What's the impact of traffic jams on expressways?

The phenomenon of traffic jam on expressway is called butterfly effect. When all the cars seem to be driving at a constant speed, this state is actually very unstable.

As long as any disturbance is called, such as a short pause caused by the driver's braking, sudden lane change or overtaking, a series of pauses will be triggered behind the car to form a virtual traffic jam. This traffic jam will accumulate a large number of cars and gradually spread to the distant rear, forming a "butterfly effect."

In this case, the car behind can't see what happened in front, but it seems that the road is blocked for no reason. But if you look down from a height, you will see that after the first pause, there seems to be a virtual traffic jam not far away. This traffic jam will accumulate a large number of vehicles, and then gradually move backwards, spreading all the way to the far rear like waves until the roads with few vehicles gradually disappear.

Extended data

For many novices or foreign drivers, it is common to miss or be about to miss the intersection carelessly. If you don't miss it, it's easy to do. Even in the fast lane, cross several lanes and don't go out. If you just miss the intersection, as long as there are not many cars on the road, most drivers will risk reversing and returning to the intersection. These risky behaviors have seriously affected the traffic flow, so the accompanying vehicles must slow down or even change lanes. Once an accident occurs, it will be more congested.

Suggestion: Familiarity with the route is a prerequisite for every driver. If you are really unfamiliar, you should also do a "preview" on the map before you travel, and turn into the slow lane ahead of time when you arrive at your destination to minimize the occurrence of missing intersections.

In fact, whether for safety reasons or to avoid violation of regulations or traffic jams, once you miss the intersection or are quite close to it, and you are still in the fast lane, I suggest you move on to the next intersection and detour back to the original route.