SIMULATION / EXPERIMENTAL / GENERATED DATA

Traffic Wave Lab

Can a traffic jam form without an obstacle? Brake one car and watch the slowdown move through an otherwise uniform stream.

Try 48 cars, a longer response time, then brake. The outlined car receives the braking pulse.

Try this

Start with a sparse road, brake and watch the gap recover. Increase density, reset and repeat. Compare short and long driver response times. Cars move clockwise; a slowdown can travel backwards from one car to the next.

How the model works

Each car accelerates towards a desired speed while keeping distance from the next car. The model uses an Intelligent Driver Model inspired spacing rule, smoothed acceleration and a conservative guard against overlaps. “Driver response” controls acceleration smoothing, not a measured human reaction delay.

This is an educational simulation, not a calibrated traffic forecast. Density resets the cars to uniform spacing. Reset preserves your settings. All movement and metrics are generated locally. Reduced-motion preference starts the experiment paused.