Quote:
Originally Posted by btimbit
I went through the more recent one, not the one you posted, going Northbound the other day and there was nothing holding up traffic our direction other than people slowing down to look
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I don't know anything about that situation, but it could easily be the concertina effect alone - presuming of course that it's not unreasonable for the first on-comers to slow down a bit when something ####ed up is happening, even if it turns out to be more in the median/other side.
I think the rubberneck effect is usually limited to some drivers taking an extra second to look before accelerating into finally free space; ergo slowdowns may last a few extra minutes because of rubbernecking.
You might argue that the first on-comers slow down more than absolutely necessary - while that may be technically true, IMO that's just good defensive driving. The bigger problem is subsequent waves of drivers failing to anticipate a slowdown and slamming on their brakes one after another. Probably unavoidable if you're one of the first ~5 cars upon an incident, but otherwise if you see any brake lights used up the road on a freeway you should be off the gas immediately (which will smooth the wave whether you end up having to brake a lot, brake a bit, or accelerate to close back the few car lengths you may have given up)