A LITTLE LAB FOR EVERYDAY CHAOS
Traffic, in motion.
One driver taps the brakes. Everyone feels it.
A JAM DOESN’T NEED AN ACCIDENT
Follow the chain reaction.
Each driver responds to the car ahead. Braking travels through the line, and a small slowdown can become a wave moving backward through traffic. Change the spacing, speed, or weather and try again.
Your experiment, your pace. Everything is ready to go. Choose a scene and play with the conditions. Changing the car count or truck share restarts traffic; other controls work live.
A simplified car-following model, not a road-design tool. The merge is a two-lane loop with a work zone. Detector passes count laps, not unique trips. In The lights, cars continue straight and recirculate beyond the view. Main Street carries about twice the traffic of Cross Street; crossings count vehicles that fully clear the intersection. Yellow closes new entry, and the next street waits for the intersection to clear. In The ramp, freeway traffic recirculates while new ramp arrivals enter and leave. Metering releases one driver per green. Courteous drivers make room; aggressive drivers keep their pace. Queued arrivals are included in average speed, so a backup beyond the view still counts. The construction toggle closes the left freeway lane downstream of the ramp.
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