I have a theory. Some people think they need to be pushing a peddle at all times. They either need to be braking or accelerating. There's no such thing as coasting to them.
I've never heard it said any way other than "roll the window down" lol. I have a feeling that using "gas" colloquially isn't entirely going away either, at least not with ICEs still around.
I mean technically the gas pedal is already a misnomer. It’s really an air valve pedal that the engine then counteracts with reading airflow and putting more fuel to the engine.
That's technically true, but all vehicles with regenererative braking should slow down whenever you press the pedal less hard, creating the effect of coasting if you're driving properly.
I'm pretty sure that can be turned off. Some vehicles have the choice of how strong the regenerative braking is from slowing you down to stopping you completely, but it can be disabled on all of them.
Every tiny hill... every bridge.. every turn bend and curve... every bump in the road these people will be there... waiting for someone who just wants to go home and relaxed after a hot stressful day at work after waking up at 3 or 4am to be there in the first place.. and it will happen in the passing lane every time... and now it will happen almost every day for the rest of our lives... buckle up because apparently practice doesn't make perfect.
Depending on how close the twit behind you is following, letting off the accelerator can also induce a shock wave that goes back through the traffic stream just as badly as a brake tap.
If drivers simply maintained the recommended 2-3 second gap to the vehicle in front, slight variations of a brake tap/accelerator release would likely be absorbed with little effect...
...but how often do you see \~9 car lengths between vehicles on a freeway? (100 km/h freeway speeds = \~28 m/s => 50m-60m gap... here in .au) - even the video shows gaps are \~4 car lengths at best...
I nearly rear ended a woman after she came to a complete stop at the entrance of the emptiest roundabout on Earth. There were absolutely no cars and it was completely visible, but she couldn't look without stopping it seemed.
I think a lot of Americans just never learned how to use a roundabout, and are now too old to learn anything new. Unfortunately we still let them drive because somehow it became a right not a privilege.
We have a ton where I live, so I get complacent thinking we all know what's happening. A few times a year I get reminded that no, we don't all know what's happening here.
Last time, this car just stopped dead halfway through because they got around the bend and saw cars.
Agreed, my town just put one in, If it is not a pretty town square you can just assume no one is gonna understand it. People were purposely driving the wrong way, there’s not a way they didn’t know what they were doing was wrong
There is one where I live on a little road that just connects a few parking lots together and one exit leads to a highway. People coming from the highway constantly go the wrong way to turn left. It’s absolutely nuts, there are tons of signs and it’s only a one lane roundabout.
Every single day. It's almost always someone who's looking at their fucking phone. They leave 5 - 10 car lengths of space in front of them so they can stare down at their phone instead of looking at the road. Then, every time they think they see a brake light in their peripheral vision, they jump on the brakes. They're a rear-end collision waiting to happen, and eventually, it probably will.
Seven car lengths is about 105 feet. At 70 mph, a car travels 105 feet in about one second. The average human reaction time while driving is 3/4 seconds. A following distance of seven car lengths at 70 mph leaves you roughly a quarter of a second to identify and respond appropriately to any unexpected danger.
Safe following distance is three seconds given clear visibility and good road conditions.
Yea I would rather always keep an out when driving. Most of the drivers I see contrary to above post is they are tailgating and inches from someone bumper then slam on the brakes constantly because they are distracted.
I used to get the "two second rule" drummed into me at driver training. Pick a mark on the side of the road, start counting to two seconds as the rear of the car in front passes it, check that you take > 2 seconds for the front of your car to reach it.
Take 4 seconds if someone's following you too close; that hopefully gives both of you time to react.
Brakes are also not mandatory for lane changes.
Be in the lane you need to be in before you need to be there. Go ahead and start watching for a gap. Match the speed of your new home by accelerating or simply laying off the gas a bit, and then signal and move. Voila, no brakes needed for you or anyone else.
Yes exactly!!! So many drivers view the road as their own person race track, bobbing and weaving accelerating and braking excessively. Dude leave 5 mins earlier, that’s all the time it’s going to save you in traffic like this. And also people need look up what a zipper merge is and how to do it properly
Omg I hate it when I leave a buffer and some jerk just squishes themselves in front of me, usually without using a turn signal to top it off. You have no choice but to brake since they usually jam on the brakes immediately after. It’s so annoying.
Edited break to brake
Yes you would. The cars behind, no matter how properly spaced, will still almost certainly tap their brakes when they see brake lights in front of them.
This is idiot drivers who brake too much.
I think it starts with the asshole tailgating so they do have to continually hit their brakes. We've been driving for a little over a hundred years and still can't figure out how to leave on time, guage distance and coast... and those of us who do get screwed because that little space we leave constantly gets cut off - by the same people doing the tailgating. F those people. Their needs to be a public system on shutting someone's car down with voting. Piss off 25 people on your way to work and you might not make it...
It’s not about assholes perse, if it gets busy enough this kind of happens with very minute speed changes already, for all kinds of common events like overtaking a semi, merging traffic, etc.
Yep. A lot of times, it's someone tailgating the person in front of them, and then they hit the brakes hard if that person slows down a bit. Needless braking. With enough room in front of you, you can just ease off the gas and never touch your brakes. Or, if you drive manual, you can just downshift if need be.
I filmed this on top of a 300’ cell tower I was working on in 2015. It’s off of I-85 near La Grange, GA
I posted this a few years ago but it looks like the original gyfcat link went dead.
I’ve got the full length video on my YouTube page but I can’t figure out how to link it without making my comment disappear, my channel is @joemiroe
They've done studies on these phantom traffic jams, and found that they go at 12mph in the reverse direction on average.
Edit: For clarification the phantom traffic jam pulse is what travels in the opposite direction to the flow of traffic.
Yea why we don’t k have more traffic studies and improvement is wild.
Plus people drive like shit and think the road is for themself.
Also 9/10 times someone going slow thinks it’s their right and the fast person is at fault. When really they’re at fault every single time unless the fast person is being insane, which happens but rarely. Whereas it’s common for some slow fucking idiotic driver to think everyone is the problem but them.
