What’s the difference between traffic gridlock and a bottleneck?

Answer: gridlock is worse

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In the vernacular of vehicular locomotion, a bottleneck is defined as congestion caused by more cars attempting to use a bridge or off-ramp at a rate greater than the infrastructure can handle. The result is that a line of slower-moving traffic forms. Gridlock occurs when the line formed by one bottleneck gives rise to another, which can in turn create more congestion.

A UC Berkeley transportation engineering student named Lewis Lehe examined the dynamics of traffic bottlenecks and published his results, along with an interactive tool, for his fellow roadway efficiency enthusiasts.

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