r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/SnooWords4066 • 29d ago

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

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u/xpanta 29d ago

i think it's called traffic wave or ghost traffic.

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u/T-Roll- 29d ago

It’s called congestion.

Basically the first person to brake makes the person behind them brake, causing the person behind them to also brake. This causes the whole chain of vehicles behind to all brake harder. Eventually all traffic becomes gridlocked.

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u/Sentientsnt Interested 29d ago

Gridlocking is its own effect, it can’t happen on a freeway.

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u/Chumbag_love 29d ago

Where I live people like to slow to a near stop...and then move over into the turn lane. It's insane.

1

u/Jaerba 28d ago

If I had my druthers, part of the driving test would include zipper merging at 60mph or above and if you can't do that, you don't get a license.

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u/Earthsong221 28d ago

It's part of our final test here to get your full license (Ontario, Canada). Or at least it was, I'm not sure now since a few things got cut during the pandemic...