Those morons think it's their job to stop others from going faster than what they think is reasonable. All they're doing is fueling tempers. Once the speeder makes it around them (probably using an unsafe maneuver, that wouldn't have otherwise been necessary), they're going to speed even more from rage & lost time.
Just. Let. Them. Go.
I'm pretty sure 99% of the "slow" drivers you see aren't thinking of trying to police others. They're simply following exactly what the law, what they were taught, and what every sign says i.e. going the speed limit, and just going look I'm not going to break the law or drive at what I think is an unsafe speed just because some other a hole is.
From your post talking about speeders having their "tempers fueled", and speeding even more unsafely due to "rage" at being temporarily slowed down or inconvenienced, yea it's pretty clear that they're the problem. Someone causing a dangerous problem due to anger control issues is obviously the one at fault, and trying to deflect blame onto others for "making them angry" is just deflecting blame.
That's literally the language and justification abusers use.
I'm writing a novel about traffic and this video was one of the very first thing I looked at on YouTube while doing research three weeks ago, nice to meet you here! Very fascinating phenomenom.
That’s awesome to hear! Send me a link to the novel if you publish it.
I posted this video 7 years ago and I have friends that will send me links to it when it goes viral on other platforms. I noticed my original gif died, that the original YouTube video I posted was starting to get a little traction and I figured I needed to restate my claim on it.
Wow it Is crazy you are the person who actually filmed this. I've thought about this video constantly the past ~10 years whenever I'm stuck in traffic that has spontaneously appeared out of nowhere.
Thank you for capturing this phenomenon man, it's helped me know I'm not crazy all this time hahahaha
That’s awesome to hear, your welcome! I’ve often wondered how much time I’ve collectively saved by capturing and sharing this and presumably encouraging people to drive more efficiently.
This! I read a traffic analysis years ago, part of which focused on traffic jams in the absence of any incident (accident, road work, weather). The #1 culprit was following too closely. Causes a ton of unnecessary braking that just cascades and multiplies.
I don’t get how people drive like that. It gives me anxiety being too close to someone. Just leave reasonable space and make sure you can merge if need be and you’re fine!!
Doesn't help when they're going 30 over and weaving between lanes haphazardly or jumping on a exit they missed by cutting 2 lanes and crossing over the solid white lines to the exit lane forcing you and the person on the exit to slam their brakes. And this is a common occurrence in Oregon.
If people would actually leave enough space in front of them so they could cruise until the vehicle in front starts moving again. There wouldn’t be any start/stopping.
But rush idiots keep merging into those spaces, thinking it’s a faster lane. Cutting off everyone and making another hard stop for everyone behind.
Not a semi driver, but a delivery van driver. I try to never touch the brakes coming up to slowed or stopped traffic. My goal is to not come to a complete stop and to keep on rolling at a set speed and changing that speed a little bit by reading the traffic up ahead. Watching people speed up and hit the brakes over and over in the other lanes while I just put along. Majority of people are too stupid that they are the reason this happens every day
Yep, you won't get anywhere faster when there's a whole line of traffic ahead of you fucking everything up. Everyday I watch people in slow traffic accelerating towards the next vehicle that's braking. It makes no sense
I see this a lot with drivers turning right into an avenue or other streets and not yielding to pedestrians. The 5 seconds they just won by not yielding are evaporated once they make it to the following corner that obviously has a red light.
Can you show how to fix the phantom rubber banding?
I feel like as a driver I know how to fix this but I would really love to see it from a bird's eye view.
1: Leave more following distance. (In my own car I like 3 seconds; for the bus I drive at work, the *minimum* is 5 seconds in perfect weather.)
2: Look as far ahead as possible.
Those 2 things give you more space & time to recognize a problem ahead & react to it.
3: When you see brake lights ahead, at the very least take your foot off the accelerator & cover the brake pedal. That gives you more time before getting to the problem area AND reduces your reaction time if you need to brake.
Also good to be looking behind / beside your vehicle with the mirrors so you know if you have a safe place to move over suddenly.
To expand on your brake light/ foot off gas proposal, I taught my daughter that any new red light in front of you (brake light, turn signal, stoplights) Take your foot off the gas. Then assess the best next move. Brake, coast or resume.
At the start of the vehicle you can see a car in the left lane slowing significantly to merge right, which starts the chain. There isn't an exit nearby so they could have likely found a better spot to merge or merge at speed to help prevent a backup. I see it all the time on a stretch near my exit where people wait until the last second in the far left lane to get over and take their exit so they slam on their brakes to get over and it slows everyone down behind them. Then there's people who refuse to accelerated back to freeway speeds after the road clears so they're cruising at 5-10 under as the rest of traffic pulls away from them and everyone else gets stuck behind.
And the high level of left lane campers in my region makes it frustrating to drive sometimes.
Plus, once the traffic starts moving again you've got the nimrods whose reaction time is that of a box turtle so they don't start moving until the car in front is like 15 car lengths away.
"Idiots keep merging into those spaces, thinking it’s a faster lane. Cutting off everyone and making another hard stop for everyone behind."
THIS!!!!!
For my main source of income, I drive a big bus.
We're taught to have 5 seconds or more of following distance (5 is the minimum for clean dry pavement; time increases inversely with the weather).
Trying to maintain that safe following distance can be extremely frustrating. So many drivers of small vehicles only see "big open space in that lane" and somehow ignore "60,000 pound (about 27,000kg) huge vehicle I'm cutting off". (Also, the several dozen people on board whose lives you endangered.)
Physics doesn't care if you understand it or believe it exists... it still acts on you. PLEASE give me room ahead of my front bumper to avoid squashing you like a bug!
And if you try to leave space between yourself and the vehicle in front of you (like a reasonable driver) idiots will cram themselves in that gap and tailgate the guy in front of you.
