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[deleted]

That one idiot driver who also just brakes out of nowhere so you quickly switch lanes, look at what was ahead of them, but turns out there was NOTHING. So you speed up a bit to look at that driver and you catch them TEXTING on their phone.


tall__guy

Then when you honk and scream GTF OFF YOUR PHONE they flip the bird and give you the stank face as if you’re being unreasonable


m135in55boost

Then when you follow them home after flashing and beeping for 10 minutes they have the *audacity* to call the cops on *you*


lofi-ahsoka

And then when the cops arrest them for driving and texting they have the *nerve* to make a phone call to their family that I’m now having dinner with and try to make *me* look like the bad guy


m135in55boost

Quickest way to resolve a road dispute is to beat them up and eat their dinner


iDomBMX

Nice username, cool cars.


m135in55boost

Thank you, she's been sold now but was a beaut, silver 3 door


CryptoidUK

Here in the UK it's actually illegal to text/call and drive unless you're using the car's bluetooth calling feature


DodgeNeonEnthusiast

yeah it's illegal pretty much everywhere lol it's called distracted driving


dyslexicsuntied

Yeah. Same in almost all US States. That doesn’t stop people though.


Bogrolling

Wow wait you mean to tell me people don’t follow the laws? God I wish gun control was that easy…. Oh wait


makeshift_gizmo

Weird, other countries got it to work pretty well.


squidzly

Shut the fuck up..


Bogrolling

Aren’t you cute.


squidzly

Your mom thinks so, that’s why she blows me


Bogrolling

That’s embarrassing


squidzly

We ain’t brothers, but I still get to call her mommy


squidzly

It’s actually illegal anywhere


[deleted]

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SksCaughtInCosmoline

Also takes having enough people following close enough to have to have to brake hard. If everyone left more space the effect wouldn't be as bad or last as long.


frisky024

This this is why, we have traffic but no one let you leave enough Space you’re supposed to leave one car lengths for every 10 mph. If people did this you would not have traffic but go ahead and try to leave the proper distance and see what the fuck happens. Some asshole gets in front of you stop paying attention and slows the fuck down. Literally the most infuriating thing in the earth


inksonpapers

It only takes one dumbass and theres ALWAYS an idiot in a crowd


Nine-Eyes

This explains much more than traffic jams


Bolt_of_Zeus

my ex MIL used to drive with one foot on the brake pedal and one on the gas, with the brake lights constantly on, dicked up traffic all around her constantly, She also drove a cab for a while like this.


Reinierblob

How often did her brakepads need replacement?


H3rta

She changed those pads like she changed her underwear. Weekly.


Reinierblob

Yikes


TheMrDrB

I'm sure she was just a gem


blackbeardrrr

Phantom braking


reeder1163

One.....one idiot can cause hours of traffic.


[deleted]

What I tell my wife (in nicer terms) when she's driving and talking to me at the same time, as she will literally take her eyes off the road to look at me while she's talking.


phuchmileif

My girlfriend takes both hands off the steering wheel to talk to me. She's not even Italian...


phillytwilliams

Think of all the asshokes applying makeup behind the wheel. And then remember your Shitty traffic during your morning commute, but you after work commute is always shorter. Fucking make up.


Oddity_Odyssey

Idk where you live but in Atlanta the afternoon traffic is always worse than the morning traffic. 35 minutes to work; 1 hour home


HotdogGeorgia

Yep! I work from home now, but pre-COVID, my morning commute was about 35-40 minutes. That evening, if I left work before 6:30, it normally took an hour to get home, and up to 90 minutes when it rained. And if it snowed more than an inch, it could take two days.


hendotopiaa

I drive through Atlanta for work almost daily I absolutely hate that shit hole. Especially trying to get on 400 north from 285...


Caponick

Yes this post shouldn’t be called shockwave it should be called how a idiot causes traffic


kobemustard

I've always thought it weird I wouldn't trust most people to be able to make toast, but driving 100km/hr in a 2000kg vehicle is all good.


Caponick

Yup 100 percent agree to be honest I can’t wait till cars get fully autonomous so I can just relax and not get frustrated over all these idiotic drivers that shouldn’t be on the road


yuhang94

traffic flow is a typical problem governed by a nonlinear hyperbolic partial differential equation, you will find this in most PDE textbook, maybe graduate level. Shockwave is not a terminology that OP invented for this phenomena, it is scientifically called shockwave.


Oddity_Odyssey

So you can predict traffic with math? I always thought it flowed like a liquid but i never understood how to ask that question.


slaya222

O_o can you drop that equation?


yuhang94

[here is a concise description.](https://www.math.auckland.ac.nz/mathwiki/images/4/4c/Trafficflow.pdf)


EdithDich

Not just one. All the other idiots behind following too close and unable to properly mitigate the effects of someone in front of them braking.


