The Physics Behind Traffic Jams

A really worth-while piece on the mechanics behind traffic jams and why they occur.

WHY must a bottleneck develop at a merge zone? Well, because everyone must take turns. Wrong! Under low-traffic conditions, everyone still takes turns, yet everyone merges at high speed. A bottleneck never appears. Traffic jams develop at a merge zone whenever the cars get so close together that there are no gaps between them.

Quite an interesting weekend read for anyone.