Special Report: How ‘hysteresis’ phenomena creates traffic backups
From the GO-10 project on I-10 to the El Paso streetcar project Downtown, there is a good chance you will run into construction traffic one way or another.
Construction and traffic accidents are not always to blame for traffic jams. Sometimes, drivers themselves are responsible as a result of a phenomena known as “hysteresis.”
When one car has to slow down for a curve because they were speeding, it forces the car directly behind to do the same. In it’s simplest form, hysteresis is a chain reaction. All it takes is one car braking after speeding to start a traffic jam.
I-10 East and Sunland Park is a prime location for morning traffic. It has an on ramp that feeds traffic to an already narrow three lane highway. A tight left curve forces drivers to slow down on mile marker 14. It also has a construction zone that can distract those driving down I-10. What seems to slow drivers down the most is that curve that constantly brings brake lights with it.
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“If somebody is driving right behind you that causes them to brake, and then the effect is the car behind them brake and the car behind them and you get this accordion stop and go traffic,” TxDot Spokeswoman Jennifer Wright said. “That’s actually a condition called hysteresis. It’s a mathematical memory that causes that accordion long after the car that initially caused it is gone.”
The problem most drivers experience on I-10 by Sunland Park, Loop 375 by Montwood, or US-54 by Diana is they are speeding and have to suddenly hit the brakes, forcing everyone behind them to do the same.
Driving instructor Jaime Canalda teaches his students about “space management” every day. “Allow yourself enough space – one or two or three car links in front of you – to be able to react, to brake appropriately, without causing the guy in the back to panic. Allow your self an out,” Canalda said.
Traffic experts say the biggest solution to this daily slow down caused by hysteresis is simple: slow down. Allowing yourself enough space between you and the car in front of you is crucial to keeping traffic flowing.
By allowing extra space, one can be cut off by other drivers without having to slam on their brakes. This is something that Wright not only thinks will help alleviate traffic, but more than that, is just a common courtesy.
“If you have that buffer zone its far easier for people to get in” Wright said. “If your maintaining a safe following distance you don’t have to break to allow a car in and everything will flow much more smoothly.”
While traffic may not always be avoidable, there are always steps everyone can take to ensure they help with the flow of traffic. It comes down to a group mentality to slow down and making a conscious effort to increase the following space one gives on the road. The GO-10 project is slated to continue for at least another year, but traffic can be alleviated tomorrow just by slowing down and limiting creating or continuing hysteresis.