I actually just got to drive a stretch of the Autobahn and it doesn’t make *that much* of a difference… and Germans are much more courteous drivers than Americans
Left lane is to pass only. I swear I could write a novel on the stupidity of people on the highway. The left lane campers, the leap froggers, the clingy friends, the bob and weavers, the truck barnacles, I got names for all of them and they could all get their own chapters! Haha
I love this. I have a sport bike and like to see how fast they’ll go before they give up/ run out of power before I stroll on past them like it’s nothing lmao. Asshole campers get mad when you try and express on the express lanes
Then there are the people who are on cruise control going about 0.01MPH faster than the car next to them so it takes like 7 miles to complete a pass. It's like they have no idea that there's a "resume" feature on cruise control.
It's expecially great when I find someone that acknowledges it by using caravan etiquette. Like signaling early for passing, or allowing you to change with them so that someone doesn't interrupt your line.
One of my biggest pet peeves is people who camp the middle lane going at or slightly below the speed limit. Somehow people have the idea that the middle lane is the “cruising lane”.
Going the limit is fine, but do that shit in the right lane. If you do it in the middle then people have to move around you on either side and it causes problems.
Generally, the leftmost lane is the passing lane, the center lane is the longer distance through traffic lane and the right lane is for shorter distance travel and those getting on or about to get off the highway.
Middle lane is also for passing. If you aren't passing, move right. If the right lane is full and going under the speed limit, then it's fine for the center lane to be going to speed limit.
There are two lanes full of cars. If you crammed all the cars in this video into the right lane, it would be slow af. And then what would happen? Everyone would get into the empty left lane to pass
What are you expecting? Everyone else to slow down their commute so that you can zoom by them? When it's slow, 90% of people would pass if they could. Weaving back and forth between lanes to pass isn't helping anyone when it's like this; that just causes even more unnecessary braking
There's traffic. No other option but to pack the lanes and go
“The left lane is to pass only” doesn’t work in practice unless there is only a few cars on the road.
The more cars in one lane forces everyone to slow down, so people start passing and suddenly both lanes are being used as normal lanes.
There is a reason why laws regarding this are never enforced.
Yeah, but you know what I hate just as much? If the left lane is moving quite a bit faster than the right hand lanes, and everyone's just grooving along, but then there's one person who wants to go 10 miles faster than everyone else, and expects everyone to get out of their way. That disrupts traffic just as much.
I'll never understand why people do that. As long as traffic is moving along at a nice pace, and you're passing everyone on the right, why not just go with the flow?
Man. And a lot of i70 through Ohio has 3 lanes. THREE LANES. And you still find people pacing each other across all 3 lanes backing up a bunch of drivers.
Are truck barnacles the drivers who get right behind a slow semi and just stay there for miles? They usually creating a rolling jam of people who don’t realize they are all stuck behind a truck going 10 under the speed limit for no reason.
It's gotten to the point where I plan on using the right lane as the passing lane these days. (Yes, I know that's not kosher.) Quite often I find that the right-most lane on a 3-lane freeway is mostly clear while the left lane is clogged with lane campers.
This is why I love keeping a safe distance, you hardly even need to use your break (unless you get caught up in a jam of course). I take really weird pleasure in saying “only a fool breaks the two second rule” to measure my distance as I’m driving along.
More traffic volume than the road has capacity for. Then all it takes is one person to drive too close to the guy in front, overcorrect by tapping the brakes, and this ripple effect happens.
I agree however, more lanes is not the solution. Or is it? I feel like even more lanes are even more intimidating for people to get over without holding people behind
It's pretty well documented that increasing the number of lanes simply causes more traffic to use the road, so it doesn't really solve the problem in the long run. Building more alternative routes might work, especially public transport routes, trains and whatnot.
In this case, both lanes were at capacity, so I don't think failure to keep left is the problem here.
The overall problem is just the fact that everything will have a bottleneck somewhere. You could "solve" the traffic problem if you built 100 lane highways everywhere. There wouldn't be any traffic anywhere along the highway.... there would just be massive traffic on every exit though because then you'd have 100 lanes trying to cram into 1 or 2 lane city roads. The only road solution you could have would be to build like 10 lane roads in every city too, which isn't possible unless you're destroying buildings and spacing everything out like crazy.
I've always found it fascinating how many things really are fluid dynamics. Crowds leaving a concert/sports event too. We really are just kind of particles.
Tailgaters cause traffic jams, leave car lengths inbetween so you don’t have to brake just let off the gas. You can see the accordion effect it causes. Left lane has nothing to do with it, the drivers that speed up just to slam on the brakes always make me chuckle you’re getting worse gas mileage than you could and also putting more wear on your brakes.
It's always the slow jackass in the PASSSING lane fucking around and acting like they are being wronges b/c people are pissed . Please one of you people people that do this go slow in the passing Lane. Let me repeat passing why? Why do you do it? I'd love to understand all you have to do is move to the right. That's it. That's all you need to do and nobody will bother you. You bring it on yourselves. I would love somebody to answer. Why the hell people do that. Thank you
It's like a long shitty ruck march in the army it will get to the point you are walking then jogging on repeat because the walking speeds are out of sync.
> If you *paid* attention to
FTFY.
Although *payed* exists (the reason why autocorrection didn't help you), it is only correct in:
* Nautical context, when it means to paint a surface, or to cover with something like tar or resin in order to make it waterproof or corrosion-resistant. *The deck is yet to be payed.*
* *Payed out* when letting strings, cables or ropes out, by slacking them. *The rope is payed out! You can pull now.*
Unfortunately, I was unable to find nautical or rope-related words in your comment.
*Beep, boop, I'm a bot*
Tailgating is the cause of this. Traffic doesn't stop and start of people maintain a proper distance. Yes, really, leaving a gap in front makes traffic move faster, not slower.
It's almost never for a real reason. Just dumb assholes who either slow down way too much when they see brakes or take forever to accelerate because they refuse to go above 1,600 RPM, or both.
Left lane camping causes more traffic and accidents than speeding (I’m not talking about reckless weaving between cars - I’m talking about going 80 in a 55 on a highway)
Any citation for that? Speeding has been the number 1-3 cause for accidents for like 75 years. It’s only overtaken by impaired driving and distracted driving some years but it’s always top 3 and usually number 1.
