Why do drivers still get stuck in traffic? - Part 2

So what can ambientVector (ostensibly still a mobile IM company) do to reduce time wasted sitting in traffic? There's probably no good way to make drivers more responsible, but what if we could help by letting people know to route around the jam? What if your phone had a special tone that it beeped when you were approaching within 5km of a solid jam? Basically the, "get off the highway and try surface streets" notification. The technology to do this, typicaly called Location Based Services (or LBS) is already available on some networks in North America and is rather well established in Japan and Korea.

There are a lot of things that could be done to make this app more comprelling. What if the database of jams was not just collected from the various radio reports, but also whenever a large enough group of people reported being stuck (using a simple interface in an app on their phone). What if people were encouraged to report jams they were stuck in by storing "credits" every time a jam they report is sufficiently corroborated to make the notification list? The credits would then be used up every time they were notified. What if the traffic feed was sold both to media (radio, TV, etc) and put up on a web site? What if people could sign up for non-local notifications (beyond the "5km ahead on current road") of exceptional traffic on portions of streets they commonly traverse on their commute?

Who's making this happen?

We are...

Why do drivers still get stuck in traffic? - Part 1

Basically, people think traffic is caused by one of two things. A disturbance (accident, construction, alien abduction, etc) up ahead or "volume." The third reason, that which ambientVector has a solution for, is that there is still no good way (interrupt based instead of polling) for a driver to know that the road she is on has a traffic jam a few minutes ahead.

This whole "volume" thing really pisses me off. If everyone who needed to go along the highway just went at their nice, normal pace, this wouldn't be a problem. It's the idiots who don't let people on, or worse, those who speed past and try to cut their way in later, who cause people to have to brake which causes a wave like effect through traffic and ... wait ... I'll get back to this later.

Next time you approach a traffic jam, do me a favour. Slow down a bit early and notice what the people around you do. Basically, well after you can see the jam, people are speeding towards the sea of brake lights (even cutting others off) and braking at the last second. They're rushing to get into the jam. It's ridiculous. In fact, this phenominon is a key cause of the continuing traffic jam.

Think of the traffic jam from far above. You see a fairly fast moving group of cars and trucks heading along a channel (the road). At a certain point, the vehicles are more closely jammed together in the channel. At the other side of the jam, the particles (vehicles) are slowly coming back up to speed. I've kind of given it away, but it looks a lot like a compression wave doesn't it?

That which causes a compression wave is basically the same thing that can cause a "just volume" traffic jam. There are two reasons that compression waves exist. Particles can't instantaneously accelerate, and particles only slow down once they've reached the wave.

The fact is that neither particles nor vehicles can accelerate instantaneously (motorcycles capable of 0 to 100kph in 1.2 seconds notwithstanding). Once you're a part of the jam, you're stuck going a certain slow speed (sometimes 0kph ;) until the other side, where you can slowly speed up again. In fact, there's even a cognitive delay before you realize you can start speeding up again. This means that while everyone eventually gets through the jam, there is no way for the whole traffic jam to suddenly increase in speed as a whole.

Now, surely humans are not dumb particles, but ... what's the surest way to become a target on a roadway? Drive slower and try to leave plenty of space ahead of you! But this is exactly the right behaviour to encourage behind a traffic wave. Think of it this way, there's a densely packed region of cars ahead of you? You can actively cancel part of it out with a large gap; or, you can compound the problem by nor adapting for it ... like a dumb particle would. With the way drivers currently behave, I wouldn't be surprised if the old joke of traffic moving backwards came true some day.