MINNEAPOLIS — Typically, a driver can spot the reason for a traffic jam — a crash, construction or a lane closure. But sometimes, traffic comes to a halt for no apparent reason.
There's a name for it — a phantom traffic jam.
Raphael Stern, an assistant professor in the U of M's Department of Civil, Environmental and Geo-Engineering, studies traffic flow.
He says phantom jams occur in times of high traffic density. When vehicles are close together, all it takes is for one driver to overreact and hit the brakes.
"We tend to not realize the person in front of us is going slower until we're a little too close. And then we hit the brakes a little hard," Stern said.
That can cause a cascading, or domino, effect with each subsequent driver hitting the brakes a little harder until traffic comes to a standstill.
Stern led an experiment testing what happens to traffic flow when autonomous vehicles are added into the mix. The experiment found that just one self-driving vehicle can stop those stop-and-go waves.
So what can humans learn from autonomous vehicles?
"I think the advice is [to] be a zen driver. Resist the urge to speed up as the vehicle in front of you races away and instead try to drive at a pretty constant speed," Stern said.
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