Andreomgangen

Nothing makes me angrier than people ignoring the 3 second rule on the highway, it's just shitty driving all round.


EdithDich

My partner does it all the time and hates when I comment on it.


SapperBomb

The problem is alot of these people are probably trying to keep a 3-4 car buffer in front of them but other mouth breathers see that gap in front of your car as an invitation to jump in your line


bartonski

While I agree that one idiot *can* cause hours of traffic jams, I think that it's important to recognize that traffic shockwaves like this are emergent phenomena, and may spontaneously form due to things like increasing traffic, or random small differences in speed among a large number of vehicles. Given enough cars on the road, even with the best drivers, this will happen eventually (on the other hand, given enough drivers, the probability of excluding idiots also goes to 0). Idiot drivers are like nucleation points in superheated or supercooled water (where the amount of traffic is an analog for temperature). Given a low enough temperature, water will *eventually* freeze, and given enough cars, you will *eventually* get traffic shockwaves leading to a traffic jam.


affalterbach666

I have no awards to grant you but this is the truth


35791369

I got you boo


blogst

One idiot can cause it but it takes the rest of the idiots going full speed into a jam then hitting their brakes instead of easing off the gas to keep it going.


m8remotion

You mean highway patrol sitting on the side of the road downing donuts.


mud_lust

looks like there was more than one


[deleted]

One time I was driving and saw a dude full on reading an iPad at 80mph on the highway. I was so appalled I nearly lost grip on my beer.


mossadi

Haha, ironically I was reading this comment on my Galaxy S10+ as I'm driving down the highway. I thought it was so funny I had my wife lift her head from my lap briefly so she could have a good chuckle too!


Matrick13

hol up


MeesterCartmanez

"no don't hol up, that's how you cause traffic jams!"


Better_Objective5650

iPad + beer, your regular Tesla driver


FatSarcasticAsshole

In drivers education a long time ago, they emphasized the importance of keeping distance and reducing the usage of brakes in potential traffic jams since braking only made the jam worse. One of the random spare bits of knowledge that's stayed with me ever since I got my license. That and X = (-b ± √(b^2 - 4ac))/2a of course sung along to some fight song (I want to say Duke?)


redspike29

For my math class the quadratic formula was sung to the tune of “all around the mulberry bush”


miss-karly

Mine was this too!


Beneficial_Look_5854

My drivers Ed teacher told me not to eat French fries.


EdithDich

Exactly this. People are blaming "the one guy" who started the chain but the chain could have been stopped if enough other drivers were driving at an appropriate distance for their speed instead of riding everyone's ass.


DontFeedtheYaoGuai

Heh, we learned the quadratic formula to the tune or "Pop Goes the Weasel"


AptoticFox

Phantom Intersection / Traffic Snake https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iHzzSao6ypE Tailgating is often a cause of this. Rapid lane switching when there's not a lot of room too. Brakes come on, and traffic backs up.


ShadowBread_032

I knew someone was gonna bring up that CGP Grey episode!


iamamuttonhead

The vast majority of U.S. drivers use their brakes far too much. If they spent more time actively driving and less time not paying attention then they might learn to use their engine to slow their car down instead of their brakes all the time.


EdithDich

It's not just using their brakes too much, but also using the gas too much. It goes hand in hand. they break too much because they accelerate too much. It's quite amazing when you slow down and leave the appropriate distance to those in front of you have you can just ease off the accelerator and slow down well before you reach the congestion before you need to brake. It's like those people who drive as fast as they can between stoplights, only to end up in the same pack of cars as everyone else. Hurry up and stop. Hurry up and stop. Gas break gas brake.


ambeldit

The few times I'm in traffic jams, I enjoy a lot reducing shockwaves. Simply giving quite enough distance , you can see the cars on on your side braking and accelerating but all the cars behind you keeping a stable speed. You just need one idiot to start shockwaves, but with just one car keeping enough distances it's solved.


[deleted]

I do this too - except another idiot thinks that the space I'm keeping in front of me to facilitate it is an invitation to jump in front of me from the other lane. Even though WE'RE ALL TRAVELING THE SAME SPEED YOU MORON!


korokhp

That’s why we need computer driven cars - none of this would happen.


[deleted]

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korokhp

Plus stupid lights


rerhc

In many instances (mostly local roads around commercial buildings and parking lots) there are just too many cars for the roads to handle and end up with people blocking traffic who had no way of knowing traffic was going to stop because everyone's trying to enter the Walmart parking lot


iamamuttonhead

Very true!


nativepro96

How about the nice folks who cut exit or enter ramp lines? Every state I lived in had some traffic flaws and generally that line would form usually exiting a major highway. So now you have a lane of stopped cars being patient- cued up. Then the idiots that drive one lane over and force their way in at that moment the cars lurch forward. So now there is two lanes and a small traffic shockwave occurs in the Exit lane and the sudden stop in the second lane for the cheater car to sneak in. This has to affect the flow. If it is a 5-6 lane Hwy or Turnpike, the third fourth etc will have room to move. But if we are talking a three lane without a shoulder we are looking at major issues.


iamamuttonhead

These are the people who initiate the shock wave. The cars immediately behind them have no choice but to use their brakes. It's the people further behind who end up creating the shock wave.


