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getbak · 11-10-2008, 05:42 PM

There's a video on YouTube (it's blocked at work, so I can't find it) of a group of college kids in the States who decided to do an experiment to see how badly they would screw up traffic if they got onto the freeway (this was done on a five lane freeway) and got side by side and all drove exactly the speed limit.

They had someone else standing on an overpass a few miles down the road with a video camera, and you can see virtually all of the traffic on the freeway disappear, then the speed limit group rounds the bend, with a huge string on traffic crawling behind them. It's amazing what an effect it had.

I believe there was also a thread a few months ago about a study that was conducted in Japan (I think) that basically demonstrated the traffic butterfly effect, where one person hitting their brakes on the freeway can cascade back to a point where traffic comes to a complete stop a kilometre or more back.

It's exactly as described in the OP, traffic stops for no apparent reason, then starts up again with no apparent change.

11-10-2008, 05:42 PM	#11
getbak Franchise Player Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: Calgary, AB Exp:	There's a video on YouTube (it's blocked at work, so I can't find it) of a group of college kids in the States who decided to do an experiment to see how badly they would screw up traffic if they got onto the freeway (this was done on a five lane freeway) and got side by side and all drove exactly the speed limit. They had someone else standing on an overpass a few miles down the road with a video camera, and you can see virtually all of the traffic on the freeway disappear, then the speed limit group rounds the bend, with a huge string on traffic crawling behind them. It's amazing what an effect it had. I believe there was also a thread a few months ago about a study that was conducted in Japan (I think) that basically demonstrated the traffic butterfly effect, where one person hitting their brakes on the freeway can cascade back to a point where traffic comes to a complete stop a kilometre or more back. It's exactly as described in the OP, traffic stops for no apparent reason, then starts up again with no apparent change. __________________ Turn up the good, turn down the suck!