Why is there traffic on a freeway? If there are no traffic lights or no accidents, shouldn't traffic flow?

Question

Why is there traffic on a freeway? If there are no traffic lights or no accidents, shouldn't traffic flow?

Answer 1

Simply put, there are too many cars on the freeway. All freeways have  maximum capacity. During rush hour, the freeways are operating at near maximum capacity, hence traffic slows down to stop and go.

Answer 2

You are forgetting about entrance and exit ramps.  People are trying to get on and off the freeway.  Also cars don't travel at the same speeds.

Answer 3

It is to do with the volume of cars in a confined space.

Answer 4

Because people are on the phone ,eating, & putting on make-up.  There's a lot of people who just drive bad and thats it.  It happens when you walk too.  We will never move like geese fly.

Answer 5

dumb idiots driving, elderly people driving 10-20 mph less then the speed limit (i was doing 70mph on the parkway some old dude pulled in front of me driving 30mph on the ****** parkway!!!!)

Answer 6

Freeways were built with no consideration of  the FUTURE. There are easily three or four times as many cars today as when most freeways were designed.

Another problem is people slowing down to view wrecks, police cars, or just about ANYTHING that wasn't there the day before.

Answer 7

Think about it like this.  You have a pipe with a flow capacity of 10 gallons a minute.  You try to cram 20 gallons a minute through it.  What happens?  The water backs up.  Same thing happens on the freeways.