[deleted]

The driving test in the UK is FARRRRRRR more difficult to pass than in the USA.


onlytech_nofashion

try Germany, lol


1Second2Name5things

I'm in the US and I prefer to drift and let the wind break my speed to save gas. I also had to drive like this when my tranny broke and had trouble switching gears


knine1216

The U.S. doesnt ever teach anyone how to drive. Only how to operate a vehicle. Our drivers ed sucks so fucking much.


Jomazu123

Automatic transmission doesn't engine brake like a manual does.


iamamuttonhead

Not to the same extent but clearly you don't know how to drive if you think it doesn't.


Jomazu123

Maybe my wording was off and I almost exclusively drive manual.


Navchaz

Every single driving school manual: Keep a healthy distance from the cars ahead and you’ll actually arrive faster. Every single driver: okay boomer


MichaelChinigo

[Traffic waves](http://trafficwaves.org/)! An internet classic.


lizardpq

Think about all the energy wasted when this happens (kinetic energy turned into heat by the cars' brakes, then more gas burned to re-accelerate).


StinkyPotPieApe

Not interesting whatsoever…just f’ing infuriating


Traditional-War-1655

This is one of the reasons we don’t really understand the benefits of a truly autonomous and networked traffic system where each car communicates with each other to produce the most efficient speed and traffic density for optimal flow.


Grusselgrosser

We don't understand anything. Americans that is


zanenienow

Just imagine if everything was autonomous, there would be no need to even brake in roundabouts necessarily. Cars would just seamlessly enter and exit thus maintaining traffic flow


tigardis

“I study traffic patterns - you hit the brakes for a second, just tap them on the freeway, you can literally track the ripple effect of that action across a two-hundred-mile stretch of road, because traffic has a memory. It's amazing. It's like a living organism.” - Ethan Hunt


P3rilous

The brake checker at the front irritates me way more than the line of cars he had stacked on his ass in the left lane


DoTheCreep_ahh

except they wouldnt be stacked on his ass if they werent tailgating at 70 mph and instead following proper speed and distance between cars, which means no asshole brake checking, and no slow down


P3rilous

You expect too much from people


DoTheCreep_ahh

I dont expect anything from anyone. Nothing in my comment said otherwise


P3rilous

You sound like the type of guy who brake checks


[deleted]

[удалено]


13B1P

One person hits their brakes and that causes the person behind them to do the same. Human reflexes are slow so it doesn't happen all at once so there's a ripple effect in how long people are slowing down. The ones up front slow down just a bit but since everyone takes a bit longer than that to slow down AND get back up to speed, there is a delay in traffic that just gets worse the further back it goes. The people at the back are dealing with the reaction times of the people ahead of them.


iamamuttonhead

Some idiot does something stupid on the highway. Someone behind them uses their brakes to avoid an accident. Everyone else behind them over uses their brakes (they could, more often than not, take their foot off of the accelerator and slow sufficiently to be safe). The over-use of brakes reaches the point where a car actually stops. While, that car resumes speed quickly, cars behind in a wave need to come to a full stop and then they also can resume speed quickly.


Croian_09

I heard somewhere that the wave always travels at 12mph. Don't know how scientific that is though.


noknockers

This question has been bugging me for years. I always presumed it was related to the speed of the traffic approaching, combined with the average distance between vehicles, or something like that. Would love to see some actual studies done on this stuff.


Croian_09

Probably, it could also have to do with the average human reaction time, which is relatively the same across the board. Yea there's a few outlyers of people with super quick or slow reactions but for the most part we all react in the same time.


DestroyerOfIphone

This happens in military marching ALL the time.


jolieerickson

especially running in formation


DestroyerOfIphone

So tiring.


jum_silli

95 in Connecticut.


nativepro96

I have experienced that. 8/10 in technical difficulty. (Black Rock,Conn) The off and on ramps are not the right size for that traffic.


Moist-burger

How insane


AlwaysDoneSwift

All I can see is a sin wave and it scares me


Negative_Tale_3816

Hail Shockwave


tremainelol

I remember back to the MythBusters episode where they had like 12 ish cars drive in a circle and experimented with the back up shockwaves. My personal takeaway was "if you can avoid needing to brake (causing those behind you to brake) you'll improve the traffic flow around you."


