.
Car pooling and mass transit.
No hand held cell phones while driving.
Don’t wait until the last minute to get into the lane you KNOW you need to be in!
Automation will be the only solution. Too much variation exists between driver skill levels, driver abilities, and driver attitudes for anything else to be effective.
If automation is not possible then traffic enforcement of passing only on left (slow drivers always keep right) is crucial. In most European cities, passing on the left (slower drivers keep right) are fully enforced laws that work fairly well at keeping slower drivers on the right and faster drivers moving along on the left.
Most issues in traffic jams are due to slower drivers in the fast lane.
I used to be quite amused when scientists would run traffic tests and just could not figure out why there were traffic jams! Everyone who drove could!
I even figured out how to figure it all out. Create a computer program with a highways, roads, exits, on-ramps, redlights, and the such like.
Then, ALL YOU HAVE TO DO, is make a bunch of “cars” with different parameters. ABC Cars take off like a rabbit at a green light…DEF cars take off a bit slower…and XYZ cars take off like molasses.
Then, on the interstate, you have people who exceed the speed limit, go the speed limit, and then those people who ought to be sent to prison.
Further, you permit some of the slow pokes to get in the left lane every now and then.
Also, people have different braking prowess…this means there will be wreaks at times…which causes rubbernecking until its cleaned up.
Then there’s my personal pet peeve: WomenXXXXX…I mean people who don’t know how to merge. The traffic is doing 70…and they get on doing 45…slowing everyone down.
How to fix it?
Imprison anyone who does not know how to merge correctly (or even death penalty if they’re over 40, which means they’ve been doing it for years!).
I would also add that if an accident could be gotten COMPLETELY out of view (including all the flashing lights, etc.), traffic wouldn’t slow down! So, if you have a fender bender, don’t stop in the lane…get off to the side…miles to the side, if possible.
Lastly, police ticket drivers in the left lane going under the speed limit (assuming normal conditions). This alone would reduce the national blood pressure by at least 20%.
In this instance, I am all for profiling, whether it be racial, gender, age, or whatever. If we find that a particular group of people are the worst offenders, they must be send to the penitentiary and given “Driver Sensitivity Training” until they actually know how to drive.
How about a digital countdown clock atop all redlights? That way, you know you have X seconds to get through…or X seconds to wait.
Just trying to do what’s right for America!
I’m reminded of an old headline from The Onion: “98 Percent Of U.S. Commuters Favor Public Transportation For Others”.
I’ve only really experienced traffic in Seattle. It’s pretty bad considering how much smaller we are than cities with know traffic problems. I made a grid of possible reasons for traffic jams ranging from accidents to over capacity, and each time I got out of a jam, I was able to see the cause, and then mark it down on my grid. I did this for 35 days and made different grids for different kinds of roads. The results were pretty obvious. On busy roadways with less than 3 lanes there were two key causes: 2 lanes (in this case both lanes lead you onto the Viaduct) were backed up, and the 3rd lane (allowing you to veer off to the waterfront, or MERGE onto the Viaduct) was pretty empty. EVERY day, a few cars would take the 3rd lane all the way to the end, and “cut” in line, causing cars that were already in that lane to brake, and there goes the ripple effect. So waiting until the last minute to get into a lane you know you’re supposed to be in was the cause EVERY day for that jam.
Once you got out of that, and were on the viaduct, another road merges onto it about 500 feet down. That lane turns into BUS ONLY for about 2000 feet, and then ends. So now we have multiple city buses waiting to get onto the viaduct causing braking and more ripple effects. So, on busy highways of 3 or less lanes, late merging was the cause. Solution: wait in line with everyone else.
Interstate 5 was a little more typical. I really don’t think that physiological times have anything to do with it. Yes, maybe someone just woke up, is half dressed for work, and is weaving through traffic…but I think it has more to do with the simple fact that there are a significantly higher amount of vehicles merging onto the freeway at the same time. In 35 days, I saw one stalled car on the shoulder, one collision, also on the shoulder. I would like to blame the traffic on those two days to that. The main contributing factor on most days had to do with the over-capacity. Solution: take mass transit or carpool.
Downtown Seattle: This one was a bit tricky, and I found two main problems.
Problem 1: Most streets downtown have 2 or 3 lanes. It’s obvious that during the evening rush hour, streets that had lanes leading to freeway on ramps were packed and backed up due to over-capacity. So yes, I factored that in every day. But I also checked off another grid box every day, and again, it was late decision makers. Impatient cars would fly down the fast lanes, and cut in line EVERY. FREAKING. DAY. Solution: Get in the lane you need to be in early.
Problem 2: I did not have this on my grid originally, but after the first week of this happening every day, I added it. Pedestrian crosswalks. For 35 straight days, I sat in all sorts of different lanes, some left turning, some going straight, some turning right. Every day, you would sit in a line for a lane, and watch 1 or 2 cars going on a green-light. Left turns are obviously tricky, but free right turns were no better because of people crossing the street. This is a problem where I don’t quite have an idea for a solution. I have a couple ideas though. Streets that lead to on ramps could delay the crosswalk sign during the hours of 3-6 pm. Allowing pedestrians to cross EVERY OTHER light. Another idea would be to have Tokyo style crosswalks, delaying crosswalk signals, and allowing all pedestrians to cross at the same time.
Out of my own personal study, I think impatience and late decision making were the key contributing factors to traffic on all roads. That caused back-up, leaving cars on the road longer, causing over-capacity, causing grid-lock, ripple effects, on and on. Just pay more attention to where you’re going, get in the lane you need to be in as early as possible, and don’t intentionally get in the fast lane to cut all the cars that are already in the lane you need to be in.
The worst is the people who hang out in the exit lane up until the last minute before merging, blocking the cars actually trying to exit and slowing everyone down in the process. I am fully convinced these people have no souls.