What is the main cause of traffic jams in cities? How to deal with them?
There are a lot of hours of travel delays in our life, contributing to pollution and fossil fuel waste. Not to mention traffic jam is just annoying. Traffic jam is often due to construction, an accident, bottleneck created by tunnels. But the main cause if traffic jams are a huge number of people on the road and they contribute to traffic jams.
The real cause is speed of vehicles or rather sudden random fluctuations in speed. When drivers travel at a constant rate traffic flows freely, but when even a single driver hits the breaks the flow is interrupted causing a chain reaction among the vehicles behind that drivers. Those drivers must slow down to avoid the collision.
When you’re in a traffic jam, you’re part of the problem. Studies show that 80-90% of drivers think they’re better than the average driver, which is impossible. Additionally, as humans our attention is selective and we tend to forget that other drivers are people too. This leads to jerks on the road-following too closely or constantly changing lanes that creates traffic jams.
But is there a solution to deal with traffic jams? Thankfully, as a good driver, you can make a difference. Pay attention to the car ahead and behind you to keep a buffer of space around you. This way, if the driven in front of you brakes, you have room to slow.
The second way is driving slower . Set your car to cruise control or try driving at a consistent speed. Additionally, changes in infrastructure work too. Recently LA become the first city to synchronize street light, causing lights to make automatic adjustment. This way has reduced travel time by 14%.
Another solution is taking public transport when is possible. When you use trams or buses, you avoid the number of vehicles in the city.
To sum up, if you are on the road, you must pay attention to other cars and drivers.