I was driving the other day and happened to witness a traffic enigma of sorts. I’ve only been a part of one of these puzzles once in all my years of driving and this particular instance was only my second time to actually witness the event; which is not to say that these phenomena happen infrequently. I may just not have been paying attention or I might not live in the right area of town. Whatever the reason is, I’ve only seen two.

Okay, with that said, I’m going to try and describe what this enigma entails. The driving circumstances need to be just right. Timing is critical. The set up involves at least two “victims of oblivity” being in the right place at the right time. I guess I’m being a bit cruel here calling two drivers “victims of oblivity” (I’m going to use the acronym VO from here on out. The acronym VOO is already taken and means something totally different.), but I’m at a loss for a term that describes a person that drives into the middle of an intersection when there is nowhere to go, and in so doing completely blocks the intersection. Perhaps it’s an innocent mistake.  Maybe these VOs are just ignorant to their surroundings at an inopportune moment in time (I’ve actually been one of these guys once or twice I’m ashamed to say.).  Maybe they’re running 5 minutes behind and think that it will be better for them to wait in the middle of traffic than at the appropriate stopping position.  Whatever the case, when these VOs do what they do, frustration erupts within surrounding vehicles.  Eventually a light turns green, traffic starts moving, and gradually the congested intersection clears up.  That is, unless there exists a second VO obstructing another nearby intersection.

The phenomena occurs when two VOs do their thing simultaneously, on the same stretch of road, but going the opposite direction whereby completely stopping traffic flow (See figure 1).

Figure 1

The event often happens at an interstate overpass (or underpass) where there exists two left turn lanes, side-by-side.  There are two rows of cars, one going one way, one going the other.  Both rows of cars are at an impasse because the lead car of both rows of traffic wants to turn left but cannot because a car has driven into the intersection and has blocked all traffic turning left.  The lights may change from red to green and back to red again and the vehicles remain gridlocked.  I believe the only solution to the mess is for one or more drivers to forfeit their desire to turn left and make a lane change to the right, whereby allowing one of the VOs in the middle of an intersection to travel beyond the intersection and free up space for another vehicle to make a successful left hand turn.  Once this is accomplished, the flow of traffic can slowly begin to move again and the phenomena evaporates into ordinary, boring, free-flowing traffic.

The one time I was a part of one of these I remember being quite frustrated to the point of pulling my hair out.  This last time I merely witnessed the phenomena, but was not an active member.  Seeing the mess in front of me was a somewhat enjoyable experience; like finding a four leaf clover, seeing a rainbow, or achieving a “tetris” in the classic computer game, Tetris (completing four rows at once).  The phenomena I’m witnessing is a man-made rarity, perhaps something to be marveled.  A traffic knot that will hold traffic in place until “loosened” by removing one or more vehicles.

Man-Made Marvels

In the time since I’ve seen this rare occurrence I’ve noticed other intersections such as the one below that appear to be designed to avoid the dreaded traffic knot of which I describe.  One direction of traffic still has to make a left turn through oncoming traffic, but the other direction of traffic averts the hassle and is provided a right hand turn option that loops around and gets them going in the desired direction.

Traffic Knot Evasion

The next time I find myself in one of these “Traffic Knot Enigmas” (What do you call these anyway?), I’d like to think that I’d consider it a rare privilege to be a part of such an event…that is, if I’m not in any great rush to get anywhere.  If that not be the case, I’ll probably resort to pulling my hair out in frustration.  Has anyone else been in or seen one of these things?