What Causes Traffic Jams?

Replies

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  Koushal Patel

  Link not opening! Can you please check sir
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  Ramani Aswath

  Koushal Patel

  Link not opening! Can you please check sir

  It opens normally for me from the post. Please see if copy paste works.
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  KenJackson

  People have joked about traffic jams rolling the whole way around the Baltimore beltway (Maryland, USA). Maybe those jokes have some truth to them.
  
  But this still doesn't explain the experience of I64 around Norfolk and Virginia Beach, Virginia, USA. Years ago I used to commute on it and occasionally, almost once per day, while traveling at full highway speed, I would suddenly see a sea of brakelights ahead of me as everybody slammed on their brakes at once.
  
  After the panic stop, we would sit there for several seconds or a minute, grateful that we all got stopped without a wreck. Then everything started moving again and was quickly back at full highway speed. Why did we stop? I never figured it out. And I've never seen the phenomenon on a regular basis anywhere else.
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  Ramani Aswath

  This happens to me at least once a year when I visit my daughter in Bethesda, MD on that beltway. Inexplicable.