# Traffic reports **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 26, 2012, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/traffic-reports/632731 "2012-08-26T17:31:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2012, 4:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/traffic-reports/632731/41 "2012-08-28T04:44:50Z")
> [@RaftPeople](#): > > What year was that? > > About 12/14 years ago (or something like that) I was in the same area stuck in a really bad accident/traffic jam. They shut down the freeway for a long time. Early '90s, but I shall remember it forever. > [@Blakeyrat](#): > > Even dumber, they straightened the “S Curves” in, what, 1990? So you can’t even find them on a map anymore, unless a local points you to where they used to be. (Now it’s basically just a single long curve.) > > I don’t know if it’s just Washington State, or a world-wide thing, but it’s not just traffic reporters. There are tons of locations in Washington State with names like “Thrasher’s Corner” that are left-over from the 1920s (I guess?) when some guy named Thrasher ran a store on that spot, but we still call it that even though it’s not on any map you’ll ever see. Do they still say that 5 is slow past the brewery? ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2012, 7:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/traffic-reports/632731/42 "2012-08-28T07:10:52Z")
> [@Senegoid](#): > > You commuted between Anaheim and the Bay Area? Anaheim was just last Saturday. The Bay Area alternatives were Sunnyvale to Fremont vs 237 and 880, or 101 across the Dumbarton Bridge. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2012, 7:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/traffic-reports/632731/43 "2012-08-28T07:17:46Z")
> [@Daylate](#): > > The other side of the freeway slows down because, and this seems to be a difficult concept to get across, if one car in a lane slows down, the whole following traffic in that lane will have to slow down because the lane cannot speed up again until the rush hour is over,or until the traffic significantly is reduced. _ **And you will ALWAYS find that one idiot who slows down, whether or not it is your sided of the freeway, or the opposite side** _. This is about the most basic concept of traffic flow. Just as reliable and inevitable as gravity. > > Get the book “Traffic” by Thomas White. Goes into this stuff in detail. Extramely interesting. Where I drive there are frequently people who slow down for significant distances for no reason at all. They do cause congestion, but of a different sort than gaper block congestion, which usually clears up after the scene of the accident. Now, if the accident is in your direction, it meters the traffic which causes the speed up, but not if it is on the other side. Plus, all lanes slow down which cannot be caused by one person. I used to drive on a five mile bridge, no exits or entrances on the span, which was an excellent demonstration of the impact of slower cars on traffic flow. C’mon, admit that you slow down just a bit at the scene to see what happened on the other side. You, me, and everyone else doing this is the cause. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2012, 7:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/traffic-reports/632731/44 "2012-08-28T07:26:35Z")
> [@Daylate](#): > > A little clarification on my previous post. If a lane is flowing at the capacity that allows say 60 mph, it has a certain capacity per hour. Now assume that we have a distraction occuring, a traffic ticket being written over on the shoulder (always accompanied by a very distracting light show), ar a little fender bender, or something more significant. > > Anyway, some schmuck will inevitably slow down to see what’s going on. This will result in a reduction of capacity in that lane from around twelve or thirteen vehicles per minute down to three or four. The instant this happens, that lane will stay at the reduced capacity until the traffic thins out again, and the rush hour is over - no matter how the following drivers wish to keep up their speed. And on a freeway, both the lanes adjacent to the distraction and the lanes on the opposite side, you will always get that idiot driver who is going to slow down and look. > > After this happens, all following traffic is forced to slow - there is no chioice in this matter. That’s why I find the use of the phrase “looky-loos” or “rubbernecks”, applied to all the drivers in the jam to be so insulting and condescending. In your model is it impossible for people behind this slow driver to pass him in another lane? That is what happens to the random slow driver in my experience, though there is a backup behind him in that lane - but not in others. Second, does your model assume that only one driver slows to take a look? If one does, why not 1/4 or 1/2 of the drivers adjacent? One would think that the congestion would follow the slow driver, while it really stays at the point of the accident - and by the memory effect, stays even after the accident is cleared. ---
**Author:** ![Blakeyrat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ecd19e/32.png) [@Blakeyrat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blakeyrat)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2012, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/traffic-reports/632731/45 "2012-08-28T19:00:02Z")
> [@Robot\_Arm](#): > > Do they still say that 5 is slow past the brewery? Sorry I haven’t listened to a radio in like years, I really have no idea. I assume so though. ---
**Author:** ![Yarster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/7c8e57/32.png) [@Yarster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yarster)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2012, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/traffic-reports/632731/46 "2012-08-28T19:16:31Z")
Here in San Diego, we have potentially four ways out of the Mission Valley area where I work, so if there is a clog on one or more of them, I will avoid them, and a traffic report will really help assuming I am listening to the radio rather than my iPod at that point. I find this is particularly the case as summer comes to an end and schools start up, as is occurring now. When the soccer Moms hit the freeways to pick up kids, take them to karate, tee ball, or whatever time filling activity you do these days to keep them off drugs, traffic ebbs and flows in unpredictable ways. When you combine that with the college student commuters, and the mall traffic since there are two big ones in the area that may have a random ‘free blowjob sale’ (my name for it) that will bring people out in huge numbers around the malls you’ll want to avoid. Christmas shopping also gets pushed forward more every year, so one never knows when that mall traffic will start if they are a non-shopper like me. ---
**Author:** ![j666](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9de0a6/32.png) [@j666](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/j666)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2012, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/traffic-reports/632731/47 "2012-08-28T23:57:25Z")
“The lower deck is back to assembly …” “128 south is clear from one to three, but hangs up around four and two twenty five; you get some running room after two …” Did I mention none of the signs use 128 anymore, even where the road is 95 north and 93 south? I’m convinced it’s a conspiracy to get people to use the purple line. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/traffic-reports/632731.md?page=2)