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IT’S A POSITION many of us have been in.
You’re motoring along, not a care in the world when suddenly you’re stuck in a traffic jam.
You mutter and complain but assume that it must be a bad accident or major roadworks.
But then, something magical happens and the traffic begins moving again.
Why is that?
Well, it’s a big enough concern that researchers from five universities in the US, Saudi Arabia and Canada have spent years analysing the problem of “phantom traffic jams”.
Not only that, they think they have an answer and some solutions.
In the middle of a…
The research by Morris R Flynn (University of Alberta), Aslan R Kasimov (KAUST), Jean-Christophe Nave (McGill University), Rodolfo Ruben Rosales (MIT) and Benjamin Seibold (Temple University) finds that these phantom traffic jams are caused by chain reactions.
“This phenomenon is typically addressed as a model for phantom traffic jams, i.e. jams that arise in the absence of any obstacles.
The instabilities are observed to grow into travelling waves, which are local peaks of high traffic density, although the average traffic density is still moderate (the highway is not fully congested). Vehicles are forced to brake when they run into such waves.
This means that a bump in the road, or a small tap of the brakes from a driver in front slows everything down. This amplifies as a wave and slows everyone down.
Here’s how that looks on a circular road:
And how the data looks:
Only a fool…
While that may lead you to think that it is the fault of those up front, the research team say that’s not entirely true. Also, the bad news is that these kinds of gridlock can’t really be prevented. However, it is suggested that drivers keep their distance and not get too close to the car in front, meaning that they don’t have to hit the brakes.
Two key effects work towards the occurrence of phantom traffic jams: first, denser traffic travels slower; and second, it takes a certain “adjustment time” for drivers to react to new traffic conditions. These effects are counter-acted by a certain tendency of the drivers to drive preventively.
“In light traffic, the good effects dominate. In heavy traffic, the bad effects prevail. Hence, phantom traffic jams are a feature of traffic flow that is not completely avoidable.”
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Do not go there. It’s really dangerous. Go to Spain or Portugal.
The people that go there don’t care, whether it’s for work or pleasure. It’s all about the money.
@The next small thing: But but but I can earn loads of tax-free money there and then come home loaded and outprice the ijets who stayed behind and kept the country going, pushing rental and property prices.
This is essential reading and should be linked under the social media posts of influencers who celebrate the glitz of the UAE, much of which was built using modern day slavery.
The world is a better place as a result of such incredibly brave human rights lawyers.
The way Hamas terrorists treat Palestinian women and members of the LGBT+ community is even worse.
@Pat Hazzard: yea pat.. bombing them from 20,00 feet with American F16 jets is much better…
@Pat Hazzard: Genocide apologist.
Thankfully Israel’s days as an apartheid state are numbered. They’ll have to share the country equally with the natives or go home. Just like the white South Africans had to.
@John Smith: Israel is the exact reverse of an apartheid state, such as the old South Africa. All citizens (Jewish, Arab, Christian etc) of Israel have exactly the same rights. Compare that to Hamas in Gaza where opponents are murdered, women have no rights, and LGBT people are beheaded and thrown from buildings.
@Pat Hazzard: “I’ve seen children shot twice by snipers in Gaza.”
“No toddler gets shot twice by mistake by the world’s best sniper.”
“I’ve seen shredded children”
“All the disaster zones combined don’t equal the level of carnage I saw in Gaza.”
Dr Perlmutter
@Pat Hazzard: The same Hamas that Israel backed to weaken the Palestinian Authority?
@A F: Hamas regularly murder their own civilians, they are a cult of evil.
@Pat Hazzard: You’re a cult yourself, Pat.
@Pat Hazzard: and Netanyahu pat….he’s a cult that murders children
@John Smith: No such thing as genocide in Gaza. It’s a war. Hamas is the one putting civilians at risk, not Israel.
@Alex: A one sided war, where Israel keeps accidentally killing civilians, accidentally destroying the infrastructure, accidentally hitting hospitals, accidentally hitting refugee camps, accidentally hitting UN schools where civilians are sheltering and accidentally killing journalists.
If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, then it is a duck!
The ICJ will eventually find them guilty but it will be too late for the innocent civilians who have been butchered by the genocidal state of Israel.
@Pat Hazzard: well that’s a blatant lie.
@John Smith: sure the natives can come to Europe for colonial reversal
@John Smith: So Israël is the only one who has to do a clean war without civilians casualties that’s what you are saying?
Because genocide is the deliberate will of eliminating a specific ethnic group, which isn’t the case here. Cope harder terrorist apologist.
@Alex: Israel has an obligation to minimise civilian casualties, that’s not what they are doing.
And yes, they are deliberately targeting civilians, which makes this a genocide.
Where did I write anything about apologising for terrorism? Are you referring to my support of the civilian and indigenous population of Palestine?
Cope harder genocide apologist.
Islam is an ignorant dangerous delusion that insists that women are subservient to men.What’s more frightening about it is how insanely fanatical it’s most ardent followers are.
@Johnny King: no different to Catholic Church
@Pad: they also abused children all over the world…….must make you proud…
@Pad: Catholic Church systematically repressed the Irish people, covered up the abuse of children and opposed every single reform to give women equal rights. An evil institution that is dying.
@Pad: it doesn’t forbid it, you can consume alcohol in a hotel or bar!
@Pad: you are not forbidden from drinking alcohol in Dubai, although consumption is restricted – you need a licence to buy take out, but it is freely available in lots of hotels, restaurants and bars
@Johnny King: Non of the Muslim women I worked with in the past considered themselves in any way subservient!
@Johnny King: no it’s not. You’ve just made a sweeping statement about the religion of over a billion people. You my friend are uneducated and misinformed.
@Sean O’Dhubhghaill: Tell us that you have never been to the Middle East without telling us. I worked and visited most countries in the Middle East. Lebanon, Jordan, Israel, UAE, Qatar, Saudi, Egypt. I can tell you that the only place where women were actually free was the only country which wasn’t a muslim majority and didn’t use the sharia. Only rencently women can drive in Saudi for example. Women can’t do much without the approval of men. Giving birth outside mariage will get you stoned to death in most of those places. Islam is backward and went back to the middle ages the last 60 years, that’s a fact. Like any sect, it should be banned.
Looks an ideal spot for a World Cup….over to you Infantino
Anyone choosing to travel to Dubai needs to seriously check themselves.
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