How can we predict the possibility of a chaos?

There is a neat little trick to understand that. It is made up of two rules: —

1. There must be three dimensions to describe a phenomenon.

2. And at least one non-linear relationship.

Now, if changes happen in all the three dimensions then possibility of a chaos is very distinct.

For example, if there is a three lane road, we have the first rule in place.

We also know that the flow of a traffic is similar to the travel of an acoustic pressure wave, which is proportional to the square of the acceleration. Now, we have our second rule in place.

And we also know, that cars that run on a three lane road would accelerate and decelerate in a variable fashion.

So, we now have the necessary conditions to predict the possibility of a chaos — three dimensions and at least one non-linear relationship.

It is clear that chaos would happen on such a road, irrespective of how wide the road is (of course the volume of traffic is a factor too).

What might a designer do to avoid chaos of traffic flow?

The answer is obvious. Isn’t it?

Yet we perhaps wrongly believe that by providing more space for traffic movement we would ease the problem of traffic congestion. Not always!