Electronic Traffic Signs Cause Jams
I've noticed this several times in the past. After working your way through a traffic jam you get to an variable message sign with a message on it. Right after you get past the sign the traffic jam ends and you can get back to highway speeds. Do you really have to slow down that much to read a traffic sign? I wonder if Mn/DOT has the data to figure out how many traffic jams are caused by messages flashed on the variable message signs.
Not just jams, but accidents are caused by these as well, I'm sure. How many times do you see someone get rear-ended because they (and everyone around them) were rubbernecking at a prior accident?
Just this morning I got stuck in a traffic jam caused exclusively by 2 vehicles on the side of the road post-rear-ender. There was NO reason to slow traffic down, they were on the grass in the median, nothing was in the roadway, but we just have to stop & gawk I guess. Accidents seem to be the most likely cause of more accidents some mornings.