40 Interesting Facts About Traffic

Here are 40 Interesting Traffic facts.

1-5 Traffic Facts

1. An IKEA in the Netherlands had to cancel their 1 euro breakfast special because it attracted too many customers and caused traffic jams on the highway. – Source

2. A pig named Lulu saved her owner’s life while the woman was having a heart attack. The pig heard the cries of pain, forced her way out of the yard, ran into the road and ‘played dead’ to stop the traffic. A driver stopped, the pig led him to the trailer, he heard the woman and called 911. – Source

3. A lawyer was hired for a traffic case. Instead of sitting his client at the witness table, he dressed another lawyer to look like the client. When the only witness (a policeman) was asked to point to the defendant in the room he pointed to the fake client. The real defendant was found not guilty. – Source

4. Phantom traffic jams (queues of traffic not caused by vehicle collisions or roadworks) are the result of a single driver braking suddenly, causing each successive car to break to a greater degree, creating a wave of stopped or slowed traffic. – Source

5. In Stringtown, Oklahoma, population 400, 76 percent of the town’s 2013 budget came from traffic tickets. After a state investigation into excessive speed trapping the town’s police department was disbanded. – Source

6-10 Traffic Facts

6. Millionaire Michael O’Leary, CEO of airline Ryanair, has his own taxicab company with just one cab so he can legally use the bus lanes and avoid traffic jams. – Source

7. Carmel, IN has replaced almost all of their traffic lights by roundabouts. This led to an estimated 40% decrease in all accidents and 90% in fatal ones, saving $180,000 because of lower maintenance cost and several thousands of gallons of gas per roundabout per year. – Source

8. The last words of James Bond author Ian Fleming were an apology to his ambulance drivers for having inconvenienced them, saying “I am sorry to trouble you chaps. I don’t know how you get along so fast with the traffic on the roads these days.” – Source

9. In 2004, the Republic of Georgia fired 30,000 police officers, almost the entire traffic police force due to corruption and built glass police stations to encourage an image of transparency. Since then crime in Georgia has dropped and the public confidence in the police has risen drastically. – Source

10. Wealthy Russians hire fake ambulances with luxury interiors for $200 an hour to get through traffic. – Source

11-15 Traffic Facts

11. Google Maps calculates traffic by tracking how fast Android devices are moving on the road. – Source

12. Between the years of 1995 and 2003 the mayor of Bogotá, Columbia hired mimes to ridicule traffic violators in the streets in an effort to reduce chaotic driving. Traffic fatalities decreased 50% as a result. – Source

13. Traffic in central London moves at the same speed as horse-drawn carriages a century ago. – Source

14.  The person who invented the stop sign, the pedestrian crosswalk, the traffic circle, the one-way street, the taxi stand, and pedestrian safety islands, William Phelps Eno, never learned how to drive. – Source

15. A man tried to pay $137 traffic ticket with 137 dollar bills folded into origami pigs, delivered in two Dunkin Donuts boxes. – Source

16-20 Traffic Facts

16. Edward Hines got the idea to paint a line in the middle of the road to separate traffic after watching a leaky milk wagon leave a trail down the street. In 1935, he was awarded the George S. Bartlett Award for outstanding contribution to highway progress. – Source

17. The UK has used “incident screens” to block the view of traffic accidents, etc. on the highway, in an attempt to reduce rubbernecking delays. – Source

18. Japan has blue traffic lights in some areas because historically the Japanese used the same word for green and blue. – Source

19. Mandatory right-hand traffic was introduced in Europe by Napoleon with the aim of deterring sword fighting on horseback, and because the traditional left-hand traffic was seen as aristocratic. Since he never conquered Britain, left-hand driving would remain there. – Source

20. In Finland, traffic fines are proportionate to the latest available data on an offender’s income. In 2002, a Nokia director got a $103,600 fine for breaking the speed limit in Finland. He was driving at 75 km/h (47 mph) in a 50km/h (31 mph) zone. – Source

21-25 Traffic Facts

21. VLC’s icon is a traffic cone because the students who created the media player kept a collection of traffic cones. – Source

22. Winston Churchill was seriously injured in NYC in 1931 when he was struck by a car while attempting to cross the street. Accustomed to British traffic, he looked the wrong way and, seeing no cars, stepped into traffic. He went out of his way to ensure the driver of the car did not get blamed. – Source

23. A Texas man barricaded himself in his home after biting a police officer during a traffic stop and refused to come out for more than a decade. – Source

24. There exist people who can locate objects through echolocation, making it possible for blind people to ride bicycles through traffic. – Source

25. In Russia, there is a group of boys who attempt to force traffic regulations in Russia, which can vary from blocking cars driving on sidewalks, to placing stickers on cars who park in an illegal spot too. The group is called Stop a Douchebag. – Source