Traffic Bottlenecks

A traffic bottleneck is a localized disruption of vehicular traffic on a street, road, or highway.

As opposed to a traffic jam, a bottleneck is a result of a specific physical condition, often the design of the road, badly timed traffic lights, or sharp curves.

Traffic lights, also known as traffic signals, traffic lamps, traffic semaphore, signal lights, stop lights, robots, and traffic control signals, are signalling devices positioned at road intersections, pedestrian crossings, and other locations to control flows of traffic.

Traffic congestion is a condition on transport networks that occurs as use increases, and is characterized by slower speeds, longer trip times, and increased vehicular queueing.

They can also be caused by temporary situations, such as vehicular accidents.

Bottlenecks can also occur in other methods of transportation.

Capacity bottlenecks are the most vulnerable points in a network and are very often the subject of offensive or defensive military actions.

Capacity bottlenecks of strategic importance - such as the Panama Canal where traffic is limited by the infrastructure - are normally referred to as choke points; capacity bottlenecks of tactical value are referred to as mobility corridors.

In military strategy, a choke point is a geographical feature on land such as a valley, defile or a bridge or at sea such as a strait, which an armed force is forced to pass, sometimes on a substantially narrower front and therefore greatly decreasing its combat power, to reach its objective.

Mobility in military terms refers to the ability of a weapon system, combat unit or armed force to move toward a military objective.

The Panama Canal is an artificial 48-mile waterway in Panama that connects the Atlantic Ocean with the Pacific Ocean.