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The word traffic can mean the following:
- Usually, traffic is the movement of vehicles.
- Often, traffic is the movement of goods or information.
See also materiel.
- At a location, traffic refers to the coming and going of things.
- In some contexts "traffic" means commerce.
- In telecommunication the term traffic has
the following meanings:
- The information moved over a communication channel.
- A quantitative measurement of the total messages and their length, expressed in CCS, erlang or similar units, during a specified period of
time.
From Federal Standard 1037C.
Transport traffic engineering deals
with vehicular traffic, whereas telecommunications traffic engineering deals with communication. Logistics is concerned with the movement of goods.
Organized traffic
Western vehicular traffic is generally organized, flowing in lanes of travel for a particular direction, with interchanges,
traffic signals, and/or signage at intersectons to facilitate the orderly and timely flow of traffic. Vehicles also generally travel
at the same speed on a given roadway.
Organized traffic typically reduces travel time. Though vehicles wait at some intersections, wait time at others is much
shorter. Organized traffic degenerates to disorganized with an unexpected occurrence, be it road construction, an accident, or an
animal obstructing the road. On particularly busy freeways, a disruption can persist until traffic thins. William Beaty observed
persistent disruptions and named the phenomenon traffic waves .
Simulations of organized traffic frequently involve queuing theory
and stochastic processes.
Unorganized traffic
Unorganized traffic occurs in the absence of lanes and/or signals. Roads do not have lanes, though operators tend to keep to
the appropriate side if the road is wide enough. Operators frequently overtake other operators, and obstructions are not
uncommon.
Intersections have no signals or signage, and a particular road at a busy intersection may be dominant (that is, its traffic
flows) until a break in traffic, at which time the dominance shifts to the other road where vehicles are queued. At the
intersection of two perpendicular roads, a traffic jam results if four vehicles face each other side-on.
Which side?
Brian Lucas answers the question, "Which side of the road do they drive
on? " About 34%
of the world by country population drives on the left, and 66% keeps right. By roadway miles, about 72% drive on the right.
See also
External links
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