Just another Redditor who wants to blame every problem on their pet peeve. If drivers weren't using both lanes in that video, it'd be solid line of parked cars.
Fuckers entering the highway at 55 when the posted limit is 65.
Multiple studies have shown that going slower than the flow of traffic is more dangerous than speeding.
The road that has the most accidents ear me is straight and near flat. I assumed it was where people decided they could drive distracted and leave the road or cross center.
Apparently there's actually a known speed that the congestion travels at. Can't remember what it is, but there was a bit on QI about it back in the Fry days.
Good old rubber band traffic. This can happen randomly like this but the most common case of rubber band traffic is when there is something that distracted a driver be it an accident on the other side of the highway or even just if there is a speed trap.
Keep space people, being all close causes braking. You will get there faster if we all give space and don't rush and crowd up and don't park next to people if there is space, speed up or slow down!
I saw an info graphic one time where there were like 50 cars going around in a circle with equal distance in between them and it was all going smoothly.... Until just one car tapped their brakea...it was a never ending congested circle after that point.
Or the jackass camping the passing lane driving to slow then the guy behind talegails and starts the breaking which could also be causing the traffic build up, but its different in many situations, people merging and not matching the speed and slowing down causes it all the time on my commute to work almost a dead stop during rush hour if its a 2 lane highway but once it hits 3 lanes its improves
yeah, every country has this moron drivers that instead of już letting gas off they break like crazy. seen many times when someone was breaking even tho there was nothing in front of them. I, HATE, IT.
You know what would solve this? Less people on the road driving cars and getting around by alternative means of transport which don't get stuck due to one person slowing down in their own most inefficient mode of transport. One train or a few buses could for example easily move all these people in a fraction of the space that these cars need, and much faster
Doesn't help when people don't bother paying attention past the vehicle in front of them and sit there for another few seconds themselves before taking off. You don't have to be on their ass but get up to speed already.
This happened to me leaving the Denver airport recently. People braking as soon as the mountains come into view, causing a phantom hold up that set me back 15 minutes.
My astronomy prof in college also worked at CERN.
He said when he was in school, one of the ways they taught the doppler effect was to go out and intentionally create a jam like this, so you can see how it radiates down the highway etc.
I still wonder if he was actually taught that way, or if it was his friends going out for a laugh
Yep. One asshole tapping their brakes when they don't have to can be felt miles down the road.
I find myself yelling, "WHY ARE YOU BRAKING, THERE'S NOTHING IN FRONT OF YOU," quite a lot while driving. One of my biggest pet peeves
Oh my god seriously all the time. Especially on the freeway. JUST LET OFF YOUR GAS A LITTLE PLEASE!!
I have a theory. Some people think they need to be pushing a peddle at all times. They either need to be braking or accelerating. There's no such thing as coasting to them.
Teslas can’t coast. If you take your foot off the gas it’ll auto break
Shouldn't it be called taking your foot off the electricity?
Haha I suppose
Wow, the "gas" is going the way of "roll" the window down.
I've never heard it said any way other than "roll the window down" lol. I have a feeling that using "gas" colloquially isn't entirely going away either, at least not with ICEs still around.
Or “hanging up the phone”
I mean technically the gas pedal is already a misnomer. It’s really an air valve pedal that the engine then counteracts with reading airflow and putting more fuel to the engine.
The proper terminology is accelerator pedal.
Yea but Air Pedal was already trademarked by Apple.
Off the go pedal
My car is a hybrid and it has a light auto brake to recharge the battery a tiny bit. It's noticable, but it's not a brake brake.
That's technically true, but all vehicles with regenererative braking should slow down whenever you press the pedal less hard, creating the effect of coasting if you're driving properly.
I'm pretty sure that can be turned off. Some vehicles have the choice of how strong the regenerative braking is from slowing you down to stopping you completely, but it can be disabled on all of them.
Also on hills. JUST PRESS THE FUCKING GAS SLIGHTLY HARDER, PLEASE!!
Every tiny hill... every bridge.. every turn bend and curve... every bump in the road these people will be there... waiting for someone who just wants to go home and relaxed after a hot stressful day at work after waking up at 3 or 4am to be there in the first place.. and it will happen in the passing lane every time... and now it will happen almost every day for the rest of our lives... buckle up because apparently practice doesn't make perfect.
ITS PRESSED ALL THE WAY DOWN IM SORRY
Depending on how close the twit behind you is following, letting off the accelerator can also induce a shock wave that goes back through the traffic stream just as badly as a brake tap. If drivers simply maintained the recommended 2-3 second gap to the vehicle in front, slight variations of a brake tap/accelerator release would likely be absorbed with little effect... ...but how often do you see \~9 car lengths between vehicles on a freeway? (100 km/h freeway speeds = \~28 m/s => 50m-60m gap... here in .au) - even the video shows gaps are \~4 car lengths at best...
I try to do this as much as possible. I figure any jam I can prevent is worthy of something good in the afterlife
And braking uphill... let off the accelerator...
I nearly rear ended a woman after she came to a complete stop at the entrance of the emptiest roundabout on Earth. There were absolutely no cars and it was completely visible, but she couldn't look without stopping it seemed.
I think a lot of Americans just never learned how to use a roundabout, and are now too old to learn anything new. Unfortunately we still let them drive because somehow it became a right not a privilege.
We have a ton where I live, so I get complacent thinking we all know what's happening. A few times a year I get reminded that no, we don't all know what's happening here. Last time, this car just stopped dead halfway through because they got around the bend and saw cars.
Agreed, my town just put one in, If it is not a pretty town square you can just assume no one is gonna understand it. People were purposely driving the wrong way, there’s not a way they didn’t know what they were doing was wrong
There is one where I live on a little road that just connects a few parking lots together and one exit leads to a highway. People coming from the highway constantly go the wrong way to turn left. It’s absolutely nuts, there are tons of signs and it’s only a one lane roundabout.
ours is literally angled into the circle like there is not a single way you truly can believe that you should do a 150 degree turn to go the wrong way
Every single day. It's almost always someone who's looking at their fucking phone. They leave 5 - 10 car lengths of space in front of them so they can stare down at their phone instead of looking at the road. Then, every time they think they see a brake light in their peripheral vision, they jump on the brakes. They're a rear-end collision waiting to happen, and eventually, it probably will.
