Very cool! Saw it in TV, but didn't know they had it on their website. Look at the Lane closing/Speed limit and play with the speed limit. Very interesting to see how setting it to 30km/h and 140km/h both causes traffic jams!
Can't..stop..watching..red..triangles!!! No really that is really neat. I liked to see how the truck amount changes things.
Interesting. I drive a lot in the SF Bay Area. You can sit in creep and beep for five miles and all of a sudden you are doing 55. My peabrain thinks that increasing the speed (lets say from 55 to 70MPH) in the aproximate area the things start to move will help get the back of the line moving. Is there any reason this theory would not work? It makes sense to me, but I'm just a salesman, not a traffic engineer.
People don't pay attention and keep up with the flow of traffic, they just putt along at their own pace (18 car lengths). People won't allow onrampers to merge. The simple design flaws in our freeways. Having 250 yards to be able to move over and exit/enter, Having 50 yards somewhere else to do the same. Having an entrance ramp the goes directly into one or two ramp exchange lanes, when those entering need to get over 3 lanes. Reducing lanes from 3 or 4 to 2 or 1. I could continue....
Bad traffic is simply caused by unaware drivers poor braking habits. The first guy brakes, then the second, then the third, etc etc, until an accordian effect occurs. Watch traffic closely; most of the time this is exactly the problem.
Try it in the simulation! As mentioned above, I played around with the speed limit in that program and amazingly, increasing it can also lead to traffic jams.
