Why Is Traffic So Slow?

Question

Why can't all the traffic advance fast at the same time ?

Answer 1

on the freeway it's because more people are entering the freeway than they are exiting, thus the congestion begins... Accidents contribute a lot too this one time I was stuck on a freeway in California and there had been a huge wreck that shut it down, so I got off and ended up farther back then I was before, and ended up helping to get someone who was having seizures, so traffic isn't always a bad thing, even though I wasn't able to get to the beach, I may have helped save a life

Answer 2

It's kind of like a computer. The computer runs great and quite efficiently while no one sits at it. However, enter a human and we have delay time. For each person sitting in the traffic is a different brain. While we would all like to have super-efficient brains which operate quite well, that human element is clogging our streets and highways. You see, we are not all poised to immediately seize the advance in traffic, to do it perfectly (i.e. same amount of space between cars you started off with), and then relax, to start up again. Instead, folks fiddle with radios, think thoughts, talk on the phone, look in their mirrors ... each of these motions, while they take very little time (except the talking on phones thing), serve to distract the drivers -- remember, each of the 100s sitting there waiting -- some amount of time. You take all those lags of those slow to start up and advance, and you have traffic advancing at a disproportionate amount from the beginning.

Getting back to the computer analogy, It's almost like you have 150 people who each have to enter their names into the one computer. Some folks take more time to sit down, some folks don't know their way around the keyboard, some folks don't concentrate on being efficient ... traffic is the same. As long as you have multiple decision points and inputs (multiple drivers with different brains), you will have a lag. That's why sometimes you have a big traffic jam but when it finally clears, you have no idea why it slowed in the first place ... something WAS there, but the residual memory of it (after the towtruck leaves) is still patterned into the lag of people's actions.

Answer 3

Because when the freeway lanes don't have enough to support many vehicles driving, everything gets crammed in together. Some driver up front may be slow and cause traffic behind. Or a car accident can REALLY cause traffic to slow down.

Answer 4

Because people are in the cars. Lol, I see them doing it all the time. If someone wrecks on the opposite side of the road people rubber neck to get a looksy... Then there is always the cloggers that get a kick out of congesting the road. Then you have Mr. 30 MPH in a 50 MPH... Not to mention the guy that didn't see the light change...

Answer 5

most of the time its because people are setting there star gazing,and every second they delay the start of the traffic line adds up,i have seen situations where you would only move maybe one car length every time the light changes ,its just the drivers,and the driving conditions that contribute to this,good luck,i hope this help,s.

Answer 6

Low horsepower vehicles have slow acceleration.

Answer 7

It's because of all the old people on the road. Just use the sidewalk, it's faster.

Answer 8

because of population

Answer 9

noty really......i ride a bke so shut up... PS- i like nachos

Answer 10

i know right?! i guess just cuz people are different drivers...