Variations on a Traffic Jam
October 12, 2015 11:15 PM Subscribe
Here's fifty lanes of automobile traffic in Beijing.
Here's a bike traffic jam at CicLAvia in Los Angeles, and on New York's 5th Avenue the traffic is afoot.
This article claims that the widest freeway in the world is in Houston and is only 26 lanes wide. And I can't find any reference on the internet to China having a 50-lane freeway that isn't talking about this particular traffic jam.
I don't think this is faked or anything, but I'm curious how there can be such an enormously wide freeway without any references to it before this traffic jam. Even the Wikipedia article about the G4 Beijing–Hong Kong–Macau Expressway doesn't say anything about it being extraordinarily wide.
posted by straight at 12:50 AM on October 13, 2015
I don't think this is faked or anything, but I'm curious how there can be such an enormously wide freeway without any references to it before this traffic jam. Even the Wikipedia article about the G4 Beijing–Hong Kong–Macau Expressway doesn't say anything about it being extraordinarily wide.
posted by straight at 12:50 AM on October 13, 2015
The "50 lanes" is at the entrance to a toll plaza (or some other checkpoint), which you can see in some pictures. It's amazing (well, not amazing) how widely that's been reported as if there were 50 lane freeways in China.
posted by grahamparks at 1:13 AM on October 13, 2015 [7 favorites]
posted by grahamparks at 1:13 AM on October 13, 2015 [7 favorites]
To be fair, USA Today does say that it's a checkpoint where 50 lanes merge down to 20. Though that gives the impression that it's 50 lanes until it reaches the checkpoint, and then 20 beyond, whereas, from what I can tell, it's actually a fairly skinny highway that widens at a checkpoint and then gets skinny again afterwards. I'm thinking it's this checkpoint. In which case I think it would be fairest to call it neither a 50 lane highway nor a 20 lane highway, but an 8 lane highway.
posted by Bugbread at 1:25 AM on October 13, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by Bugbread at 1:25 AM on October 13, 2015 [1 favorite]
In fact, double-checking the nearby roads and foliage and such, it's definitely the checkpoint I linked to there. So, yeah, 8 lane highway that widens to 54 lanes (by my count) for a kilometer or two (to accommodate one checkpoint for each direction of traffic) and then shrinks back down to 8 lanes again.
Don't get me wrong, it's still an impressive traffic jam, and an impressive checkpoint. But not so much an impressive highway.
posted by Bugbread at 1:32 AM on October 13, 2015
Don't get me wrong, it's still an impressive traffic jam, and an impressive checkpoint. But not so much an impressive highway.
posted by Bugbread at 1:32 AM on October 13, 2015
On the days when the sidewalks in New York are like that, you can't help but wish Godzilla would stick his head around the corner and encourage everyone to mosey along a little.
posted by halfbuckaroo at 1:41 AM on October 13, 2015 [3 favorites]
posted by halfbuckaroo at 1:41 AM on October 13, 2015 [3 favorites]
the neighborhoods around that interchange that Bugbread linked are interesting. They really pack in the houses!
posted by rebent at 5:21 AM on October 13, 2015
posted by rebent at 5:21 AM on October 13, 2015
I like so many kinds of jams
To spread them on my bread.
I’ll eat some peach and rhubarb jam
Before I go to bed.
A sweet jam made of blackberries,
And blueberries
And gooseberries,
And pineapple and cranberries
Or mushroom jam with strawberries!
There are so many flavors.
I want to make some too:
A jam that’s made of pickles
A jam made of shampoo.
I’ll eat a jam that’s made of plum
Or oranges and roasted lamb.
The only one I cannot stand
Is getting stuck in traffic jam.
(Self link: Written by me & my 5 year old daughter, sung by Rose Weissberg)
posted by growabrain at 6:46 AM on October 13, 2015
To spread them on my bread.
I’ll eat some peach and rhubarb jam
Before I go to bed.
A sweet jam made of blackberries,
And blueberries
And gooseberries,
And pineapple and cranberries
Or mushroom jam with strawberries!
There are so many flavors.
I want to make some too:
A jam that’s made of pickles
A jam made of shampoo.
I’ll eat a jam that’s made of plum
Or oranges and roasted lamb.
The only one I cannot stand
Is getting stuck in traffic jam.
(Self link: Written by me & my 5 year old daughter, sung by Rose Weissberg)
posted by growabrain at 6:46 AM on October 13, 2015
I only counted 49.
posted by QueerAngel28 at 6:50 AM on October 13, 2015
posted by QueerAngel28 at 6:50 AM on October 13, 2015
Back in the 70s I had an Earth Science teacher who tried to convey what population growth held in store for us if unchecked.
These images are precisely the kind of thing he showed us to scare the crap out of us and dissuade us from procreating too exuberantly.
It worked then, and it works now.
posted by kinnakeet at 7:21 AM on October 13, 2015
These images are precisely the kind of thing he showed us to scare the crap out of us and dissuade us from procreating too exuberantly.
It worked then, and it works now.
posted by kinnakeet at 7:21 AM on October 13, 2015
Back in the 70s I had an Earth Science teacher who tried to convey what population growth held in store for us if unchecked.
