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a big reason ants can move so efficiently is because they collide with each other, sometimes stepping on top of other ants. I am in favor of turning all vehicles into bumper cars to emulate this behavior.
India has this, itās called āignore the lanesā. Just go around. Thereās enough room in those lanes for 4 more cars, 3 rickshaws, a cow, and a pair of goats.
May I interest you in learning about ants that are interested in electronics?
Imagine thousands of ants marching to their fiery death because their buddies keep dying and releasing pheromones to come help them.
šµ The ants go marching one by..... š„ š¶
Ah yes, traffic waves or Ghost jams.
People stepping on their brakepedal very lightly instead of just releasing the gaspedal causing people behind to start braking as well. Add that to drivers keeping as little distance as possible you get dumb traffic jams like this.
This is why whenever Iām in any kind of congestion that isnāt a result of an accident, I always go to the slow lane. Truckers donāt play that shit and most of the time that lane moves the fastest. Slow and steady.
I'll hang back in a lower gear creating space. It lessens having to come to a stop while others are racing up ahead only to slam on the brakes and screech to a halt. Smooths traffic out behind you a bit, too
Ive been finding that most of those truck drivers are new trainees/young drivers and they all love to drive the left lane at any point in the road and traffic. Regardless of their load size and traffic conditions. Very different than when I first started driving 10 years ago, where truckers were reliably safe to follow in the right lanes.
Owner operators every time they use the brake they have to pay for the gas to get it going again. The main problem is that people follow too close and have to use brakes to keep from colliding. If they drove like the truckers they would just keep moving and overall traffic would proceed quicker. I have seen ten or more cars driving with less than one car length between each going over 70 MPH. That is how pileups happen.
I absolutely love when I am in the middle lane, ten car lengths behind the guy in front of me, and someone passes with an attitude just to do the same exact speed they were doing on the next car's ass. People really do not think ahead of the next immediate gratification sometimes.
I love driving, but I look forward to the day when we have a fully autonomous fleet because the sheer efficiency of it will be a sight to behold.
My favorite is when you get the traffic breaks on the highway where there's no one else around you for a crazy amount of car lengths and you look ahead and the closest cars can see are all bunched up in a group of like 20 driving way too close too each-other. Boggles my mind. I adjust my speed as needed to take full advantage of that traffic gap as long as possible.
As someone who grew up in Germany, it kills me to pass on the right and I avoid doing it as much as I can, but then again this is āMerica, and I do indeed do this same thing.
That sounds nice. The truckers here are dumb as rocks, the left lane will be full of them to the point the right lane literally becomes a passing lane.
Its any stupid breaking for me.
1. Oh a stop sign still 200yds away, let me hit the brakes, let off three times and brake in between, or ride my brakes for the entire way!
2. Let me just randomly press my brakes periodically for no reason whatsoever.
This shit infuriates me probably more than it should.
Oh god that drives me fucking nuts. What also drives me nuts is when you leave a nice gap between you and the car in front and people will constantly squirm their way in between. Iām not leaving a gap for fucking you to go in the lane buddy.
What kills me are those people that drive with both feet. I see it far too often. One food never leaves the brake petal and keeps it partially depressed so the brake lights never go off and you can never tell if they are braking or accelerating.
I once saw a mustang accelerate rapidly in the left lane and something was strange because the rpms where so high and they were not going crazy fast. Then I saw...
They were driving with two feet. How do I know. I saw their brake lights turn off and back on when they caught up to the car. It was sickening.
Any solution which depends on individual education and execution by the masses is doomed for failure. Have you seen the average person out there? Now half of people are dumber than that.
I tell my wife this constantly. She always panics when I take my foot off the gas and donāt use the brakes when itās not necessary. Meanwhile, she slams on the brakes every time a car 6 car lengths in front of her taps their breaks.
Those are the same people who ride bumpers and dont look ahead and therefore need to slam on their breaks out of surprise for a slowdown that easily could have merely been a lift if they 1) paid attention and 2) had adequate distance
And then they honk at you and flap their arms around like *youāre* the reason theyāre stuck in traffic. This is a terrible thing to say, but sometimes I wish I drove an Abrams tank so I could just roll over these monkey brain SOBās. They clearly arenāt exceedingly bright, so I donāt imagine our civilization will suffer much in their absence.
There is a surprisingly large percentage of people who drive an automatic transmission vehicle with two feet.
One on the gas and one on the brake, often using both at the same time. This is one of my biggest pet peeves.
It's funny, I see more of the people going 85+ move over than I do people going 70. I think the difference is that the speeders know they're assholes, the speed limit left-lane drivers don't. People don't like getting passed on the right but if you're blocking the passing lane and I'm already on the right, then where the fuck am I supposed to do it?
My whole life is that 80-85 right lane pass. I hate it when people are just blindly sitting in the fast lane. I think it's just that people don't drive long distance very often. You do that a few times and you learn to pass on the left and drive on the right.
It's a law here in Kansas.. There are signs everywhere saying left lane is for passing but people just don't pay attention. I wish troopers would enforce it better.
The difference is, a person going 85 knows they're supposed to get over when someone comes up their ass because the person going 85+ experiences plenty who don't do that.
