Actually, once all vehicles are gone (squads, two truck, etc.) it doesn’t take very long for traffic to get moving again.
No it doesn’t move all at once but whereas during the accident a person who was stuck going 5 mph a mile back from the accident will still be going at 5 mph up to the point of the accident,
the person who was going 5mph a mile back from the accident won’t start moving immediately at 55mph one the accident site has vanished but he will start moving at 55 once the cars ahead of him accelerate up to speed. Being a mile back he may have to wait a while for the cars ahead of him to clear but once he gets up to the accident site he will be going 55 just fine.
When there is a unexpected traffic jam take a look around you at the 18 wheelers if they are for the most part in one lane that is the lane you want to be in, the sooner the better. Why? Because most of those drivers will be on their radios talking to people in front closer to the problem. If there is a lane blocked ahead they will be trying to get into a unblocked lane so they don’t have to try to move 65+ feet of vehicle across lanes in bumper to bumper traffic. Think of the stress trying to change lanes in a 15 foot car and multiply by at least 5. The reason to get in the lane early is because it is much easier than later and the ones later, who are stopped in the wrong lane, slow thing down even more because someone in the open lane has to stop and let them in making the jam that much worse.
Or look at it this way. Three lanes are traveling along at 60 mph, one of those lanes is closed ahead. If every one in the lane that is blocked moves into the other 2 lanes before they have to slow down there is no slow down at all. That assumes there is enough free space avaliable for all to merge into the other 2 lanes. In the worst case however, all lanes packed, there will be a slow down to at most 40 mph in the problem area thus creating the room needed. The worst case won’t actually be that bad because at the lower speeds you won’t need as much following distance for safe travel and that gap reduction creates some of the needed space. In the worst case senarios the slower speeds will cause a ripple effect further back in traffic but as long as everone is sensable it will only ripple back until the needed space is created from gaps in traffic.
You will many times see 2 big trucks, one directly in front and to the side of the other with a large gap in front of them. They’re giving the traffic in front of them time to get sorted into the proper lane and build up a bit of speed without having cars rush up behind causing more problems this averages out the slowdown and trys to get the above pattern working. It rarely works in the long run but for the time the trucks are there it does. At the least it gets the trucks and a few cars around them through the situation, not any faster but, with a lot less stress and at a faster perceived speed.
While not everyone will ever do this, if enough of us would it would make the jamb less stressfull for all and once the problem was cleared make it much easier to bring all lanes back to full speed.
This remindes me of the time I walked to the mall. I had to run across a busy freeway (yeah, I know…),
Imagin my surprise when I came home to find a standing ‘wave’ of cars at the very place I crossed.
No rubber-necking needed.
Grrrrrr…
Preview preview preview!
Nope.
Yep.
I’ve been practicing the art of leaving a control gap for nearly forty years. I agree that it helps to even out flow and reduce the chain of brake-stomping.
However, that is only a technique to reduce the problem (and works better in mild jams and merely heavy traffic). It does absolutely nothing to overcome the problem of people passing an accident and rolling at 5 mph (or coming to a stop) for tens of yards after they have passed the scene. It also does nothing to overcome the habit of far too many people who find themelves at the front of a jam where the accident has been removed continuing to drive slowly (or to stop) to see where the accident had been.
I often find myself the second or third car in a line with no accident on the side and an open road two cars ahead and have to be careful not to ram the idiot(s) ahead of me who are now stopped pondering why they no longer have a jam in front of them. Even with a 4 second gap, when the car ahead of one comes to a stop, one eventually has to brake (unless one is driving my dream car–the county snow plow).
guys slow downs occur for any damn reason you can think of, not just accidents.
a cop on the shoulder, clearly outside his car radaring the OTHER direction of traffic is causing a slow down as people see him and drop 10mph EVEN THOUGH THEY ARE MOVING UNDER THE SPEED LIMIT ALREADY!!!
flat tires getting changed
some one outside their car on a phone talking…no obvious problems.
people are stupid, and people will keep slowing and looking at anything.
that said once the problem is gone you can eat up tons of traffic waves like the guy in the link, nice link by the way.