The states of traffic

This is not my idea but traffic exists in three states, gas, liquid and solid.

You are driving along, the road is relatively clear in front.  You pass the odd car and lorry here and there, slowing down occasionally to avoid a collision or speeding up to overtake.  There is very little interaction between your car and the other traffic on the road. You are in gaseous traffic.

You are getting closer to the town.  The volume of traffic is getting thicker as more and more drivers are going your way.  Cars pull out in front of you, vehicles slow down to nip in behind you.  Lights are flashed, horns are honked and there is a much greater level of interaction between you and your fellow road users.  You are in liquid traffic.

You drive over the brow of the hill and there in front of you is a bank of red lights.  Cars, vans and lorries braking, coming to a halt. There is a jam for as far as you can see.  You slow down to a crawling pace and take your place in the queue.  By now, all of the vehicles have a very strong relationship with each other, all standing still, all a defined distance apart.  You are in solid traffic.

Three states of traffic, gas, liquid or solid.  We’ve all heard it told that the traffic was solid.

You pull up in front of your house, get out of the car and open the front door.

“Hello, I’m home”

“Oh hi, how was the traffic?”

“Not bad, mostly liquid”.