An accident, construction work, a protest, or even a toll booth are some of the many factors that can turn traffic into a true nightmare. Honking horns, dissolving patience, the "wave-like advance", insults, and widespread chaos push human endurance to its limits, but let's ask the big question: Why do traffic jams exist? This striking online traffic jam simulator will help you visualize one of the reasons traffic stops, even in the simplest configurations.
Between seven and eight in the morning, from Monday to Friday, the streets near my house turn into a true parade of cars, vans, trucks, and buses. Everyone honks their horn, as if that solved anything, and shout things I honestly cannot repeat in this medium.
The reason for such a traffic jam is easy to understand: further down the road there is a "school zone", with several elementary and secondary schools concentrated in a couple of blocks. Parents parking double or triple, public transportation trying to get through, and a legion of children entering their schools create a true "hellish hour". This is just a local example in a common city, but traffic congestion happens almost everywhere, and there are many people around the globe studying the causes that create them.
Want to know more? Then perhaps you'd like to take a closer look at this "traffic micro-simulator" developed by Martin Treiber from the Technical University of Dresden. As you can see, the model is very simple: cars and trucks going around in circles. The first impression is stability, but you don't have to wait long to discover the first congestion. Visitors have the possibility to adjust different traffic parameters, including vehicle density, minimum distance between them, presence of trucks, ideal speed, and maximum acceleration.
The simulator incorporates different traffic models, as well as all kinds of configuration options, and I must admit it is quite accurate. The so-called "wave-like progress" becomes very clear thanks to the circular road format, and with the predefined parameters, traffic never recovers. In most cases, the simplest solution is to reduce vehicle density, but that's not exactly "realistic". In fact, there are more and more vehicles on the road, not fewer, which forces us to consider other alternatives for the future, including autonomous driving.
http://old.neoteo.com/algoritmo-contra-los-atascos-de-trafico
