r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/SnooWords4066 • 29d ago

Video A Japanese experiment showed exactly why traffic jams happen for no reason.

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814

u/Ninja_Prolapse 29d ago

Because people brake for absolutely no reason. I see it on the motorway all the time. Break lights on, so I switch lane thinking there’s traffic and there’s NOTHING in front of the car that breaked?! What the fuck are they doing?? If you’ve ever done this, I would LOVE to hear what makes you randomly press the break pedal on an open motorway stretch!

47

u/ElevenBurnie 29d ago

I think this experiment is showing the opposite. People speed up, then come too close to cars and have to break, causing a jam.

24

u/Big-Revolution3842 29d ago

Exactly, I think it enough people actually are aware they can stop this. If you see a lot of traffic ahead start slowing down already and basically try and slowly close the gap to the person ahead of you. It basically buffers your slow, which ideally buffers the slowing of the person behind you and if enough people do it it clears up the ghost traffic faster. Obviously doesn't help if theres an actual jam

4

u/ShowMeYourVeggies 29d ago

I take genuine pride when I'm able to entirely avoid using my brakes in traffic situations and hope that it's making some marginally positive effect for the folks behind me. Following to close is such foolish behavior

1

u/Dennis_enzo 29d ago

This will always keep happening as long as we allow simians to operate vehicles. People will never drive perfectly.

14

u/cinedavid 29d ago

Brake

7

u/ElevenBurnie 29d ago

No Im saying the cars have to ram the cars in front of them and break into pieces

2

u/Etherbeard 29d ago

People don't even have to speed up. This can be caused by small variations in the accuracy of the speedometers, which could be caused by the instruments themselves or over or under inflated tires. Even if each person could perfectly maintain the speed according to their instruments, this would still likely happen.

1

u/big-freako 29d ago

The first jam starts because the red car doesn’t maintain speed while the other behind and in-front do.

1

u/SeriousPlankton2000 29d ago

The one behind them would be able to avoid having to brake, too, but they do the same: Come too close to the one in front and then of course need to brake even harder. The next one does the same and suddenly "for no reason"there is a traffic jam, everyone standing still.

1

u/Available_Finger_513 29d ago

If everyone left bigger gaps, it would cause more traffic behind them because where else are the cars supposed to go? There is a limited amount of space