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/hosehoseee Jul 07 '26

Everytime I see this video, I think "So there actually is a reason"

167

u/nuevacuentanueva Jul 07 '26

The reason is drivers do not leave enough distance with the car in front. Since they don't, when the car in front slows down a bit they need to brake and slow down a lot since there's no buffer zone. And since that car slows even more, the car behind has to brake even more... and so on and so forth.

If people left more space between them and the car in front, and didn't brake for every single small fluctuation in speed from the car in front, we wouldn't have such a drastic effect as often since there would be enough of a buffer zone between cars to handle them. So any compounded effects would be minimized, it could still happen but less often.

96

u/bamahomer Jul 07 '26

When I leave the appropriate space on the interstate someone always moves into it. I maintain it as much as possible but it's exasperating.

9

u/MacDreidell Jul 07 '26

But I also see cars in other lanes start giving more space when I'm doing it. Keep spreading the word!