[kokey]

I find this happens a lot more in some countries than others, and it's not down to levels of traffic on the road, it's down to driving habits. I think the UK has done well with driver education and variable speed limits to mitigate this, and zipper merging is the norm.

[greeneggs]

I wish California would put traffic mitigation into its high-school driver's education classes. Knowing the rules of the road and driving safely are important, but so is reducing traffic, and some simple information could save a lot of time in traffic jams.

[cones688]

I think has a lot to do with manual transmission which allows for natural and controlled engine breaking, thus not creating the brake light to come on (and therefore the wave of copy-cat type braking).

[kokey]

The worst I've seen has been in Johannesburg in South Africa, where automatic transmission is rare. I used to refer to it as concertina traffic before I knew it was called a traffic wave, and the concertina is a popular instrument in South Africa amongst the ancestors of the people who are usually responsible for these waves.

[Leszek]

> and the concertina is a popular instrument in South Africa amongst the ancestors of the people who are usually responsible for these waves

I'm not sure what you're trying to imply there, but it seems a bit racist? Or am I just being ignorant?

[smhg]

Is it based on your own experience? Or you read it somewhere?

In which countries did it happen more?

[kokey]

The last time I counted, I have driven in 12 different countries. I found this certainly happens a lot in South Africa and a bit in various parts of Spain and Ireland. It seems to happen a lot less in the UK and Portugal.

[sergiosgc]

Funny you say that about Portugal. I'm Portuguese, and I concur, although I always thought of my opinion as biased.

It does not take many drivers acting responsibly to fix a wave jam. Interestingly, culturally, is that this responsible action is viewed here as a relaxed take on traffic. When the line restarts, some drivers take their time shifting into first gear, and then take a lot of time to increase their speed. They effectively buffer cars behind them from the stop-and-go.

If you get two of these in a row, it's enough for the stop and go effect to dissipate.

If you do this on the road, prepare to be overtaken by someone "in a rush", and prepare to ignore the action, although it's acceptable to gesticulate and swear at the car ahead :-)