I have long ranted about the unreasonable behavior of people in cars, wondered at the possibilities of traffic existing simply because people expect it (and therefore unconsciously create it). Turns out there are people smarter than me who are working on this problem, so I can finally stop speculating (which was all I ever bothered to do).

Turns out I’m the reason for traffic. Probably you are, too.

This excellent post by Clive Thompson talks about a scientific study being conducted in Japan on the nature of traffic jams, and how they occur. I’ll quote Clive quoting this New Scientist story:

They asked drivers to cruise steadily at 30 kilometres per hour, and at first the traffic moved freely. But small fluctuations soon appeared in distances between cars, breaking down the free flow, until finally a cluster of several vehicles was forced to stop completely for a moment.

You can head over to the article to read the rest of it. Clive also referenced a fascinating site by an engineer named William Beatty, who taught himself to manipulate traffic in order to reverse engineer gridlock. Beatty’s site is very wordy, but for a driving junkie obsessed with learning new things, it’s extremely interesting.

On a day when I immediately started hitting the usual “waves” of stopped cars, I decided to drive smoothly. Rather than repeatedly rushing ahead with everyone else, only to come to a halt, I decided to try to move at the average speed of the traffic. I let a huge gap open up ahead of me, and timed things so I was arriving at the next “stop-wave” just as the last red brakelights were turning off ahead of me. … I kept this up for maybe half an hour while approaching the city. Finally I happened to glance at my rearview mirror. There was an interesting sight. … (I)n the lane behind me, for miles, TOTALLY UNIFORM DISTRIBUTION. I hadn’t realized it, but by driving at the average speed of the traffic around me, my car had been “eating” the traffic waves. Everyone ahead of me was caught in the stop/go cycle, while everyone behind me was forced to go at a nice smooth 35MPH or so. My single tiny car had erased miles and miles of stop-and-go traffic.

Next road trip I’m going to have to try this out.

Speaking of road trips: the distance between San Luis Obispo and San Jose may take only three hours to traverse, but I swear this drive gets longer every time we make it. I’d be okay if these folks were ready to mass-market their little discovery. It’s been four years. That’s enough time to work out the kinks.

Thursday, September 4, 2008   

1. Kate Saltfleet wrote:
   September 10th, 2008 at 11:15 am

   I wonder if that will also improve your fuel efficiency as you wouldn’t be braking as much.

the blog and design portfolio of Jason Gurley. (Learn more.) This site has been around since 1998; me, since 1978. Three years ago I drove 3,000 miles to see a movie. This is the year of meetings. Which means I'm taking an awful lot of meeting notes.

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