Why Do Freeways Come to a Stop?

This is a simple, good infographic that seeks to explain why traffic on freeways slows to a crawl without any apparent reason to drivers.  By Stephen J. Beard and Rich Exner in The Plain Dealer.

EDIT: Here's a link to the original article, and a high-res PDF of the infographic.

Comments

[Studiofluid_Ben]

Thanks Randy. Great site.

This is one of many reasons I avoid driving in L.A. whenever possible!

On the transportation note, my company, Studiofluid, recently completed http://www.studiofluid.com/uc-davis/" REL="nofollow">an infographic for Daniel Sperling of UC Davis to help explain the future of sustainable transportation.

[Anonymous]

Rather than linking to Digg and having us all Rickrolled by that stupid photo, why not link to the real source of the graphic so that we might actually get the information and the original producer might get some of the credit.

[Anonymous]

And when one clicks on the graphic one gets a photo of ????

[Randy Krum]

Thanks for the comments. I fixed the links and added a link to the original article and high-res PDF.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for fixing it.
You know a few basics of traditional journalism, like honest sourcing, would help lift blogging's status as a modern form of journalism.

[James]

This is why I strive to only use my brakes when I really need to. I hate being around people, or riding with people whose first instinct is to leap on the brake the second anything happens in front of them. Granted, there are a lot of drivers without the computational capacity think about a situation and draw a satisfactory conclusion as to their next course of action in a car. I guess it's all those imbeciles who are f**king up traffic for the rest of us.