Channel Theory and the 405 freeway shutdown

The commute is a multi-stage queueing network.  A big artery of that network in LA was shut down for bridge replacement, with ample warning.

The first day traffic is very quiet as motorists contract their driving to what they think is the sustainable rate, which would be lower then necessary. Once they learn the detours and alternates, they will build a flow network that matches the available roads.  The service interval of the network is slower, the commute yield curve will have less bandwidth, and a smaller rank. The rate of cars sent into the congestion will be faster, but the group size entering the constriction much smaller, cars will have to be more precise going through the constriction.  But farther out, increased imprecision is allocated, more inventory space, so larger groups can wait to enter the congestion as mote infrequent intervals. The added constriction causes a different Fibonacci polynomial to define the finite set of transaction rates for the new equilibrium.  Collect the queue sizes at each intersection through the congest network and entry points.  Run a Huffman encoder over them and the result should conform to Shannon.