How to use a roundabout

[TomK]

HOTPE,

Thanks for the video, it shows a perfect example of "the physics of traffic jams" (google it) which can be explained using the science of waves. I believe it demonstrates the reason traffic now backs up regularly after the merge on H-130 which never used to happen in that area. This is my reasoning:

The merge concentrates traffic which means cars are much closer to each other afterwards (compared to before). This slows traffic enough that we now have people slow down or even stop on the highway to allow other drivers entering from side streets to turn left. That means the other drivers behind this person have to slow and the wave gets transmitted all the way back to the merge.

I've seen many drivers on H-130 do exactly this and dread to think what this will do to the traffic behind me. One driver's show of aloha to another ends up inconveniencing hundreds of others.

The same used to happen when the merge was in Keaau, but was not as bad as there were far fewer people entering H-130 after the merge.