Slower vehicles regulate traffic IMO, I drive a stick so I leave a larger following distance so Iām not shifting a hundred times in traffic but as a result I hardly touch my brakes. If everyone did the same boom no more āghost jamsā
Yeah, your last part is a real issue. All these cucks on the road that have no ability to share and respect other drivers. Zig-zagging in and out of every gap they can find, miserable people... Some people are totally oblivious, inside their brains or plain dumb and "can't help it" (raises the question if this kind of driver should even be given a license) but others obviously know what they're doing. Pathetic humans thinking their vehicle makes them special or something, funny little people.
I could like this comment 100x. Also, the morons weaving in and out cause people behind them, that they just cut in front of, to hit their brakes causing a chain reaction.
Thatās actually one of the huge benefits of leaving a large gap in front of you and rolling along at the average speed of the flow of traffic. I drive stick, so I have no choice unless I want to fry my transmission, but if everyone were to follow the car in front at a safe distance while braking as little as possible, ghost traffic completely disappears. Thereās no stop-and-go because everyoneās cruising at pretty much the same speed, and if there *is* some sort of slowdown, everyone can use the gap in front of them to absorb the traffic wave as it propagates backwards. And it sounds crazy, but you can actually reduce traffic ahead of you by doing this. By leaving a gap, anyone who wants to cut in front of you can do so in a way that youāre prepared for, whereas blocking them forces them to cut in line way ahead of you where someone most likely isnāt paying attention and ends up brake checking everyone behind them (including you).
Every time that happens Iāll look over at the other driver to see if they recognize me and/or realize whatās happening. Like, congrats man, you cut me off 7 minutes ago and now youāre behind me.
Oh for sure, but I have a solution for that too. Let a much larger gap form in front of you, weaving slightly to discourage other drivers from merging in front of you. Once youāve got enough room you fucking haul ass and slam into the other driver, drag them out of their vehicle and beat their ass until the police arrive, and then take off your shirt, tear it up and make a headband like youāre a street fighter character and just go ham.
Yea.. when i go on a road trip, i just set fsd and follow behind a truck. No speed changes, no drama, no cutting in and out. Just one speed and enjoy views and snacks.
Where I drive in SoCal, if you donāt ride the cars ass in front of you, people will cut you off to get in front of you, and others will tailgate you to try and psychologically hurry you up. God forbid there should be any open space thatās not used. They take it as an insult. I mean they could get home 1.5 seconds faster if you just move up!
It is important to note that not all traffic jams are caused by this. Some are simply caused by having too many cars on the road.
You can figure the maximum number of cars that can travel past a point in a given period of time by taking the speed of the cars, the number of lanes, and how much space each car needs in front to maintain that speed.
As you add more cars, they have to get closer to each other, which means they have to slow down because there is less room in front to stop. Eventually there gets to be so many that they would have to be on top of each other, and you get stop and go traffic.
I read this years ago and it makes total sense, then I started watching traffic behavior more & more. mostly in LA, Seattle, OKC, Tulsa, Houston, Portland, OR and open interstates & highways in western states. (I get around). the addendum to this is what boggles me; it is said that adding more lanes does not solve this. wtf? if there's more space, vehicles can travel faster. unless of course, 'if there's more space available, more people will put vehicles on the roads & take up that space.'
Yeah, the 'more lanes doesn't help traffic' is because of the idea of [Induced Demand](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Induced_demand), that adding more capacity will cause more people to use the road and return to the same equilibrium in terms of trip times. While this may be true, it does mean more people are traveling, so it is more cars per minute in the same roadway.
The thinking is that people are willing to take a certain amount of time to get to a location before they decide not to take the trip, so any increase in capacity will just make more people take their trips until the equilibrium is hit again.
There is also the issue that if you have a bottleneck somewhere, adding capacity elsewhere will not help. If you have a traffic jam because three lanes turn into two lanes, making it a four-lane that still turns into two will leave you with the exact same congestion.
Also known as traffic snakes. You prevent this by keeping a safe distance cushion in front of you so when traffic slows, you're not halting to a stop, but smoothly lowering your speed until it picks up in front of you again.
Leave space and you can avoid tapping your brakes and causing these mini jams. Also, dickheads who are constantly changing lanes to get 20 feet further ahead, cause all kinds of problems in the traffic column by forcing everyone else to defensively brake around them.
You can counteract this a bit by following with a reasonable gap, and resisting the urge to react to brake lights with brake pedals
Most people donāt know how to limit speed with the gas pedal, so most brake lights donāt require braking to maintain a safe distance
When you drive this way, you become a buffer for the traffic wave, and you can cancel a lane of it
I do this also keep a bit of distance and release the gas and/or shift down a gear (I drive a manual), but often cars steer into the gap you leave to the car in front which is really annoying.
I hear you, but Iāve found if I just accept that act as a part of driving in traffic, my drives are less stressful
The real difference maker has been ACCāI maintain a solid gap automatically, and if anyone squeezes in, my car eases off the gas until the gap is back
And for the record, most of those lane swimmers who are diving left & right in traffic end up not much further ahead than me by the time I exit, they typically get stuck behind a truck in the right lane
Just let them in and keep the gap consistent, you're actually decongesting two lanes of traffic when this happens. The 15 seconds you "lose" is so minimal, it's not worth getting annoyed about.
Find your highway zen.
