phantom jam
noun1
Automotive, Transport, Vehicles A slowdown in traffic that occurs without an apparent reason.
- Eventually, the phantom jam always dissolves. Sometimes the phantom jams are large and sometimes they are small.1996, Achim Bachem, Dietrich E Wolf, Michael Schreckenberg (editors), Traffic And Granular Flow, page 76:
- The leftover phantom jam might be miles away from its orgin.2001 August 25, Sherman Cahal, “ARTICLE: Traffic: Stuck in the Maddening Crowd”, in misc.transport.road (Usenet):
2 more examples
- One of the most affected problems is the behavior of freeway traffic, which includes the appearance of "the phantom jam."2003, Elsevier Limited (publisher), Control in Transportation Systems ... a Proceedings Volume from the IFAC Symposium, page 335:
- Finally, when interpreting accidents as events “out of thin air”, there are, in fact, phantom jams.2012, Martin Treiber, Arne Kesting, Traffic Flow Dynamics, Data, Models and Simulation, page 569:
2
Automotive, Transport, Vehicles A traffic jam that appears at a distance on a highway, but in reality is an optical illusion.
- Related terms
- traffic jam