Get the latest tech news
Why does traffic bottleneck on freeways for no apparent reason?
Related Questions - Why don’t spacecraft burn up or veer off course during reentry from space? - Would it be feasible to dump nuclear waste on the Moon? - Can I make my car fly? - Why can’t cars run on water instead of gasoline? - Can helicopters fly upside down? - Can I start my car with a voice command? - How can a person ride a motorcycle 100 mph but not stand up in a 100 mph wind? - Will public transportation ever replace the automobile? - Is there a way to detect my car’s keyless remote if I don’t know where it is? - How does an aircraft steer while taxiing on a runway? Why does traffic bottleneck on freeways for no apparent reason? Drivers tend to flow remarkably well as a pack — until there’s an unusual event…By Peter Dunn When something disturbs the normal course of traffic, the effects can last for a surprisingly long time after the incident itself is gone, and affect areas far from the initial problem. “Maybe a dog runs into the road,” says Moshe Ben-Akiva, professor of civil and environmental engineering and director of the MIT Intelligent Transportation Systems program.
During a recent demonstration of the software, graduate student Samiul Hasan set up an animated map of downtown Boston highways to simulate traffic on a typical weekday morning. But just as Ben-Akiva explained, for over ten minutes after the clearance of the initial problem, cars are still coming to a complete stop at the back of the line – far upstream from the original source of the traffic jam. While not much can be done to prevent random incidents, Ben-Akiva’s team is working to reduce the consequences with a predictive simulator (DynaMIT) that takes input from roadway sensors and forecasts future traffic conditions.
Or read this on Hacker News