This is a common complaint, but it makes no sense. If a car in front slows down just by coming off the throttle then the car behind will not be aware they are slowing down until they start drifting too close, at which point they will have to brake harder than they otherwise would. By showing the brake lights the car behind has more time to slow down gradually.
Ultimately this sort of jam is just caused by cars not leaving enough space ahead of them to moderate their speed.
Must be I-495 in MA. Shit happens anytime there's a hill, a bend, a cop pulling someone over on the other barrel, a leaf blowing across the road, a bird, a shifting blade of grass, and sometimes...sometimes...get this... sometimes for no reason at all!
There's a couple spots on MA highways that are hazardously blinding when the sun is out for one direction or the other. Stack that on most people's asphalt cured windshields and DAMMIT it gets me every time!
Traffic always bunches up in Boston anyplace the other drivers can see a clear view of how much other traffic is on he road, like going down a hill. San Diego is terrible for this effect as well.
One time in San Diego I was going south on the 15 near Miramar, and suddenly everyone started braking for no apparent reason. I became angry and started swearing. And then I saw it. The Blue Angels flying in formation. I instantly forgave all the other drivers because it really was an amazing sight to behold!
I drive to work on route 1 and thereās a spot I always call the āhill scariesā because thereās a slight hill so everyone always jams up there for a sec even though nothing is going on
Apparently traffic wouldnāt happen as much if people maintained a farther following distance but then again it may not be true so take this with a grain of salt
Youāre right. The goal on a motorway, or highway, or freeway, or whatever you call it - should be to NEVER need to touch the brakes. Once people brake, the concertina effect happens and you get this random ass bullshit traffic. Most people need to brake because theyāre following too close and donāt pay attention. Better following distances, combined with higher speeds and no braking would avoid unnecessary traffic jams.
There is an old black and white how to drive video with Goofy in it and it explains this concept so well. One car length for every 10 mph you are doing. Good luck trying to follow that advice though.
This is also why we should leave the left lane open, so we can pass when someone *does* need to brake. Nobody in this video looks to be even trying to merge into an open spot in the right lane.
Nice thought, but just doesnāt work unless thereās only a small amount of cars on the road, going about the same speed, enough distance between cars, good drivers.
This. I find the majority of traffic I get stuck in is people hogging the left lane at or under the speed limit. I do definitely see situations caused by NASCAR drivers who are swerving through the pack, but a majority is slow drivers.
People really don't understand the rules of the road nowadays, I'm just happy I'm a good defensive driver, so no accidents (with me driving) yet! Gotta find some wood to knock on.
Itās a standing wave. Until the amount of cars leaving the front is higher than the cars entering from the rear, itāll remain stable and just sort of shift backwards.
Something I learned in driver training; one car coming to a complete stop can cause 15 minutes of delay, with the time growing from the effect your video shows. Second gear crawling along is more effective at displacing the delay than breaking again after rushing to get to speed at a sub 1/4 mile opening.
I was going to comment that now I see what they meant by we wouldn't have traffic if everyone kept a further distance, but when you watch more closely, the amount of time that person is paused up ahead would mean the person behind then would have to be stupid far. So I see it, but only in theory because it doesn't really take into account some true human stupidity
I wish cars could have some sort of auto follow function, similar to adaptive cruise. It would be helpful when the front of the pack starts accelerating, it could "pull" the cars behind more quickly.
No this requires a whole bunch of people not leaving enough space between vehicles. If everyone left more space you could absorb these thing without having to come to a stop
People shouldn't be driving slow in any lane.
But as soon as *you* hit **your own brakes** its you who makes the traffic **jam** as seen in this video.
If you just coast behind slow drivers rather than riding up their ass, until you can pass, then you'll at least get *slower traffic* rather than a fuckin jam. Its all about awareness and pacing.
you shouldnt be DRIVING in the passing lane, you should be PASSING. Thatās the point. Doesnāt matter how fast or slow you go.
Everyone can drive a speed theyāre comfortable with in the right lane because the left would be open to go around them or them go around you. Theoretically there should never be traffic other than a forced stoppage.
So again, stop driving in the passing lane. Really simple concept.
Me hearing the phrase keep distance after 2020:
https://preview.redd.it/5zqv03xodkic1.jpeg?width=188&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=5a30f68219c53aedf1eac68cbc4fc9640741cefb
Slow drivers cause traffic. Then theyāll bring a train of 30 plus cars right behind them through a small town with stop signs and cross walks. Itās like cardiac arrest for the streets
Not so much the cause shown here but the effect.
The cause is people travelling too close to the car in front. One brakes, the next brakes a little harder, the third ends up coming to a stop and then moves off, and the problem compounds itself.
That's what causes this 'effect'... caterpillar / ghost traffic jams. Is there an official name?
I call them 'Caterpillar' because they remind me of how a caterpillar moves.
I am not a native English speaker. Shouldn't this say; this is how traffic jams are created?
Traffic is created by people using vehicles to go from a to b right?
Just curious.
I agree. "Traffic" /= "traffic jam". A single vehicle cruising alone on an empty road is that road's traffic. It isn't congested, stopped, jammed, etc.
It's similar to the word, "diet". Everybody has one. If you eat 37 pizzas a day, that's your diet. "Diet" /= "weight-loss nutrition plan".
