Accrington Web - View Single Post - Decision on M6 improvements to be announced today

WillowTheWhisp · 11-01-2006, 07:22

I'm still in favour of the widening of the existing road rather than creating a new one, but have you heard this theory about traffic behaving in some sort of predictable way as if the cars etc were individual molecules in one large substance? There was some chap on the radio yesterday saying this explains why traffic jams occur for no logical reason. Everyone is going merrily along and then all of a sudden things start to congeal without any changes in road conditions or accidents or anything, then just as mysteriously it all starts moving smoothly again. Only sometimes it doesn't. It clogs up and we get the jams.

As you mentioned railways I think the closures in the 60s were a crying shame but look at motorways back then - the M6 with hardly a sausage on it!

11-01-2006, 07:22	#19
WillowTheWhisp Resident Waffler Join Date: Jun 2004 Location: Accrington, Hyndburn Posts: 18,142 Blog Entries: 14 Liked: 14 times Rep Power: 1062	Re: Decision on M6 improvements to be announced today I'm still in favour of the widening of the existing road rather than creating a new one, but have you heard this theory about traffic behaving in some sort of predictable way as if the cars etc were individual molecules in one large substance? There was some chap on the radio yesterday saying this explains why traffic jams occur for no logical reason. Everyone is going merrily along and then all of a sudden things start to congeal without any changes in road conditions or accidents or anything, then just as mysteriously it all starts moving smoothly again. Only sometimes it doesn't. It clogs up and we get the jams. As you mentioned railways I think the closures in the 60s were a crying shame but look at motorways back then - the M6 with hardly a sausage on it! __________________