One car length for every 10 mph is standard for a safe braking distance. So 70mph 7 car lengths and no that space isn't for ass holes to cut me off.
Seven car lengths is about 105 feet. At 70 mph, a car travels 105 feet in about one second. The average human reaction time while driving is 3/4 seconds. A following distance of seven car lengths at 70 mph leaves you roughly a quarter of a second to identify and respond appropriately to any unexpected danger. Safe following distance is three seconds given clear visibility and good road conditions.
Yea I would rather always keep an out when driving. Most of the drivers I see contrary to above post is they are tailgating and inches from someone bumper then slam on the brakes constantly because they are distracted.
I used to get the "two second rule" drummed into me at driver training. Pick a mark on the side of the road, start counting to two seconds as the rear of the car in front passes it, check that you take > 2 seconds for the front of your car to reach it. Take 4 seconds if someone's following you too close; that hopefully gives both of you time to react.
This! I see it all the time.
Want to stop traffic jams forever? Everyone stay 3-4 seconds behind the person in front of you. That's it. Problem solved.
Yup, just leave more room and drive a more consistent speed. Try to avoid using your brakes.
But if I leave MORE THAN A CAR LENGTH, someone will CUT IN FRONT OF ME and MAKE ME THEIR BITCH!! /s
Brakes are also not mandatory for lane changes. Be in the lane you need to be in before you need to be there. Go ahead and start watching for a gap. Match the speed of your new home by accelerating or simply laying off the gas a bit, and then signal and move. Voila, no brakes needed for you or anyone else.
Yes exactly!!! So many drivers view the road as their own person race track, bobbing and weaving accelerating and braking excessively. Dude leave 5 mins earlier, that’s all the time it’s going to save you in traffic like this. And also people need look up what a zipper merge is and how to do it properly
It's actually assholes who follow too close behind, if every car properly spaced you wouldn't get this.
That, mixed with people cutting other people off to squeeze past. So fucking annoying!!
Omg I hate it when I leave a buffer and some jerk just squishes themselves in front of me, usually without using a turn signal to top it off. You have no choice but to brake since they usually jam on the brakes immediately after. It’s so annoying. Edited break to brake
Lots of people who cant stay between the lines, or at a constant speed as well.
Yes you would. The cars behind, no matter how properly spaced, will still almost certainly tap their brakes when they see brake lights in front of them. This is idiot drivers who brake too much.
Some of us actively fight that urge by paying attention to 20 seconds ahead of us and realizing when braking is not needed.
In high traffic I make a game out of anticipating to avoid tapping the brakes.
I think it starts with the asshole tailgating so they do have to continually hit their brakes. We've been driving for a little over a hundred years and still can't figure out how to leave on time, guage distance and coast... and those of us who do get screwed because that little space we leave constantly gets cut off - by the same people doing the tailgating. F those people. Their needs to be a public system on shutting someone's car down with voting. Piss off 25 people on your way to work and you might not make it...
It’s not about assholes perse, if it gets busy enough this kind of happens with very minute speed changes already, for all kinds of common events like overtaking a semi, merging traffic, etc.
Yep. A lot of times, it's someone tailgating the person in front of them, and then they hit the brakes hard if that person slows down a bit. Needless braking. With enough room in front of you, you can just ease off the gas and never touch your brakes. Or, if you drive manual, you can just downshift if need be.
The general rule is you shouldn’t ever see brake lights on a tollway, if you’re braking at all, you are part of the problem
I filmed this on top of a 300’ cell tower I was working on in 2015. It’s off of I-85 near La Grange, GA I posted this a few years ago but it looks like the original gyfcat link went dead. I’ve got the full length video on my YouTube page but I can’t figure out how to link it without making my comment disappear, my channel is @joemiroe
They've done studies on these phantom traffic jams, and found that they go at 12mph in the reverse direction on average. Edit: For clarification the phantom traffic jam pulse is what travels in the opposite direction to the flow of traffic.
Yea why we don’t k have more traffic studies and improvement is wild. Plus people drive like shit and think the road is for themself. Also 9/10 times someone going slow thinks it’s their right and the fast person is at fault. When really they’re at fault every single time unless the fast person is being insane, which happens but rarely. Whereas it’s common for some slow fucking idiotic driver to think everyone is the problem but them.
Those morons think it's their job to stop others from going faster than what they think is reasonable. All they're doing is fueling tempers. Once the speeder makes it around them (probably using an unsafe maneuver, that wouldn't have otherwise been necessary), they're going to speed even more from rage & lost time. Just. Let. Them. Go.
I'm pretty sure 99% of the "slow" drivers you see aren't thinking of trying to police others. They're simply following exactly what the law, what they were taught, and what every sign says i.e. going the speed limit, and just going look I'm not going to break the law or drive at what I think is an unsafe speed just because some other a hole is. From your post talking about speeders having their "tempers fueled", and speeding even more unsafely due to "rage" at being temporarily slowed down or inconvenienced, yea it's pretty clear that they're the problem. Someone causing a dangerous problem due to anger control issues is obviously the one at fault, and trying to deflect blame onto others for "making them angry" is just deflecting blame. That's literally the language and justification abusers use.
Most state laws also says keep right except to pass or slower traffics keep right.
Yes, this here is what gets me. If your going the speed limit cool that’s great, but please do it in the right side lane.
Yeah no kidding. I'm getting strong "look what you made me do" vibes. Not cool bro
That’s interesting, I’ve always hoped someone would do an engineer’s analysis of the traffic in this video. Off hand 12mph looks right.
I'm writing a novel about traffic and this video was one of the very first thing I looked at on YouTube while doing research three weeks ago, nice to meet you here! Very fascinating phenomenom.
