An empirical study of common traffic congestion features based on traffic data measured in the USA, the UK, and Germany

► We study traffic flow phenomena observed in traffic data from USA, UK and Germany. ► Observed traffic congestions satisfy common features of Kerner's three-phase theory. ► We study four different methods of the determination of wide moving jam parameters. ► We compare these methods for each congested traffic situation in three countries. ► A statistical study of velocities of wide moving jam fronts is presented.