Or, you know, if people keep driving cars.
posted by entropicamericana at 7:49 AM on October 13, 2015 [2 favorites]
Or, you know, if people keep driving cars.
posted by entropicamericana at 7:49 AM on October 13, 2015 [2 favorites]
Also, either those people on bikes are doing the weirdest trackstands I've ever seen, or they're not stopped. The funny thing is, in my experience, people on bikes in a congested area don't get all psychotic at each other like motorists do. Besides, Just imagine how that would look if they were all in cars.
posted by entropicamericana at 7:54 AM on October 13, 2015
posted by entropicamericana at 7:54 AM on October 13, 2015
I've been in CicLAvia bike traffic. They're not going very fast. There are parts of CicLAvia where you have to get off your bike and walk.
posted by aniola at 8:23 AM on October 13, 2015
posted by aniola at 8:23 AM on October 13, 2015
WikiTravel has a great article about Driving in China. The gist of it is this: Don't hit anybody, keep moving, and force your way through because people will yield if you make them. Imagine the dynamic of trying to move through a crowded nightclub, where you sneak through gaps and between people. Now replace "excuse me" and "pardon me" with frequent horn honking. That's driving in China. The official traffic laws are more like recommendations that are often ignored.
posted by qxntpqbbbqxl at 9:46 PM on October 13, 2015
posted by qxntpqbbbqxl at 9:46 PM on October 13, 2015
I was in a pedestrian traffic jam once. It was after a fourth of july fireworks show, so there was a large group of people sitting around and then all getting up to leave at once. There was a (fairly wide) bottleneck, and a lot of people trying to go both directions. As I worked my way through I figured out why it was so bad.
People were packed densely enough that you could only move forward among people moving the same direction as yourself. No darting through people moving the other way. Each side started out broad and then narrowed, so much so that people were only exiting the jam single file on either side. If there had been a divider to keep the directions of travel separate, it wouldn't have been a problem.
It was a strange experience.
posted by vibratory manner of working at 12:43 AM on October 14, 2015
People were packed densely enough that you could only move forward among people moving the same direction as yourself. No darting through people moving the other way. Each side started out broad and then narrowed, so much so that people were only exiting the jam single file on either side. If there had been a divider to keep the directions of travel separate, it wouldn't have been a problem.
It was a strange experience.
posted by vibratory manner of working at 12:43 AM on October 14, 2015
Having driven the world's largest freeway (the 26-laner in Katy) and having been a passenger in a hire car on the Beijing ring and inner roads, I have to say that there isn't the magnitude of difference between the two that I really expected.
It's all just road after a while, with heavy traffic and bad drivers a constant, no matter the language the signs are in.
Epic traffic jams are both bigger and more common in China because there's so many more people--but Houston's Hurricane Rita traffic jams were also epic enough to make international news.
So my point is that it's silly to have a 'look at weird China' article on this. I'm not sure about the rest of the English-speaking world, but the U.S. at least can look at similar examples in its own backyard.
posted by librarylis at 3:30 PM on October 14, 2015
It's all just road after a while, with heavy traffic and bad drivers a constant, no matter the language the signs are in.
Epic traffic jams are both bigger and more common in China because there's so many more people--but Houston's Hurricane Rita traffic jams were also epic enough to make international news.
So my point is that it's silly to have a 'look at weird China' article on this. I'm not sure about the rest of the English-speaking world, but the U.S. at least can look at similar examples in its own backyard.
posted by librarylis at 3:30 PM on October 14, 2015
I used the first example of each kind of traffic that was handy. My intent in posting these three links was basically to show that if you build it, they will come. Wherever we happen to be, which kinds of traffic do we most want to experience?
posted by aniola at 7:24 PM on October 14, 2015
posted by aniola at 7:24 PM on October 14, 2015
there was a great comment somewhere a while back to the effect that highways subsidize commuters at the expense of urban living, and that no matter how far you move, if they build infrastructure to allow commuters, they will create subdivisions and the highway will eventually be clogged with people commuting. The answer supplied was to build mass-transit infrastructure and taxation that encouraged people to live closer to where they worked.
posted by rebent at 6:45 AM on October 15, 2015
posted by rebent at 6:45 AM on October 15, 2015
I used the first example of each kind of traffic that was handy. My intent in posting these three links was basically to show that if you build it, they will come. Wherever we happen to be, which kinds of traffic do we most want to experience?
Oh gosh, I'm sorry aniola--I was not trying to cast aspersions on you at all. I was thinking of the broader implications societally of the China traffic article (or photo, really) when I commented. It's a story that's been absolutely everywhere, which is interesting because it's not that strange a story but it's being spun that way. So what is the rationale for doing so? It's interesting to think about the implications for geo-political relations through such a small thing.
Your question about the kinds of traffic--car, bicycle, foot--is interesting. As a matter of personal preference, I actually quite like driving cars versus the other two, however, one cannot ignore the health implications of car and truck emissions (that Beijing smog!) and the carnage wrought by cars hitting bicyclists and pedestrians. The social good, then, would seem to indicate that a tip in the balance away from cars would be preferable.
posted by librarylis at 8:25 AM on October 15, 2015
Oh gosh, I'm sorry aniola--I was not trying to cast aspersions on you at all. I was thinking of the broader implications societally of the China traffic article (or photo, really) when I commented. It's a story that's been absolutely everywhere, which is interesting because it's not that strange a story but it's being spun that way. So what is the rationale for doing so? It's interesting to think about the implications for geo-political relations through such a small thing.
Your question about the kinds of traffic--car, bicycle, foot--is interesting. As a matter of personal preference, I actually quite like driving cars versus the other two, however, one cannot ignore the health implications of car and truck emissions (that Beijing smog!) and the carnage wrought by cars hitting bicyclists and pedestrians. The social good, then, would seem to indicate that a tip in the balance away from cars would be preferable.
posted by librarylis at 8:25 AM on October 15, 2015
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"It looks like there are no rules," I say to the driver.
"Own rules," says the driver, between drags on his cigarette, "much worse than no rules. Everyone in China drive according to their own rules."
posted by three blind mice at 11:44 PM on October 12, 2015