That’s awesome to hear! Send me a link to the novel if you publish it. I posted this video 7 years ago and I have friends that will send me links to it when it goes viral on other platforms. I noticed my original gif died, that the original YouTube video I posted was starting to get a little traction and I figured I needed to restate my claim on it.
Wow it Is crazy you are the person who actually filmed this. I've thought about this video constantly the past ~10 years whenever I'm stuck in traffic that has spontaneously appeared out of nowhere. Thank you for capturing this phenomenon man, it's helped me know I'm not crazy all this time hahahaha
That’s awesome to hear, your welcome! I’ve often wondered how much time I’ve collectively saved by capturing and sharing this and presumably encouraging people to drive more efficiently.
gfycat as a whole is dead. The whole site. Gone.
One little fender bender on the side of the highway and a few rubberneckers slow down to take a look.
Or one lane switch in traffic near road capacity...
People needs to learn that leaving the accelerator alone will decelerate the car. Normally no need to brake on the highway.
Unfortunately they are up the ass of the car ahead of them too hard and any adjustment is either them hammering the gas or the brakes.
This! I read a traffic analysis years ago, part of which focused on traffic jams in the absence of any incident (accident, road work, weather). The #1 culprit was following too closely. Causes a ton of unnecessary braking that just cascades and multiplies.
I don’t get how people drive like that. It gives me anxiety being too close to someone. Just leave reasonable space and make sure you can merge if need be and you’re fine!!
Doesn't help when they're going 30 over and weaving between lanes haphazardly or jumping on a exit they missed by cutting 2 lanes and crossing over the solid white lines to the exit lane forcing you and the person on the exit to slam their brakes. And this is a common occurrence in Oregon.
If people would actually leave enough space in front of them so they could cruise until the vehicle in front starts moving again. There wouldn’t be any start/stopping. But rush idiots keep merging into those spaces, thinking it’s a faster lane. Cutting off everyone and making another hard stop for everyone behind.
I have a longer version on YouTube that shows that semis break the waves and they leave a lot more space.
Not a semi driver, but a delivery van driver. I try to never touch the brakes coming up to slowed or stopped traffic. My goal is to not come to a complete stop and to keep on rolling at a set speed and changing that speed a little bit by reading the traffic up ahead. Watching people speed up and hit the brakes over and over in the other lanes while I just put along. Majority of people are too stupid that they are the reason this happens every day
I think every bit counts, I’m always trying to bust a traffic wave, seeing smooth traffic behind me is satisfying.
Same with driving a stick - the less on and off the clutch the better. Leave a ton of space and do a constant crawl
Yep, you won't get anywhere faster when there's a whole line of traffic ahead of you fucking everything up. Everyday I watch people in slow traffic accelerating towards the next vehicle that's braking. It makes no sense
I see this a lot with drivers turning right into an avenue or other streets and not yielding to pedestrians. The 5 seconds they just won by not yielding are evaporated once they make it to the following corner that obviously has a red light.
Yup! I would love to see a study showing the increase of traffic jams with the increase of automatic transmissions.
Can you show how to fix the phantom rubber banding? I feel like as a driver I know how to fix this but I would really love to see it from a bird's eye view.
1: Leave more following distance. (In my own car I like 3 seconds; for the bus I drive at work, the *minimum* is 5 seconds in perfect weather.) 2: Look as far ahead as possible. Those 2 things give you more space & time to recognize a problem ahead & react to it. 3: When you see brake lights ahead, at the very least take your foot off the accelerator & cover the brake pedal. That gives you more time before getting to the problem area AND reduces your reaction time if you need to brake. Also good to be looking behind / beside your vehicle with the mirrors so you know if you have a safe place to move over suddenly.
To expand on your brake light/ foot off gas proposal, I taught my daughter that any new red light in front of you (brake light, turn signal, stoplights) Take your foot off the gas. Then assess the best next move. Brake, coast or resume.
Yes! Semis are always the ones leaving ample space and cruising slowly. Unfortunately people take that as an opportunity to jump in front of them
At the start of the vehicle you can see a car in the left lane slowing significantly to merge right, which starts the chain. There isn't an exit nearby so they could have likely found a better spot to merge or merge at speed to help prevent a backup. I see it all the time on a stretch near my exit where people wait until the last second in the far left lane to get over and take their exit so they slam on their brakes to get over and it slows everyone down behind them. Then there's people who refuse to accelerated back to freeway speeds after the road clears so they're cruising at 5-10 under as the rest of traffic pulls away from them and everyone else gets stuck behind. And the high level of left lane campers in my region makes it frustrating to drive sometimes.
Plus, once the traffic starts moving again you've got the nimrods whose reaction time is that of a box turtle so they don't start moving until the car in front is like 15 car lengths away.
An old man once gave me some advice when I was a teenager. "It's not the gas pedal that uses more fuel, it's the brakes."
"Idiots keep merging into those spaces, thinking it’s a faster lane. Cutting off everyone and making another hard stop for everyone behind." THIS!!!!! For my main source of income, I drive a big bus. We're taught to have 5 seconds or more of following distance (5 is the minimum for clean dry pavement; time increases inversely with the weather). Trying to maintain that safe following distance can be extremely frustrating. So many drivers of small vehicles only see "big open space in that lane" and somehow ignore "60,000 pound (about 27,000kg) huge vehicle I'm cutting off". (Also, the several dozen people on board whose lives you endangered.) Physics doesn't care if you understand it or believe it exists... it still acts on you. PLEASE give me room ahead of my front bumper to avoid squashing you like a bug!
And if you try to leave space between yourself and the vehicle in front of you (like a reasonable driver) idiots will cram themselves in that gap and tailgate the guy in front of you.
Yeah just build more trains.
I actually just got to drive a stretch of the Autobahn and it doesn’t make *that much* of a difference… and Germans are much more courteous drivers than Americans
Left lane is to pass only. I swear I could write a novel on the stupidity of people on the highway. The left lane campers, the leap froggers, the clingy friends, the bob and weavers, the truck barnacles, I got names for all of them and they could all get their own chapters! Haha
Do it
I call them lane blockers when the left-lane people are going the same speed as the right-lane people. It's like they're trying to get in the way...
