The Simple Solution to Traffic

CGP Grey talks about traffic, specifically, what causes traffic jams when you can see no apparent cause, and what we can do about them. This seems like common sense to me, and his solution is something I’ve driven home to the many kids I’ve trained as drivers. Don't tailgate! But like driving slowly in the left lane, it’s something many people have never even considered.

(YouTube link)

Spacing out cars properly would help with highway traffic, but it’s not going to do much about intersections. Good drivers like to keep a bit of distance between them and the air ahead while moving, but if you stopped at an intersection with a car-length space between you and the car in front of you, you’d probably get some quizzical stares, or even road rage. -via reddit


Comments (11)

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I never doubted the mathematics--thought it was pretty self-evident, in fact; just watch almost any automated factory line and imagine humans trying to keep up. What I specifically said was "new technology". Self-driving cars are not "decades old", much less figuring out a way to make old and new cars alike work seamlessly and bug-free as per the video.

And meanwhile, even tech that's gone through several generations--like smart phones--still manages to blow up (literally).
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is that the blender show, where those crazy guys with blenders and their soon to be blended gadgets? how about blending sony's battery? wonder if it explodes...
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Coolest job on earth : the blentech guy's!

When archery training we used to put a lighter at 60 or 80 feet, with a lit candle 3 feet under it.
The first one to explode his arrow won!
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This wasn't on Will It Blend. It was on a new show called Time Warp on The Discovery Channel.

The guy from Will It Blend was on the show, though and it was one of his blenders.
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It was on the Discovery Channel show Time Warp, and yes, the Will It Blend guy was a guest. What's impressive (and as can be seen in the video) is the blender still works fine after the explosion.
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