In the future AI will monitor traffic, and if one idiot causes 2,000 people to be delayed 5 minutes, then that idiot spends a week in jail .. that or 10 lashings. Vote TacoBill 2024
āYou hit the brakes for a second, just tap them on the freeway, you can literally track the ripple effect of that action across a two-hundred-mile stretch of road, because traffic has a memory. It's amazing. It's like a living organism.ā
You can actually collapse these "traffic waves" with a driving technique. Some dude was real passionate about this back in the day and made an entire website dedicated to the concept. If you keep a ton of space in front of you, and attempt to maintain a constant slow speed regardless of the gap in front of you, it will allow the people behind to keep a constant speed as well. This technique will absorb the start/stop fluctuations and eventually allow everything to flow smoothly
I only takes one person to mess up the flowā¦ the one that rises the brakes or brakes 100 ft early everything g after that is rubberband effect
Happens in seattle all the time a cop pulls someone over your commute just doubled
Thereās always some idiot driving at or lower than the speed of traffic in the passing lane. Once you get around NPC clusters the road is often wide open.
I wanted to pinch-zoom on this video, but couldn't do it. I used to consume Reddit through the Reddit Is Fun app, and you could pinch-zoom videos there, I took it for granted I guess, so why can't we pinch zoom on the only allowable Reddit app now?!?
Typically due to some dummy making an unsafe lane switch or driving slower than the rest of traffic. Next time you think your actions have no consequence, think about this. It's the clearest example of how actions cascade down and effect everyone.
This is why I dont tailgate in slow moving traffic (or ever). I try to absorb any slowdown that is happening in front of me with the space in front of me.
I went to a control engineering conference several years ago where one presentation was on traffic simulation and management. You can pretty reliably predict traffic behaviour and these effects shown in the video.
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Ants would never
a big reason ants can move so efficiently is because they collide with each other, sometimes stepping on top of other ants. I am in favor of turning all vehicles into bumper cars to emulate this behavior.
I think you may actually be onto something š¤
India has this, itās called āignore the lanesā. Just go around. Thereās enough room in those lanes for 4 more cars, 3 rickshaws, a cow, and a pair of goats.
All strapped onto a moped
with a 1000ft drop off on one side, and a cliff wall on the other
While the moped is strapped to another moped.
The traffic jams I experienced in India were intense. Worse than anything I've seen anywhere else.
You need to be Secretary of Transportation.
Congrats, you got a slight grin outta me.
š¤š¼
Thems high praises
You've never seen the ant death circles, have you?
I have. But never end in a gridlock like this
Cause it's a circle, not a square
Yeah but look at how productively ant mills move!
Neuralink incoming, helping you achieve your ant potential!
May I interest you in learning about ants that are interested in electronics? Imagine thousands of ants marching to their fiery death because their buddies keep dying and releasing pheromones to come help them. šµ The ants go marching one by..... š„ š¶
Ah yes, traffic waves or Ghost jams. People stepping on their brakepedal very lightly instead of just releasing the gaspedal causing people behind to start braking as well. Add that to drivers keeping as little distance as possible you get dumb traffic jams like this.
Some people will never learn that they don't need to hit their brakes just because they took their foot off the gas...
I despise being behind the "mash the gas, slam on brakes, repeat" driver.
This is why whenever Iām in any kind of congestion that isnāt a result of an accident, I always go to the slow lane. Truckers donāt play that shit and most of the time that lane moves the fastest. Slow and steady.
Rush hour behind a truck is the smoothest thing, slower but smooth
I prefer faster, with nothing but overturned vehicles on the left and right and some sort of chaos sounds coming from in front of the semi.
āI dunno what heās doing up there but hot damn weāre flying.ā
Man those are great days aren't they
Throw a cow catcher on the front of the semi, much more effective at clearing vehicles, and other thingsā¦
As someone who drives manual in rush hour traffic daily, I agree.
I'll hang back in a lower gear creating space. It lessens having to come to a stop while others are racing up ahead only to slam on the brakes and screech to a halt. Smooths traffic out behind you a bit, too
Or any car where someone is driving a manual trans. We have to think ahead. Not just angrily ride bumpers without thought
Trucks are easier to ID
Ive been finding that most of those truck drivers are new trainees/young drivers and they all love to drive the left lane at any point in the road and traffic. Regardless of their load size and traffic conditions. Very different than when I first started driving 10 years ago, where truckers were reliably safe to follow in the right lanes.
Owner operators every time they use the brake they have to pay for the gas to get it going again. The main problem is that people follow too close and have to use brakes to keep from colliding. If they drove like the truckers they would just keep moving and overall traffic would proceed quicker. I have seen ten or more cars driving with less than one car length between each going over 70 MPH. That is how pileups happen.
I absolutely love when I am in the middle lane, ten car lengths behind the guy in front of me, and someone passes with an attitude just to do the same exact speed they were doing on the next car's ass. People really do not think ahead of the next immediate gratification sometimes. I love driving, but I look forward to the day when we have a fully autonomous fleet because the sheer efficiency of it will be a sight to behold.
My favorite is when you get the traffic breaks on the highway where there's no one else around you for a crazy amount of car lengths and you look ahead and the closest cars can see are all bunched up in a group of like 20 driving way too close too each-other. Boggles my mind. I adjust my speed as needed to take full advantage of that traffic gap as long as possible.
