CGP Grey
6 HN recommenders · recommended in 15 months, 2016–2026
4:30 · 45M views · Aug 31, 2016
CGP Grey explains how traffic jams come from human driving behavior such as tailgating and reaction delays, and how leaving gaps and smoothing speed would reduce congestion. It also touches on self-driving cars.
HN cites it as a concise, well-illustrated explanation of traffic flow, in threads on congestion, self-driving cars and driving habits.
16 comments from Hacker News
> You don’t own the asphalt in front of you. Correct, but you _need_ the asphalt in front of you for both safe driving and also to avoid cascading hard braking events. I also don't own the asphalt under me or behind me too, so it's kinda a silly statement tbh. This youtube talks about it: this video
CGP Gray's simple solution to traffic and good visuals. this video The real simple solution to traffic is no more monkeys driving cars. Also, implicitly, fully isolate cars from human powered forms of transportation.
This video illustrates the principle: this video Basically, people following too closely cause more braking, which cascades to more braking for an obstacle that was never actually there.
[CGP Grey did a video on this]( this video ). Your goal, as a driver, should be to try to maintain equivalent distance between your car and cars in front of you and behind you.
CGP Grey did a really nice, concise video on the topic of traffic and he addresses your point in the first 30 seconds. Coordination, not cars, is the problem. this video