https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m74zazYPwkY
Absolutely fascinating youtube video about how oscillation develops in traffic systems due to resonances in interactions between vehicles and their attempts to manage speed. It isn't just a matter of overdamping or underdamping your speed, but finding ways to mitigate interactions with the vehicle in front of you -- so presumably just choosing a speed and going that speed without trying to maintain a distance with the car in front of you is enough to break the oscillation. You might go "Ok, but what if you're about to hit the car in front of you?" but the answer is to set your cruise control to be slightly slower than the car in front of you, so the gap in front of you grows over time and you maintain the same speed without worrying about stopping. It doesn't take a major speed difference to pull it off. Then the people behind you are no longer interacting with the car in front of you.
Absolutely fascinating youtube video about how oscillation develops in traffic systems due to resonances in interactions between vehicles and their attempts to manage speed. It isn't just a matter of overdamping or underdamping your speed, but finding ways to mitigate interactions with the vehicle in front of you -- so presumably just choosing a speed and going that speed without trying to maintain a distance with the car in front of you is enough to break the oscillation. You might go "Ok, but what if you're about to hit the car in front of you?" but the answer is to set your cruise control to be slightly slower than the car in front of you, so the gap in front of you grows over time and you maintain the same speed without worrying about stopping. It doesn't take a major speed difference to pull it off. Then the people behind you are no longer interacting with the car in front of you.
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@sj_zero Recently I've been joyriding new cars. Unlike my car where you have to tap the cruise control up and down, the Honda Accord and the Toyota line have auto cruise.
You can set how aggressive it is in accelerating and braking to hold position relative to the car in front of you.
If most people are using such systems, will that put a stop to traffic waves?