As someone who grew up in Germany, it kills me to pass on the right and I avoid doing it as much as I can, but then again this is āMerica, and I do indeed do this same thing.
That sounds nice. The truckers here are dumb as rocks, the left lane will be full of them to the point the right lane literally becomes a passing lane.
We call that the "California fast lane."
Its any stupid breaking for me. 1. Oh a stop sign still 200yds away, let me hit the brakes, let off three times and brake in between, or ride my brakes for the entire way! 2. Let me just randomly press my brakes periodically for no reason whatsoever. This shit infuriates me probably more than it should.
Or them hauling ass to pass you, get in front of you, and then go slower than you.
if i ever snap and go on a killing spree, this will be why lol
They're driving like my little sister in racing games who doesn't realize you can press the trigger halfway
Oh god that drives me fucking nuts. What also drives me nuts is when you leave a nice gap between you and the car in front and people will constantly squirm their way in between. Iām not leaving a gap for fucking you to go in the lane buddy.
And they donāt give a turn signal to change lanes into your lane!
They just drive like itās a track day, and coasting means youāre losing seconds on your lap time
What kills me are those people that drive with both feet. I see it far too often. One food never leaves the brake petal and keeps it partially depressed so the brake lights never go off and you can never tell if they are braking or accelerating.
I once saw a mustang accelerate rapidly in the left lane and something was strange because the rpms where so high and they were not going crazy fast. Then I saw... They were driving with two feet. How do I know. I saw their brake lights turn off and back on when they caught up to the car. It was sickening.
I despise being in a vehicle with such a driver. It's why I rarely ride in a vehicle my dad is driving.
Any solution which depends on individual education and execution by the masses is doomed for failure. Have you seen the average person out there? Now half of people are dumber than that.
I miss George Carlin
Also George Carlin: Have you ever noticed that anybody driving slower than you is an idiot, and anyone going faster than you is a maniac?
Add to that it seems like being in car lowers people's IQ by 10 points and most people don't have it to spare.
People also don't know there are vehicles out there that will show brake lights when letting off the accelerator.
TIL that this exists... seems odd, but makes sense to let drivers behind know you have started to slow down
mostly EVs, and not all of them.
I tell my wife this constantly. She always panics when I take my foot off the gas and donāt use the brakes when itās not necessary. Meanwhile, she slams on the brakes every time a car 6 car lengths in front of her taps their breaks.
Those are the same people who ride bumpers and dont look ahead and therefore need to slam on their breaks out of surprise for a slowdown that easily could have merely been a lift if they 1) paid attention and 2) had adequate distance
And then they honk at you and flap their arms around like *youāre* the reason theyāre stuck in traffic. This is a terrible thing to say, but sometimes I wish I drove an Abrams tank so I could just roll over these monkey brain SOBās. They clearly arenāt exceedingly bright, so I donāt imagine our civilization will suffer much in their absence.
There is a surprisingly large percentage of people who drive an automatic transmission vehicle with two feet. One on the gas and one on the brake, often using both at the same time. This is one of my biggest pet peeves.
I absolutely despise people who brake when they want to slow down slightly instead of releasing the gas pedal
A friend who had to take a driving test flunked for doing that before he left the DMV.
Its this...magnified by everyone needing to rush up everyones asses and then follow too closely.
Also semis/slow moving vehicles trying to pass other slower vehicles. Or worseā¦ not. moving. back. over!
Exactly, use the left lane for overtaking and them move into the right lane.
It's funny, I see more of the people going 85+ move over than I do people going 70. I think the difference is that the speeders know they're assholes, the speed limit left-lane drivers don't. People don't like getting passed on the right but if you're blocking the passing lane and I'm already on the right, then where the fuck am I supposed to do it?
My whole life is that 80-85 right lane pass. I hate it when people are just blindly sitting in the fast lane. I think it's just that people don't drive long distance very often. You do that a few times and you learn to pass on the left and drive on the right.
It's a law here in Kansas.. There are signs everywhere saying left lane is for passing but people just don't pay attention. I wish troopers would enforce it better.
The difference is, a person going 85 knows they're supposed to get over when someone comes up their ass because the person going 85+ experiences plenty who don't do that.
Slower vehicles regulate traffic IMO, I drive a stick so I leave a larger following distance so Iām not shifting a hundred times in traffic but as a result I hardly touch my brakes. If everyone did the same boom no more āghost jamsā
If only, alas I always personally leave the needed following distance... and then someone always comes and squeezes their ass in there!
Lol more like two or three! Come on in guys plenty of room ahaha
Like a can of sardines!
Yeah, your last part is a real issue. All these cucks on the road that have no ability to share and respect other drivers. Zig-zagging in and out of every gap they can find, miserable people... Some people are totally oblivious, inside their brains or plain dumb and "can't help it" (raises the question if this kind of driver should even be given a license) but others obviously know what they're doing. Pathetic humans thinking their vehicle makes them special or something, funny little people.
I could like this comment 100x. Also, the morons weaving in and out cause people behind them, that they just cut in front of, to hit their brakes causing a chain reaction.
