Experimental features and characteristics of traffic jams

Abstract

Based on experimental investigations of traffic on highways it is shown that traffic jams can move stable through a highway keeping their structure and characteristic parameters for a long time (at least for about 50 min, when the jams moved through the longest, 13.1 km, section of the investigated highways). The experimental features of an almost stationary moving jam have been found. An occurrence of complex space-time structures of traffic inside a wide traffic jam has been observed. © 1996 The American Physical Society.