Today's WTFery

[Valentinian]

I have nooooo idea what was going on with the other drivers on the road today. None whatsoever.

I was coming back from an appointment this morning, and there's active roadworks on the way. Down from three lanes to one, down from 80 km/h to 40, and for once everyone seems to be happy doing the right thing, merging politely, and driving at the posted speed... except the guy behind me. (Isn't it always the guy behind you?)

This guy must have terrible blood pressure issues, because holeeeee he was upset. Hands waving, thumping his steering wheel, mouth going like a guppy on speed as he ranted. He was right up my ass, too, but not driving aggressively in any other way - not charging me, or blinking his lights or anything, so I just kept toddling along in line and watched him in my mirror. It was kinda funny.

The roadworks ended, the speed limit changed to 90, and Mister Impending Aneurism whipped past me. That seemed to make him happy enough, and he didn't do anything to indicate he blamed me for being slowed down, so off we continue with me behind him for a few minutes.

Then it was like he suddenly switched personalities, from Impending Aneurism to Zen.

Newly Peaceful Driver (as imagined by yours truly): "It's a lovely day... the sun is shining... it's Saturday... the birds are singing... the flowers are coming out... time to sightsee!" *slows down to 75 in a 90 zone*

Everybody Else On The Road: "You're absolutely right!" *slows down to 75*

Me: "WTF?"

Seriously. I could see no reason for this sudden epidemic of "la-la-la" relaxed slow driving, but everyone was doing it, nobody was trying to pass or speed up, and there I was in the middle of the pack going "...ooookayyyyy..." and just going with the flow, because what else could I do? I couldn't get out of the slowdown without driving like an asshat, which I wasn't going to do. Plus, if I did, it would probably have turned out there was a reason for the slowdown and I'd find it. :roll eyes:

We toddled along. The speed limit changed to 80. Everyone slowed down to about 65.

Me:

Everybody Else: "Doot doot doot, what a lovely day!"

The road goes around a curve, everyone potters along looking at birds and clouds and butterflies and who knows what else, and oh look! There's a white van parked on the verge up ahead, with a familiar sign on top!

Van: [YOUR SPEED HAS BEEN CHECKED]

Me: "Ha, I bet they're not catching many people today if everyone's driving like this--"

Everyone Else: "EEEEEK!!!!! SPEED TRAP!!!!!" *slams on brakes*

[Gilhelmi]

I have heard of police department, in the states, putting up fake police cars (essentially they are a cut-out).

People slow down, realize that it is fake, and start to again.

Then a couple miles up the road is another police car, but the speeder are too smart to fall for the same trick twice and do not slow down.

Funny thing is, the second car is real, and I smile at speeders getting pulled over.

[retro]

I had a similar thing a few months ago when driving home from work. The traffic had slowed from 70mph to a standstill within the space of a couple of minutes. A couple more minutes passed with us all not moving and then suddenly, everything cleared. The cars in front pulled away and we were back up to 70 (and more) in about a minute.

I have no idea what would have caused such a quick gridlock. If there had been an accident severe enough to block both lanes, I can't see it would have been cleared that quickly.

[EvilEmpryss]

I hate it when people go from 85 to 55 in a 65 zone when they come over a rise or around a turn and see a cop waiting for them. Dudes! It's too late. If you were going to get tagged, Smokey's already got your ass. The fact that your car's nose tried to plow a divet in the asphalt seriously gave you away.

And as far as the sudden roadblocks go, traffic studies have shown that it just takes one driver slamming on their breaks to back a highway up for miles as the chain reaction of people hitting their breaks behind him. You may have had someone cut someone else off, change lanes dangerously, or some such, and that caused a temporary backup.

[Shalom]

I had a similar thing a few months ago when driving home from work. The traffic had slowed from 70mph to a standstill within the space of a couple of minutes. A couple more minutes passed with us all not moving and then suddenly, everything cleared.

I had that happen here. I was close enough to the front of the jam to see state trooper cars blocking off both the core and collector lanes of the GSP, for no apparent reason. A couple minutes later, they just left. No accidents or nothing nearby. I eventually deduced that they were blocking off the overpass over the military railroad that connects NWS Earle to the deepwater pier at Sandy Hook. My guess is that there was a shipment of explosives to a Naval ship passing under the road, and they didn't want to take chances of anything going wrong loudly.

ETA: The shipment was passing under the road. Not the Naval ship. Dangling modifiers are fun.

And as far as the sudden roadblocks go, traffic studies have shown that it just takes one driver slamming on their breaks to back a highway up for miles as the chain reaction of people hitting their breaks behind him. You may have had someone cut someone else off, change lanes dangerously, or some such, and that caused a temporary backup.

Someone once pointed out that mathematically these backups behave exactly like sound waves, in terms of areas of compression and rarefaction.

[retro]

Shalom, that does make a lot of sense actually. I believe the junction is near to a military base (I believe Obama landed there during the recent Nato summit) so I suppose they could have blocked it off for a VVIP.

As for the sound waves theory, that was shown in an episode of Mythbusters recently and yeah it looked exactly like a soundwave.

[BPFH]

I have heard of police department, in the states, putting up fake police cars (essentially they are a cut-out).

Or, for that matter, using an empty police car--the real thing, just with no officer in it. I've seen that more than once.