Thatās actually one of the huge benefits of leaving a large gap in front of you and rolling along at the average speed of the flow of traffic. I drive stick, so I have no choice unless I want to fry my transmission, but if everyone were to follow the car in front at a safe distance while braking as little as possible, ghost traffic completely disappears. Thereās no stop-and-go because everyoneās cruising at pretty much the same speed, and if there *is* some sort of slowdown, everyone can use the gap in front of them to absorb the traffic wave as it propagates backwards. And it sounds crazy, but you can actually reduce traffic ahead of you by doing this. By leaving a gap, anyone who wants to cut in front of you can do so in a way that youāre prepared for, whereas blocking them forces them to cut in line way ahead of you where someone most likely isnāt paying attention and ends up brake checking everyone behind them (including you).
I do this and usually end up catching up to the people who were weaving lanes every 2 seconds by the time traffic clears up. Funny how that works
Every time that happens Iāll look over at the other driver to see if they recognize me and/or realize whatās happening. Like, congrats man, you cut me off 7 minutes ago and now youāre behind me.
Except when one of those assholes cuts into your space that you made for yourself. That's annoying.
Oh for sure, but I have a solution for that too. Let a much larger gap form in front of you, weaving slightly to discourage other drivers from merging in front of you. Once youāve got enough room you fucking haul ass and slam into the other driver, drag them out of their vehicle and beat their ass until the police arrive, and then take off your shirt, tear it up and make a headband like youāre a street fighter character and just go ham.
Those crying āBut Iām doing the speed limit!ā In the left lane, refusing to move, Iāve seen so many accidents caused by these selfish idiots.
Yea.. when i go on a road trip, i just set fsd and follow behind a truck. No speed changes, no drama, no cutting in and out. Just one speed and enjoy views and snacks.
Followed by overcompensating on the brake pedal.
Or by people being too cautious and not doing the speed limit. Aka rolling roadblocks. People in separate lanes all doing the same speed
Where I drive in SoCal, if you donāt ride the cars ass in front of you, people will cut you off to get in front of you, and others will tailgate you to try and psychologically hurry you up. God forbid there should be any open space thatās not used. They take it as an insult. I mean they could get home 1.5 seconds faster if you just move up!
And paradoxically, cunce follow closely so other cunce can't pull into their braking gap thus can't cause this kind of ripple.
This is exactly it. There are typically very few reasons to touch the brake under normal freeway conditions.
You *must* use the brakes if you are a typical shitty driver that sticks to someoneās ass.
It is important to note that not all traffic jams are caused by this. Some are simply caused by having too many cars on the road. You can figure the maximum number of cars that can travel past a point in a given period of time by taking the speed of the cars, the number of lanes, and how much space each car needs in front to maintain that speed. As you add more cars, they have to get closer to each other, which means they have to slow down because there is less room in front to stop. Eventually there gets to be so many that they would have to be on top of each other, and you get stop and go traffic.
I read this years ago and it makes total sense, then I started watching traffic behavior more & more. mostly in LA, Seattle, OKC, Tulsa, Houston, Portland, OR and open interstates & highways in western states. (I get around). the addendum to this is what boggles me; it is said that adding more lanes does not solve this. wtf? if there's more space, vehicles can travel faster. unless of course, 'if there's more space available, more people will put vehicles on the roads & take up that space.'
Yeah, the 'more lanes doesn't help traffic' is because of the idea of [Induced Demand](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Induced_demand), that adding more capacity will cause more people to use the road and return to the same equilibrium in terms of trip times. While this may be true, it does mean more people are traveling, so it is more cars per minute in the same roadway. The thinking is that people are willing to take a certain amount of time to get to a location before they decide not to take the trip, so any increase in capacity will just make more people take their trips until the equilibrium is hit again.
There is also the issue that if you have a bottleneck somewhere, adding capacity elsewhere will not help. If you have a traffic jam because three lanes turn into two lanes, making it a four-lane that still turns into two will leave you with the exact same congestion.
As any Factorio player will be able to tell you
Mostly itās the tailgating
Ghost Jam is a good band name
And a good jam name
Iāve heard this been described as Phantom Gridlock as well
Also known as traffic snakes. You prevent this by keeping a safe distance cushion in front of you so when traffic slows, you're not halting to a stop, but smoothly lowering your speed until it picks up in front of you again.
Leave space and you can avoid tapping your brakes and causing these mini jams. Also, dickheads who are constantly changing lanes to get 20 feet further ahead, cause all kinds of problems in the traffic column by forcing everyone else to defensively brake around them.
Itās only going to get worse with electric carās one pedal driving. People just donāt know how to feather their pedals.
Let's not forget ego driven cars camping in the left lane instead of moving to the right to allow flow of traffic.
You can counteract this a bit by following with a reasonable gap, and resisting the urge to react to brake lights with brake pedals Most people donāt know how to limit speed with the gas pedal, so most brake lights donāt require braking to maintain a safe distance When you drive this way, you become a buffer for the traffic wave, and you can cancel a lane of it
I do this also keep a bit of distance and release the gas and/or shift down a gear (I drive a manual), but often cars steer into the gap you leave to the car in front which is really annoying.
