Dictionary

phantom jam en · NOUN

Meanings

1. 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:
   • 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:
   • 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:
   • 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. A traffic jam that appears at a distance on a highway, but in reality is an optical illusion.

Forms

Relateds

traffic jam