Galactic_grub writes "Japanese researchers recently performed the first experimental demonstration of a phenomenon that causes a busy a freeway to inexplicably grind to a halt (includes video). A team from Nagoya University in Japan had volunteers drive cars around a small circular track and monitored the way 'shockwaves' — caused when one driver breaks — are sent back to other cars, causing jams to occur. Drivers were asked to at 30 kmph but small fluctuations soon appeared eventually causing several vehicles stop completely. Understanding the phenomenon could help devise ways to avoid the problem. As one researcher comments: "If they had set up an experiment with robots driving in a perfect circle, flow breakdown would not have occurred.""
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1. It's brakes. Brakes. Breaks is when something stops working.
2. This is obvious to anyone who has driven much. Try not to use your *brakes* on the motorway. Try to "iron out" the waves by ever so slowly dropping back when you see them approaching.
Brakes, not breaks. (Score:2)
2. This is obvious to anyone who has driven much. Try not to use your *brakes* on the motorway. Try to "iron out" the waves by ever so slowly dropping back when you see them approaching.