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There has been significant loss in man hours and cash, due to the traffic gridlock at the Apapa and Tin Can Island ports in Lagos for long. Get Word of the Day daily email! What follows is a commentary on the quick escalation of a mob mentality, and the varying personalities seen during times of traumatic events. More from Merriam-Webster on gridlock See words that rhyme with gridlock Thesaurus: This can lead to the car being trapped in the intersection when the light turns green in the other direction.
We were caught in a gridlock. Disagreements about funding have caused legislative gridlock in Congress. Recent Examples on the Web Musk founded the company in the hope of alleviating city gridlock by building more tunnels, an endeavor that has set the company's engineers toward improving tunneling techniques. Trump team cannot get its story straight on separating migrant families," 18 June Turning to politics, Moyo documents how trust in government has fallen as polarization and gridlock have risen.
First Known Use of gridlock , in the meaning defined at sense 1. Learn More about gridlock. Resources for gridlock Time Traveler! Explore the year a word first appeared.
From the Editors at Merriam-Webster. How did 'gridlock' move so quickly? Dictionary Entries near gridlock gridiron-tailed lizard grid leak grid line gridlock grid man grid metal grid modulation. Time Traveler for gridlock The first known use of gridlock was in See more words from the same year. More Definitions for gridlock. English Language Learners Definition of gridlock.
More from Merriam-Webster on gridlock See words that rhyme with gridlock Thesaurus: All synonyms and antonyms for gridlock Spanish Central: Translation of gridlock Nglish: Comments on gridlock What made you want to look up gridlock? Get Word of the Day daily email!
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By extension, the term has been applied to situations in other fields where flow is stalled by excess demand, or in which competing interests prevent progress. Traditional gridlock is caused by cars entering an intersection on a green light without enough room on the other side of the intersection at the time of entering to go all the way through.
This can lead to the car being trapped in the intersection when the light turns green in the other direction. If the same situation occurs simultaneously in multiple intersections, these cars can be trapped in the intersections indefinitely. In many jurisdictions, drivers are therefore prohibited from entering an intersection at a green light if there is no room for them to clear the intersection. If all drivers follow this rule, gridlock is impossible. Another type of gridlock can occur during traffic surges between highway on-ramps and off-ramps located within a quarter mile of each other.
Traffic exiting the highway may back up and block the entering vehicles. Those entering vehicles in turn back up and block the exiting vehicles. Gridlock is sometimes cited as an example of the prisoner's dilemma from game theory. This reclassification would give more traffic agents authority to write tickets and change the current ticketing procedure, which requires that the issuing officer physically stop the violating car in traffic.
The obvious impacts are driver frustration and trip delay. Another impact in cities is exacerbated by the presence of urban street canyons , which effectively trap air pollution and increase air pollution exposures of motorists as well as the general urban population.
Noise pollution can be aggravated by excessive starting and stopping noise of gridlocked facilities. To make a traffic system less susceptible to gridlock, a traffic metering system can be introduced. These systems determine the optimal number of vehicles allowed in a traffic system, and prevent any extra vehicles from entering. This can be done with traffic control devices, such as traffic lights or warning signs, or a better public transportation system.
This type of system is used in Zurich, Switzerland. The word is attributed to Sam Schwartz , who was then the chief traffic engineer for the New York City Department of Transportation at the time of the strike. His colleague gave the plan the thumbs-down, worrying that it would simply "lock up the grid". Schwartz was always struck by that image and titled his memo "Gridlock Prevention Plan".