Why does traffic congestion occur inexplicably on highways?
2 Answers
Reasons for inexplicable traffic congestion on highways: 1. Toll-free highways during holidays greatly stimulate car owners' enthusiasm for self-driving trips, leading to highway congestion; 2. Traffic accidents ahead on the highway force following vehicles to slow down, and the deceleration of all vehicles inevitably causes traffic jams; 3. Severe weather conditions prevent all vehicles from maintaining high speeds, turning the highway into a low-speed road; 4. Road construction ahead reduces the number of passable lanes, affecting traffic efficiency. Highways have multiple lanes and wide road surfaces with large traffic capacity, and the transportation volume they can handle is several times or even dozens of times higher than that of ordinary roads.
Having driven on highways for decades, I've found that most inexplicable traffic jams are chain reactions caused by overly dense traffic flow. For instance, when the lead car lightly taps the brakes, the following car has to brake hard, which then propagates to more vehicles behind, creating a blockage several kilometers away like dominoes. This is the phantom traffic jam phenomenon - no accidents, just standstill. Another common cause is vehicles jostling for position at on-ramps and off-ramps, where rushed lane changes trigger turbulence. Rainy or foggy days make it worse - with low visibility, drivers tend to brake nervously. I believe the key to prevention is maintaining steady speed, not tailgating (keep at least 2-second following distance for reaction time). Also, avoiding peak hours reduces frequency. I use navigation apps to monitor real-time traffic - leaving just 10 minutes earlier has saved me much frustration.