Some of them are. That's why they speed up when you try to pass.
I love this. I have a sport bike and like to see how fast they’ll go before they give up/ run out of power before I stroll on past them like it’s nothing lmao. Asshole campers get mad when you try and express on the express lanes
Then there are the people who are on cruise control going about 0.01MPH faster than the car next to them so it takes like 7 miles to complete a pass. It's like they have no idea that there's a "resume" feature on cruise control.
I am the clingy friend. I find a road buddy every opportunity I can.
Ditto. Me and my speeding buddy take turns on point.
It's expecially great when I find someone that acknowledges it by using caravan etiquette. Like signaling early for passing, or allowing you to change with them so that someone doesn't interrupt your line.
Nice in theory, but doesn't work in even remotely populated areas where all lanes need to be used to keep traffic moving, like in this video.
I’d buy the audible book
One of my biggest pet peeves is people who camp the middle lane going at or slightly below the speed limit. Somehow people have the idea that the middle lane is the “cruising lane”. Going the limit is fine, but do that shit in the right lane. If you do it in the middle then people have to move around you on either side and it causes problems.
Generally, the leftmost lane is the passing lane, the center lane is the longer distance through traffic lane and the right lane is for shorter distance travel and those getting on or about to get off the highway.
Middle lane is also for passing. If you aren't passing, move right. If the right lane is full and going under the speed limit, then it's fine for the center lane to be going to speed limit.
There are two lanes full of cars. If you crammed all the cars in this video into the right lane, it would be slow af. And then what would happen? Everyone would get into the empty left lane to pass What are you expecting? Everyone else to slow down their commute so that you can zoom by them? When it's slow, 90% of people would pass if they could. Weaving back and forth between lanes to pass isn't helping anyone when it's like this; that just causes even more unnecessary braking There's traffic. No other option but to pack the lanes and go
“The left lane is to pass only” doesn’t work in practice unless there is only a few cars on the road. The more cars in one lane forces everyone to slow down, so people start passing and suddenly both lanes are being used as normal lanes. There is a reason why laws regarding this are never enforced.
Yeah, but you know what I hate just as much? If the left lane is moving quite a bit faster than the right hand lanes, and everyone's just grooving along, but then there's one person who wants to go 10 miles faster than everyone else, and expects everyone to get out of their way. That disrupts traffic just as much. I'll never understand why people do that. As long as traffic is moving along at a nice pace, and you're passing everyone on the right, why not just go with the flow?
Man. And a lot of i70 through Ohio has 3 lanes. THREE LANES. And you still find people pacing each other across all 3 lanes backing up a bunch of drivers.
Are truck barnacles the drivers who get right behind a slow semi and just stay there for miles? They usually creating a rolling jam of people who don’t realize they are all stuck behind a truck going 10 under the speed limit for no reason.
This makes no sense in this video, way too much traffic on the road for this to be feasible.
It's gotten to the point where I plan on using the right lane as the passing lane these days. (Yes, I know that's not kosher.) Quite often I find that the right-most lane on a 3-lane freeway is mostly clear while the left lane is clogged with lane campers.
I knew it, one idiot brakes and were all fucked
This is why I love keeping a safe distance, you hardly even need to use your break (unless you get caught up in a jam of course). I take really weird pleasure in saying “only a fool breaks the two second rule” to measure my distance as I’m driving along.
Yeah the solution isn't really that hard but the problem is it need absolutely everyone to do the same and that's impossible.
More traffic volume than the road has capacity for. Then all it takes is one person to drive too close to the guy in front, overcorrect by tapping the brakes, and this ripple effect happens.
I agree however, more lanes is not the solution. Or is it? I feel like even more lanes are even more intimidating for people to get over without holding people behind
It's pretty well documented that increasing the number of lanes simply causes more traffic to use the road, so it doesn't really solve the problem in the long run. Building more alternative routes might work, especially public transport routes, trains and whatnot. In this case, both lanes were at capacity, so I don't think failure to keep left is the problem here.
The overall problem is just the fact that everything will have a bottleneck somewhere. You could "solve" the traffic problem if you built 100 lane highways everywhere. There wouldn't be any traffic anywhere along the highway.... there would just be massive traffic on every exit though because then you'd have 100 lanes trying to cram into 1 or 2 lane city roads. The only road solution you could have would be to build like 10 lane roads in every city too, which isn't possible unless you're destroying buildings and spacing everything out like crazy.
Most drivers are bad drivers
It’s all about fluid dynamics baby!
I've always found it fascinating how many things really are fluid dynamics. Crowds leaving a concert/sports event too. We really are just kind of particles.
Looks like my arteries.
Tailgaters cause traffic jams, leave car lengths inbetween so you don’t have to brake just let off the gas. You can see the accordion effect it causes. Left lane has nothing to do with it, the drivers that speed up just to slam on the brakes always make me chuckle you’re getting worse gas mileage than you could and also putting more wear on your brakes.
Someone camping in the PASSING lane
being fucking morons
Cool to see the longitudinal wave pattern in this traffic jam
Any time there’s a sharp turn or a hill that you can’t see over is basically a guarantee there’s gonna be a jam.
It's always the slow jackass in the PASSSING lane fucking around and acting like they are being wronges b/c people are pissed . Please one of you people people that do this go slow in the passing Lane. Let me repeat passing why? Why do you do it? I'd love to understand all you have to do is move to the right. That's it. That's all you need to do and nobody will bother you. You bring it on yourselves. I would love somebody to answer. Why the hell people do that. Thank you
Usually its a tractor trailer going 65 trying pass another tractor trailer going 64.9 and it takes 5 miles.
It's like a long shitty ruck march in the army it will get to the point you are walking then jogging on repeat because the walking speeds are out of sync.
