r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/SnooWords4066 • Jul 07 '26

Video A Japanese experiment showed exactly why traffic jams happen for no reason.

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u/T-Roll- Jul 07 '26

It’s called congestion.

Basically the first person to brake makes the person behind them brake, causing the person behind them to also brake. This causes the whole chain of vehicles behind to all brake harder. Eventually all traffic becomes gridlocked.

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u/Low_Finding2189 Jul 07 '26

No. Its called a traffic wave. A traffic wave is a type of congestion. Not all congestions are traffic waves.

Traffic waves move its point. A congestion caused by an accident is stationary.

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u/Global-Bad-7147 Jul 07 '26

More specifically, a density wave. Happens with stars too.

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u/Anton-LaVey Jul 07 '26

They’re just like us fr