Traffic Waves
Why Hacker News recommends it
HN likes it as a fun, clear explainer of traffic waves and of the benefits of leaving gaps while driving.
What it is
A short video from the trafficwaves.org site showing how traffic jams and standing waves form, including the fight between cheaters and blockers at an exit-lane backup. It also touches on how individual driving behavior affects the flow.
Recommended by 5 HN commenters across 5 different months, 2013 to 2022.
What Hacker News said
Strong rec wildrhythms · 2022-04 · on “A smartphone app that allows public to submit evidence of speeding drivers”
One of my favorite videos of all time on this topic: Traffic Waves [this video] (Not new information, but a fun video, and it's something truckers have known about for decades)
Recommends thunderbong · 2015-05 · on “What Are Traffic Waves and Why Do They Happen So Much?”
I don't know if you've seen this video[0]. It helped me understand traffic waves quite a bit [0] [this video]
Recommends xbryanx · 2016-04 · on “Can a single car break a traffic jam?”
William J Beaty's video on Traffic Waves (linked in the article) is an enjoyable summary of some of these ideas: [this video]
Recommends tobmlt · 2018-09 · on “How America lost its love for the stick shift”
You beautiful zen traffic wave surfer you. This, a thousand times this. Somewhere on the web there is a great video of a guy doing this pretty effectively. I guess it's maybe five years old now but worth a watch. I think this wsj vid may contain excerpts from the original: [LINK] If everyone could just relax out there, some of those traffic standing waves would diffuse away to nothing. Ahhh... When I get in bad traffic and struggle against the urge to tailgate I play a game where I try and give enough space to where I just roll up to the car in front of me as it is starting to move again. This gives me a time-local goal to aim at instead of fixating on supposed "bad actors" I might want to j
Recommends TheSmiddy · 2018-12 · on “After 48 hours we haven't seen any sign people are using Waymo's service”
I leave massive gaps constantly now, it lets me see farther ahead so I can switch lanes when I see a problem coming and my average trip time is definitely shorter because of this. I really like this video for describing some of the advantages of "zen driving": [this video]
Cites socillion · 2013-06 · on “The Physics Behind Traffic Jams”
Original copy at [LINK] A video from there, omitted from OP: [this video] OP is a cut-down version of this site, which has been up for a decade or two. I'm curious if it's a legitimate copy.