I think a million or so people, including all of the commuters and busses, hit 285, 75/85, GA 400, I-20 at the same time between 12-2. Normally that croud is spread between 2:30-7. I watched the outside temperature drop 10 degrees within a couple of hours from my truck. @ 26 F GA 400 became a sheet of ice. Since the ground was already cold due to our recent cold weather it froze immediately. Vehicles were sliding @ 1 MPH on the highway. I needed a Zamboni.
On Wednesday, January 29, 2014, Jed Rothwell <[email protected]> wrote: > This turned out to be one of the worst traffic jams in U.S. history. It is > not clear to me why it was so bad. Explanations in the mass media do not > add up -- > > Everyone went home at once. Yes, but they do that every day. > > The schools let out at the same time offices closed. That does not add > much to the traffic. Kids go to school at the same time as office workers, > but there is not much difference in the morning traffic in summer when > school is not in session. > > It froze. Not until around 5 p.m. as I recall, and traffic was > extraordinary around 2 p.m. where I live. The roads here did not have ice > until then. They did later. This morning there were many abandoned cars in > the neighborhood, parked on lawns and so on. > > Local roads become impassible. Not until 5 or 6 p.m. People started > leaving at 1 p.m. Rush hour should have been largely over 4 hours later. > > Large trucks jackknifed and blocked traffic. This is the one thing that > does seem to have happened on a large scale. > > I guess it was a sort of mass panic effect. There were some vicious circle > feedback loops. There were problems such as blocked lanes which prevented > sand trucks from getting through, which caused more blockage. > > - Jed > >