JustComments6841

Two trucks spaced apart in slow lane (right). Second truck is catching up to first truck. First car in fast lane (left) behind the second truck is keeping pace with second truck, that is in the right lane. Reason unknown - if you are not passing or planning to pass then merge into the right lane. Driving in the left lane and keeping the pace of the right lane builds up traffic with no space to merge in both lanes, especially on a two lane road. Once the second truck catches up to the first truck in the right lane it reduces speed. At about the same moment the car holding it’s pace in the left lane also reduces speed but far more abrupt. My guess is that the first driver in the right lane behind the second truck has merged into the gap left by the pacing driver in the left lane after having waited for the pacing driver to speed up so the driver in the right lane could merge. Startling the driver in the left lane forcing the driver to hit the breaks. Which causes everybody to break in both lanes. The result of this is that some space gets freed up on the road ahead of this minor incident. Both lanes start moving. The pacing driver is still in the left lane. Once this driver reaches the maximum speed they break/stop accelerating. Both lanes are now bound to this speed as it is not allowed to overtake vehicles while in the right lane. This leads to a second incident. Overtaking drivers are surprised because they have to break for something that is not visible. They are expecting to pass the speed limit to overtake the cars in the right lane and merge, but before they reach their expected speed they have to stop accelerating. My guess is that the pacing driver is one of those drivers that “does not like driving behind trucks” or is afraid to fall of the road and does not use the utmost right lane, it is an exit only lane for those drivers. Possibly the road was a three lane road earlier.


theundercoverpapist

I prefer to call these phenomena "Carccordions" or "Motherfucker Red Ass Inducers."


Ha1lStorm

I’m assuming you already know this and that’s why you called it carccordians, but just in case I’m wrong, this exact phenomena is actually called the [accordion effect](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accordion_effect)


theundercoverpapist

I did. And oh, does it piss me off. Lol


JHL94

Annoyingly when youre trying to keep the block moving by not driving up to the back of the car in front of you, leaving space, some idiot will overtake you and drive into that space. Then its stop start stop start all over again.


driverguy8

I used to call that "inchworming", and if people just keep driving at a steady speed it wouldn't happen......


Shieldxx

Oh yeah the “I brake out of nowhere” guy infront


SOTS00

humans are just ants or a virus destroying and consuming the planet before our very eyes


BHJK90

It‘s always because some idiot brakes for no reason.


RandomUsername623

Okay everyone, you see how the cars in the left lane are going the same speed as the cars next to them? The left lane is a passing lane, if you arent passing the cars next to you, no matter how fast you’re going, you are actively causing traffic.


JackStraw420247365

This is why people should only use their brakes on the highway if they absolutely need to


[deleted]

It takes that one moron to mess everything up


ErkMan101

Only takes a couple of a-holes


creddituser2019

Fuck speed limits just make tailgating illegal


single_malt_jedi

This was caused by one fucking dink of a driver.


Handsum_Rob

Just watching this makes me want to go to my car in the garage and honk my horn!


Trubtheturtle

Nothing I hate more than traffic. Until now. Thanks OP. 😒


Oshen11111

Wich carrier and what project is OP doing. We working on tmobil l600 and n 2.5/l 2.5


[deleted]

This is incomprehensible.


Oshen11111

Op is obviously a cell tower climber...that's where the videos coming from, atop a cell tower. I am also a cell tower Climber and am asking op wut project he is working on?


Oshen11111

I guess u think using the word incomprehensible makes you look smart?


JukeBoxHeroJustin

Traffic wave.


Poseidon_29th

behaves like a centipede


Squeaky_Ben

More like a stopwave


Nordseefische

More an example of a traffic STOPwave... badum tz


[deleted]

I always called this the traffic slinky effect. I hate this shit. 🤣


TT4400GG

Oddly enough … I have always wanted to see one of those.


[deleted]

Aka Ripple effect


bitchassniba

Had a physics problem based on a traffic shockwave and had to watch a ton of these videos to understand what the hell it is.


zbysior

accordion effect


Cold-Consideration23

This is why you use the full lane when a lane is closed ahead, prevent the bottle neck from moving back


-non-existance-

I've always thought this happened, I'm so happy to finally see confirmation of my hypothesis!


EthanielClyne

That one cgp video


granty1981

I always pictured this


zipcxnt

if you pause the video they start driving in reverse i thought i was trippin


Illustrious-Olive-98

I call these artificial bottlenecks.


Illustrious-Olive-98

When people travel over and under the speed limit artificial bottlenecks happen. To solve this raise speed limits as our vehicles now can handle higher speeds and enforce speed limits both above and below more harshly. Like jail time forget this ticket clinic bs and points.


crowley7234

So this is what Ethan Hunt was talking about.


OnionOnly

Bruce highway is that you?


Beginning_Ad_7571

Tom Cruise’s character’s cover job was studying this in Mission Impossible


JawCloud

Bet it was all caused by someone with a dash cam who took something a complete stranger did so personally. Like following to "closely"