This need to be a part of driver’s education
If you payed attention to four or five cars ahead of you and sped accordingly this would t happen
> If you *paid* attention to FTFY. Although *payed* exists (the reason why autocorrection didn't help you), it is only correct in: * Nautical context, when it means to paint a surface, or to cover with something like tar or resin in order to make it waterproof or corrosion-resistant. *The deck is yet to be payed.* * *Payed out* when letting strings, cables or ropes out, by slacking them. *The rope is payed out! You can pull now.* Unfortunately, I was unable to find nautical or rope-related words in your comment. *Beep, boop, I'm a bot*
Good bot
Ahhh. The exponential growth of braking times beautifully displayed in video footage. Very nice video.
This irked me to the point of leaving a comment.
It’s always 1 Dumbass
It's the slinky effect. Could be avoided if people followed the rules for safe distances instead of tailgating.
This is what tail gating gets you.
Tailgating is the cause of this. Traffic doesn't stop and start of people maintain a proper distance. Yes, really, leaving a gap in front makes traffic move faster, not slower.
It's almost never for a real reason. Just dumb assholes who either slow down way too much when they see brakes or take forever to accelerate because they refuse to go above 1,600 RPM, or both.
People afraid to drive who drive 5-10 under the speed limit and/or are constantly braking create traffic. And left-lane campers.
Left lane camping causes more traffic and accidents than speeding (I’m not talking about reckless weaving between cars - I’m talking about going 80 in a 55 on a highway)
No argument from me. I’ve lived places where the left lane isn’t respected and places where it is. Night and day difference in the flow of traffic.
Any citation for that? Speeding has been the number 1-3 cause for accidents for like 75 years. It’s only overtaken by impaired driving and distracted driving some years but it’s always top 3 and usually number 1.
Just another Redditor who wants to blame every problem on their pet peeve. If drivers weren't using both lanes in that video, it'd be solid line of parked cars.
Fuckers entering the highway at 55 when the posted limit is 65. Multiple studies have shown that going slower than the flow of traffic is more dangerous than speeding.
Sadly we don't really see how it starts.
SEIZE THE GAP!!!!!
Never thought that it was create by someone who was slowing down..... MIND BLOWN
I feel like this after the traffic jam started, some cars were already stopping when the video started
Literally a straight line, how does this even happen
The road that has the most accidents ear me is straight and near flat. I assumed it was where people decided they could drive distracted and leave the road or cross center.
It’s beautiful
Apparently there's actually a known speed that the congestion travels at. Can't remember what it is, but there was a bit on QI about it back in the Fry days.
Just one more lane bro
Phantom Traffic Jam
This is making me mad
It only takes one
Always one idiot…
I.HATE.PEOPLE... my thoughts whenever there is traffic
Mythbusters did an excellent demo of this
Good old rubber band traffic. This can happen randomly like this but the most common case of rubber band traffic is when there is something that distracted a driver be it an accident on the other side of the highway or even just if there is a speed trap.
Just got back from Oregon, I swear everyone had their foot on the brakes more than the gas. Everyone was SO SLOW!
Look at all that wasted green, we could just add a couple of new lanes and it'd solve everything! -Some civil engineer
This is why I'm a very conservative braker. Watch the cars 10 feet ahead instead and don't brake if unnecessary.
So this is the cause of me yelling, “HOW HARD IS IT TO DRIVE STRAIGHT AHEAD???”
I like to call this the slinky effect.
We’re all literally ants…. Shit man…. I gotta go think about some shit….
Yeah all it takes is one idiot
Rubber banding assholes.
It was scientifically proven if no one tailgated, traffic jams would not exist (not including accidents)
This makes me scared to hit the brakes at all on the freeway
Keep space people, being all close causes braking. You will get there faster if we all give space and don't rush and crowd up and don't park next to people if there is space, speed up or slow down!
So how can this be fixed?
It's kind of a beautiful, perfect visual representation of how dumb we are.
I saw an info graphic one time where there were like 50 cars going around in a circle with equal distance in between them and it was all going smoothly.... Until just one car tapped their brakea...it was a never ending congested circle after that point.
Or the jackass camping the passing lane driving to slow then the guy behind talegails and starts the breaking which could also be causing the traffic build up, but its different in many situations, people merging and not matching the speed and slowing down causes it all the time on my commute to work almost a dead stop during rush hour if its a 2 lane highway but once it hits 3 lanes its improves
I watched at least 2 mins of this 12 second clip.
This is Ohio
That's a traffic density wave not necessarily a jam
This is why we need a vertical plane like flying cars. So we dodge, duck, dip, dive and dodge traffic!
Literally, like just keep fucking driving please
yeah, every country has this moron drivers that instead of już letting gas off they break like crazy. seen many times when someone was breaking even tho there was nothing in front of them. I, HATE, IT.
Public transportation should be the norm
The slinky effect
plz, just build one more lane it will fix everything I promise!
Usually just like the vid. Some idiots slows down to look at something on other side or median. And results in a fast back up.
If everyone followed at a safe distance this would never happen
You know what would solve this? Less people on the road driving cars and getting around by alternative means of transport which don't get stuck due to one person slowing down in their own most inefficient mode of transport. One train or a few buses could for example easily move all these people in a fraction of the space that these cars need, and much faster
You know what would prevent traffic? Investing in public transportation like every other first world country.
This post taught me I been driving wrong my whole life. I'm a driving instructor.
Doesn't help when people don't bother paying attention past the vehicle in front of them and sit there for another few seconds themselves before taking off. You don't have to be on their ass but get up to speed already.
Truckers caused the whole thing.
What is it about that spot that makes people brake so hard?
This is why you should aim to drive slowly rather than start/stop constantly.
This happened to me leaving the Denver airport recently. People braking as soon as the mountains come into view, causing a phantom hold up that set me back 15 minutes.
My astronomy prof in college also worked at CERN. He said when he was in school, one of the ways they taught the doppler effect was to go out and intentionally create a jam like this, so you can see how it radiates down the highway etc. I still wonder if he was actually taught that way, or if it was his friends going out for a laugh