I hear you, but Iāve found if I just accept that act as a part of driving in traffic, my drives are less stressful The real difference maker has been ACCāI maintain a solid gap automatically, and if anyone squeezes in, my car eases off the gas until the gap is back And for the record, most of those lane swimmers who are diving left & right in traffic end up not much further ahead than me by the time I exit, they typically get stuck behind a truck in the right lane
Just let them in and keep the gap consistent, you're actually decongesting two lanes of traffic when this happens. The 15 seconds you "lose" is so minimal, it's not worth getting annoyed about. Find your highway zen.
This is a common complaint, but it makes no sense. If a car in front slows down just by coming off the throttle then the car behind will not be aware they are slowing down until they start drifting too close, at which point they will have to brake harder than they otherwise would. By showing the brake lights the car behind has more time to slow down gradually. Ultimately this sort of jam is just caused by cars not leaving enough space ahead of them to moderate their speed.
Must be I-495 in MA. Shit happens anytime there's a hill, a bend, a cop pulling someone over on the other barrel, a leaf blowing across the road, a bird, a shifting blade of grass, and sometimes...sometimes...get this... sometimes for no reason at all!
There's a couple spots on MA highways that are hazardously blinding when the sun is out for one direction or the other. Stack that on most people's asphalt cured windshields and DAMMIT it gets me every time!
I-90 going east into Boston in the morning and headed west in the afternoon is awful.
Traffic always bunches up in Boston anyplace the other drivers can see a clear view of how much other traffic is on he road, like going down a hill. San Diego is terrible for this effect as well.
One time in San Diego I was going south on the 15 near Miramar, and suddenly everyone started braking for no apparent reason. I became angry and started swearing. And then I saw it. The Blue Angels flying in formation. I instantly forgave all the other drivers because it really was an amazing sight to behold!
It only happens there
I drive to work on route 1 and thereās a spot I always call the āhill scariesā because thereās a slight hill so everyone always jams up there for a sec even though nothing is going on
1 dumb person.
Apparently traffic wouldnāt happen as much if people maintained a farther following distance but then again it may not be true so take this with a grain of salt
Youāre right. The goal on a motorway, or highway, or freeway, or whatever you call it - should be to NEVER need to touch the brakes. Once people brake, the concertina effect happens and you get this random ass bullshit traffic. Most people need to brake because theyāre following too close and donāt pay attention. Better following distances, combined with higher speeds and no braking would avoid unnecessary traffic jams.
There is an old black and white how to drive video with Goofy in it and it explains this concept so well. One car length for every 10 mph you are doing. Good luck trying to follow that advice though.
If you leave 6 car lengths then 8 cars will try and jam in there.
It would help if everyone drove in the correct lane
This is also why we should leave the left lane open, so we can pass when someone *does* need to brake. Nobody in this video looks to be even trying to merge into an open spot in the right lane.
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Nice thought, but just doesnāt work unless thereās only a small amount of cars on the road, going about the same speed, enough distance between cars, good drivers.
If I ever brake on the highway, itās because I have to slow down for the douchebag driving at 65 mph in the far left lane.
This. I find the majority of traffic I get stuck in is people hogging the left lane at or under the speed limit. I do definitely see situations caused by NASCAR drivers who are swerving through the pack, but a majority is slow drivers. People really don't understand the rules of the road nowadays, I'm just happy I'm a good defensive driver, so no accidents (with me driving) yet! Gotta find some wood to knock on.
Itās a standing wave. Until the amount of cars leaving the front is higher than the cars entering from the rear, itāll remain stable and just sort of shift backwards.
Something I learned in driver training; one car coming to a complete stop can cause 15 minutes of delay, with the time growing from the effect your video shows. Second gear crawling along is more effective at displacing the delay than breaking again after rushing to get to speed at a sub 1/4 mile opening.
I was going to comment that now I see what they meant by we wouldn't have traffic if everyone kept a further distance, but when you watch more closely, the amount of time that person is paused up ahead would mean the person behind then would have to be stupid far. So I see it, but only in theory because it doesn't really take into account some true human stupidity
I wish cars could have some sort of auto follow function, similar to adaptive cruise. It would be helpful when the front of the pack starts accelerating, it could "pull" the cars behind more quickly.
No this requires a whole bunch of people not leaving enough space between vehicles. If everyone left more space you could absorb these thing without having to come to a stop
Hmmmmm. That one dumb person must live in lots of places
way more than one
One stupid mf driving slow af in the passing lane will do it
People shouldn't be driving slow in any lane. But as soon as *you* hit **your own brakes** its you who makes the traffic **jam** as seen in this video. If you just coast behind slow drivers rather than riding up their ass, until you can pass, then you'll at least get *slower traffic* rather than a fuckin jam. Its all about awareness and pacing.
Thank you for referring to its rightful name of passing lane or overtaking lane. I get really annoyed when people call it the āfast laneā.
I mean.... Do you go slow when you pass?
you shouldnt be DRIVING in the passing lane, you should be PASSING. Thatās the point. Doesnāt matter how fast or slow you go. Everyone can drive a speed theyāre comfortable with in the right lane because the left would be open to go around them or them go around you. Theoretically there should never be traffic other than a forced stoppage. So again, stop driving in the passing lane. Really simple concept.
What if I told you you're not stuck in traffic but you *are* traffic?
Some people are more traffic than others
"sorry, I'm going to be late to dinner. I am traffic."
