Japanese researchers recreate "shockwave" traffic jams

If you drive in a city, you've experienced "shockwave traffic jams". Common wisdom on defensive driving techniques generally includes a caution against too many jerky starts and stops, as they can cascade through the rest of traffic.

Japanese researchers have recreated this emergent feature of traffic dynamics, news courtesy of the Emergent Chaos blog:
Emergent Traffic Chaos - Paul Kedrosky has an amazing video: As described in the New Scientist: Researchers from several Japanese universities managed the feat by putting 22 vehicles on a 230-metre single-lane circuit (see video). They asked drivers to cruise steadily at 30 kilometres... [Emergent Chaos]

This isn't an emergent feature of traffic alone. I'm not aware of any studies that demonstrate it, but you'll see similar behaviour in a number of other contexts including information security. Understanding this phenomenon can be useful, and could perhaps be turned to a security professional's advantage.

I'm particularly interested in how a "shockwave" of behaviour could be triggered by security awareness programs. I hope to have an example by the end of the year if I can integrate something into the security awareness program my team at $day_job is responsible for.

Stay tuned...