Play Traffic Snakes

Click to create an sudden slow-down. Observe how traffic jams form, propagate and dissipate with various conditions and model settings.

Doodle Settings

Vehicles 22

Vehicle Length 20

Vehicle Width 15

Acceleration 1

Maximum Speed 30

Speed Variance 0.2

Braking Sensitivity 20

Time Buffer 0.05

Reaction Time 0.02

Path Length 1100

Path Width 120

Speed Bias 0

Crashed

Stopped

Braking

Accelerating

Maximum Speed

Slowing Down

Background

Path

This doodle demonstrates how traffic jams can form spontaneously under certain traffic conditions. Small differences in vehicle speed along with delayed responses can grow and cascade backwards through traffic, creating a self-sustaining wave of congestion.

References

Wikipedia - Fundamental diagram of traffic flow ->
UC Berkeley - Massive traffic experiment pits machine learning against 'phantom' jams ->
Youtube - New Scientist: Shockwave traffic jams recreated for first time ->

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