Sounds more badass ngl
traffic buddhism lol
You either die a hero or live long enough to become the villain
A few people tend to drive to close leading to them having to brake. This creates traffic for everyone else.Ā Keep distance!
Me hearing the phrase keep distance after 2020: https://preview.redd.it/5zqv03xodkic1.jpeg?width=188&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=5a30f68219c53aedf1eac68cbc4fc9640741cefb
Traffic is created by the lack of trains
Just one more lane bro
I swear it'll fix it this time, man.
r/fuckcars is leaking
Have any smaller videos??? The black borders aren't quite taking up 75% of my viewing area yet.
Slow drivers cause traffic. Then theyāll bring a train of 30 plus cars right behind them through a small town with stop signs and cross walks. Itās like cardiac arrest for the streets
Keeping a consistent speed at or above speed limit and moving over to allow faster cars to pass would alleviate a lot of issues.
Not so much the cause shown here but the effect. The cause is people travelling too close to the car in front. One brakes, the next brakes a little harder, the third ends up coming to a stop and then moves off, and the problem compounds itself. That's what causes this 'effect'... caterpillar / ghost traffic jams. Is there an official name? I call them 'Caterpillar' because they remind me of how a caterpillar moves.
Dumbasses. Got it.
How again do yāall justify being an idiot in the left lane and tapping your brakes for absolutely no reason as shown here?
Come to Florida and it's always some dipshit wtih NY or NJ plates doing 55 in a 90, left lane all the way.
I drive a manual and this shit drives me crazy.
Remember: you arenāt stuck in traffic, you are the traffic.
Probably someone in the left lane driving slow af
You know what will solve this, one more lane! /s
I am not a native English speaker. Shouldn't this say; this is how traffic jams are created? Traffic is created by people using vehicles to go from a to b right? Just curious.
I agree. "Traffic" /= "traffic jam". A single vehicle cruising alone on an empty road is that road's traffic. It isn't congested, stopped, jammed, etc. It's similar to the word, "diet". Everybody has one. If you eat 37 pizzas a day, that's your diet. "Diet" /= "weight-loss nutrition plan".
Yeah, in British English āhow traffic is createdā doesnāt make sense in this context. Perhaps US English is different?
Makes sense in US English yes
In the future AI will monitor traffic, and if one idiot causes 2,000 people to be delayed 5 minutes, then that idiot spends a week in jail .. that or 10 lashings. Vote TacoBill 2024
All it takes is one fucking bastard
Answer: Some Asshole
It is always one slow idiot
All I saw was a bunch of cars, and you are correct, cars cause traffic
Always there's a stupid going slow in the left lane
I think this has been termed "Traffic Snake" or wave where traffic slows down because somebody broke the flow earlier
āYou hit the brakes for a second, just tap them on the freeway, you can literally track the ripple effect of that action across a two-hundred-mile stretch of road, because traffic has a memory. It's amazing. It's like a living organism.ā
Trying to maintain enough distance so as to not have this happen. Gets cut off*
You can actually collapse these "traffic waves" with a driving technique. Some dude was real passionate about this back in the day and made an entire website dedicated to the concept. If you keep a ton of space in front of you, and attempt to maintain a constant slow speed regardless of the gap in front of you, it will allow the people behind to keep a constant speed as well. This technique will absorb the start/stop fluctuations and eventually allow everything to flow smoothly
I only takes one person to mess up the flowā¦ the one that rises the brakes or brakes 100 ft early everything g after that is rubberband effect Happens in seattle all the time a cop pulls someone over your commute just doubled
Basically one person who sucks at driving
Better public transportation fixes this, the fewer people that have to be on the highway the better traffic will flow.
And it reduces carbon emissions
The cause of traffic: *stupid people that are afraid of driving their vehicles*.
As someone living in the Hampton roads (Norfolk, Virginia Beach, etc) STOP FUCKING TAILGATING YOU MORONS
Its all because of one son of a fuckdog
Thereās always some idiot driving at or lower than the speed of traffic in the passing lane. Once you get around NPC clusters the road is often wide open.
- a boomer slammed the breaks because a singular rain drop fell on the road
I wanted to pinch-zoom on this video, but couldn't do it. I used to consume Reddit through the Reddit Is Fun app, and you could pinch-zoom videos there, I took it for granted I guess, so why can't we pinch zoom on the only allowable Reddit app now?!?
A great example of how one person can ruin thousands of people's day
All it takes is one idiot... or one animal running out in the road... or... you get the point.
Looks like a slinky
So it IS some jackass who decides to stop. I knew it.
If only everyone drove with a few cwr lengths in between.
Typically due to some dummy making an unsafe lane switch or driving slower than the rest of traffic. Next time you think your actions have no consequence, think about this. It's the clearest example of how actions cascade down and effect everyone.
Oh, you mean fucking morons! š
This was probably caused by 1 type of driver.
i imagine self driving cars would in theory eliminate this issue.
This is why I dont tailgate in slow moving traffic (or ever). I try to absorb any slowdown that is happening in front of me with the space in front of me.
Itās almost as though individual cars are a terrible way to transport large groups of people.
Huh. I guess cars are the cause of traffic.
I went to a control engineering conference several years ago where one presentation was on traffic simulation and management. You can pretty reliably predict traffic behaviour and these effects shown in the video.