I. Introduction
Taking advantage of the free highway tolls during Spring Festival, I traveled from Hubei to Anhui to attend a classmate’s wedding, then went to Nanjing for a brief visit, and finally rushed back from Nanjing.
II. Traffic Jam on the Way to Anhui
I set out on the fifth day of the Lunar New Year with my wife, taking the Shanghai-Chengdu Expressway. We encountered no fewer than 5 car accidents along the way, and the 700-kilometer journey took from 9 AM to 11 PM.
During the trip, Amap notified us several times of new routes that could save time. But unexpectedly, the new routes were also stuck in traffic. The gantry near the gas station reminded us that the charging piles were saturated, and when I entered the gas station, I saw fuel vehicles queuing up to refuel. Even a few kilometers on the highway could cause a traffic jam lasting dozens of minutes. Sometimes Amap reported accidents ahead, sometimes road construction.
Sometimes it reported an accident ahead, but after the jam cleared, I didn’t see any accident. I learned a term online: Phantom Traffic Jams.
“Phantom Traffic Jams” refers to traffic phenomena on highways or busy roads where traffic suddenly slows down or even comes to a standstill without clear reasons like accidents or road construction, and then eases on its own. It is a “traffic tsunami” phenomenon caused by local small disturbances (such as random lane changes, sudden braking, low-speed driving) being amplified step by step by vehicles behind.
III. Night Visit to Nanjing
After having the wedding banquet at the hotel at noon, my classmate said there would be a rural banquet in the evening, so we had another meal at the rural banquet. When we mentioned we were going to Nanjing, he suggested we take the national highway instead of the expressway. He also advised us not to drive into Nanjing city center, but to park in Pukou District and take the subway into the city. This reduced the travel time from 2.5 hours to 1.5 hours.
IV. Return Trip from Nanjing to Hubei
The return trip was much smoother. We only encountered a few kilometers of traffic jam, which cleared in a few minutes. We drove all the way back and arrived in 7 hours.