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Traffic Addition

Posted on March 12, 2008 - 6:59am
I drive 100 miles a day so traffic is a pretty big factor in my life.
 
Ghost jams and shockwave traffic jams are a regular occurrence but I've never realized how simple in form they are. This (very) short video shows a shockwave jam begin and spread.
 

 
This 1998 paper by electrical engineer William Beaty examines the phenomenon further and provides a simple solution.
 
Dark Roasted Blend has a nice collection of traffic jam pictures and insane looking road layouts. Here's one straight from my commute!

Is there such thing as a "traffic nerd"? Perhaps I'm unique.

Comments

lusciousnis's picture
Submitted by lusciousnis on March 12, 2008 - 8:08am.
Exactly the reason I don't miss the commute. Seeing that video helps, though. Maybe I'll stop muttering "there'd better be an accident with someone dead up there " Maybe I shouldn't be saying that anyway..Harsh perhaps?? @Jason- be a traffic nerd & be proud of it. Nerds of any kind are hot.
pilotg2's picture
Submitted by pilotg2 (not verified) on March 12, 2008 - 8:44am.
My commute was one of my main reasons for changing jobs. I went from driving 100 miles a day (about 24,000 miles a year) to just under 13 miles a day (about 3,185 miles a year). My average commute time used to be arround 2 hrs one way. It gets very old very quick to leave work at 5:30 and not get in until after 8. Unfortunately everyone seems to have decided the same thing as my commute time is slowly creeping upwards. Somedays it takes over an hour to go 6 miles.
Karen's picture
Submitted by Karen on March 12, 2008 - 9:35am.
Yeah, I used to mutter that...better be somebody dead up there...comment. I used to mean it at the time. But now that I take some good drugs...it's doesn't affect me so much anymore.
lusciousnis's picture
Submitted by lusciousnis on March 12, 2008 - 10:06am.
Where can I score some of these 'good drugs', Karen?
Diamond Digger's picture
Submitted by Diamond Digger on March 12, 2008 - 1:12pm.
Thanks Jason...I used to wonder, "If we are all going the friggin' speed limit, then what seems to be the friggin' problem". Nice to see a scientific explanation for this phenomenon. I feel much better knowing this "useful" bit of information. No, really I do. Course I'm sure I will still be cussing about the "slow asses" in the next traffic jam I encounter!
Winter's picture
Submitted by Winter on March 12, 2008 - 8:23pm.
I used to drive 60 miles one way to work from Huntington Beach to West LA. I listened to Howard Stern in the morning and Tom Leykis on the way home. Finally, I got a job in OC. Cut the commute in half. After a few years of that, I moved about 8 blocks away. Takes me 3 minutes to get to work. But now that there's construction (my company is expanding the cemetery) it takes me 6 minutes! Grrr! Stupid flag man!
Rattling the Kettle's picture
Submitted by Rattling the Kettle on March 12, 2008 - 9:25pm.
Definitely not unique. About 10 years ago, the Nobel Prize in economics was awarded to a "traffic theorist".
Amelia's picture
Submitted by Amelia on March 13, 2008 - 4:28am.
100 miles? Ouch. The worst traffic jam I have ever been in was on The Magic Roundabout, Swindon - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magic_Roundabout_(Swindon) Enlarge the diagram on the right, it's fascinating.
Amelia
Jason's picture
Submitted by Jason on March 13, 2008 - 6:03am.
@Nis
It's not wrong to demand some sort of death or carnage (or fires - I <3 car fires).  Check out this video of a car fire just yesterday morning in Chicago - http://video.nbc5.com/player/?id=228155 . That's some serious traffic-nerd porn.
 
@pilotg2
At 6 mph wouldn't you be better off riding a bike? At least in the summer...
 
@Karen
It's more fun to think "there better be a meteor crash up there that actually turned out to be the mothership of 1000s of alien gerbils who are now attempting to enslave the human race with their tiny little guns and they all have cute little helium voices. And hats. They all have little hats"
 
@Diamond Digger
I'm an evangelist for the use of cruise control. Won't you join my crusade?  :)
 
@Winter
Is your cemetery adding a a second level? That would be awesome. Double decker cemetery. OH! You might like this story about an abandoned cemetery!
 
@Rattling
Ooooo...traffic theorist. That job sounds almost as dreamy as "city planner". I think I spent too much time with my model railroad when I was a kid.
 
@Amelia
It IS fascinating! It was only a few years ago when I came across my first circle exchange like that (though not as complex) in Vail Colorado. All the exit ramps from the highway ended up in them and I was totally thrown. I've since some to love them...
Winter's picture
Submitted by Winter on March 13, 2008 - 8:24pm.
A cemetery IS double decker! There are above ground and below ground interments/inurnments! They're actually building across the street this time. There's info on my blog with an animated 3D rendering by the architect of what it will look like. Also, my Thursday Thirteen is 13 things I know because I work at a cemetery... some odd things there like chocolate toe tags and retorts and diamonds. LOL That's a sad story about Bachelor's Grove. My cemetery has been in existence since the turn of the century. Our historic mausoleum was the first one in Orange County, built in 1911. The cemetery is privately owned and is an endowment care facility. The endowments charged are invested carefully to help fund the care of the cemetery in perpetuity. So theoretically, Fairhaven will never end up like Bachelor's Grove. However, I have seen worse than Bachelor's Grove when I did some research into Irish cemeteries for the Veep. The desecration and vandalism is horrifying.

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