Traffic Pulse

Last summer Michelle and I were driving home to Olympia from her 20th high school reunion in Eugene, OR.  It was a sunny Sunday afternoon, and we had about a 5 hour drive straight up the I-5 corridor into Olympia.  I-5 is the major thoroughfare from San Diego to Seattle, and in several spots, it is the only way to get from point A to point B. 

We passed through the busy downtown Portland area after some outlet mall shopping, and began the last leg home.  The drive from Portland to Olympia is about 2 hours, and there really aren't any towns of size in between, just lots of farmland, the Columbia River, and Mt. St. Helen's National Park.  Michelle was driving and I was playing DJ, when I felt the car start to slow down.  I looked up, we were climbing a steady low grade hill that allowed me to see the cars ahead of us for about a half-mile.  I could see the brake lights starting at the lead cars, and slowly making their way back through the pack that we happened to be in.  The slight slow down a half-mile ahead eventually led to our vehicle coming to a complete stand still.  What was once a quiet, uncongested road, was now a full blown traffic jam, in the middle of nowhere.

There wasn't an accident ahead of us, there weren't even that many cars.  What happened was that drivers ahead of us had packed so tightly together, that one vehicle tapping the brakes caused a chain reaction a half mile later, that eventually led to a stop in all traffic.  I termed this phenomenon "traffic pulse", and then proceeded to bore Michelle for the next 2 hours as I fixated on why this occurs, and the method I could develop to solve it. 

We have all witnessed traffic pulse before, and if you would like to see it in action in a virtual setting, check out this site.    Microsimulation of Road Traffic

I have since begun the patent disclosure process within IBM so that I can patent my idea.  I'll post more on my ideas once that process has completed and I legally allowed to discuss it.  Until then, it, like all my ideas, is the property of IBM.