[jameshart]

The catastrophe theory model seems compatible with the anti-traffic solution to traffic 'standing waves' - by slowing down a little when approaching stationary traffic, allowing that stationary blockage time to 'evaporate', you avoid slowing down below the catastrophic threshold that puts your rear bumper more than 2 seconds behind your front bumper, keeping the road in the higher capacity regime. Same reasoning is why UK motorways signpost 'advisory speed limits' - and some even have variable enforced speed limits - to manage road capacity.

[jliszka]

OP here, excellent point. Since so much is determined by occupancy (cars per km), I think the only way to switch domains is to lower the road's occupancy, which is exactly what you're doing when you leave extra space in front of you. However, I tried to point out that this probably comes at the expense of increased occupancy somewhere else, so you're just moving the jam around.

[hamburglar]

One thing your analysis leaves out is the human/psychological element. I've never bought into the idea of "erasing" the waves causing an overall throughput increase directly, but rather that it adds buffers so the traffic is a lot more predictable. The more people need to slam on their brakes, the more they deviate from the optimal-flow following distance, effectively wasting throughput. I guarantee you that when humans are involved, you'll get a lot better throughput from a line of nicely synched cars humming along at 25mph with a 2 second gap than the same cars constantly speeding up and slowing down, but maintaining an average speed of 25mph and attempting to maintain a 2 second gap despite wildly varying traffic conditions.

[underwater]

But if you can spread the jam over a longer area with higher speeds then you should be able to prevent any part of the jam hitting that catastrophic threshold.

[jessaustin]

...so you just moving the jam around.

If there is a reliable way to move it behind me, I'd like to know!