Nothing will ruin a pleasant drive quicker than the sight brake lights coming towards you on the highway. Miles ahead, someone or something has spooked the bejeezus out of traffic and now you're about to pay for it with your free time. The mighty flow of America's highways is about to be plugged by you and a couple hundred of your closest strangers.

The next time a traffic jam's iron grip has you in its clutch, you can at least take heart knowing that scientists have figured out why they happen and who's to blame. Follow the jump for this latest infographic on the Science of Traffic Jams by our friends at Car Insurance Guide, and tell us in the comments if knowing really is half the battle.

http://www.autoblog.com/2011/03/05/the-science-behind-traffic-jams-infographic/#continued

Amazingly, the observed behavior of traffic flow is similar to the behavior of fluids described by classical fluid dynamics. This dawned on me me way back in my early professional life and to others long before that. Thanks for the link to an interesting read if you are into to that sort of thing.

Very interesting. And, all this time, I thought 90% of our local traffic jams were caused by "rubber-neckers". (It is.)

Best regards,

RA1

Having lived in Thailand for a few years now I have seen major traffic jams everyday in Bangkok. Too many cars and drivers with very bad driving habits. I tell all of my Thai friends that if drivers in the US did what Thais do there would be blood in the streets. And, not from wrecks.

Having lived in Thailand for a few years now I have seen major traffic jams everyday in Bangkok. Too many cars and drivers with very bad driving habits. I tell all of my Thai friends that if drivers in the US did what Thais do there would be blood in the streets. And, not from wrecks.

Have you ever been to Boston?

I have seen drivers here stop, more or less, in the middle of the street, exit their vehicles and duke it out. I guess it relieves their tensions.

I have heard it said that there are 8 million cars driving around in Manhattan looking for one of the 7 million places to park. I have this image of 1 million cars (at least) in constant motion M-F.

I once had business many years ago at 30 Rock and a friend drove me in. We parked in a garage across the street where I was amused to listen to my friend tell the attendant, to not bury it and we will be back in about an hour or so. We were back in about 45 minutes and paid the guy as I recall about 15-20 bucks. This was at least 15 years ago. Part of that was the parking fee and part of it was for not burying the car.

Best regards,

RA1