
Traffic Wouldn’t Jam If Drivers Behaved Like Ants - dnetesn
http://nautil.us/blog/traffic-wouldnt-jam-if-drivers-behaved-like-ants
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kazinator
Ants aren't constrained to a few lanes and can climb over each other if
necessary and even build bridges out of their bodies.

Ants do not have to obey a two second rule to prevent hitting the ant ahead of
them.

Ants don't have to wait for a good sized gap when merging into a busy lane of
ants.

Please, no more of these antics. :)

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sandworm101
Ants also cooperate.

Ants share the road only with their own kind.

Ants are blind, mostly.

Ants don't really care if they live or die.

Despite all this, they still collide with each other constantly. If they were
the size of cars, these collisions would cause constant injury. They are not
an appropriate analogue.

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Alterlife
Traffic in India looks similar to ants:
[https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=RavLjmWdMK4](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=RavLjmWdMK4)

But really it's each driver executing their own internal 'greedy algorithm' to
get themselves off the road as soon as possible.

When traffic jams occour, it's the blokes who break the rules (the ones drive
on the wrong side of the road or drive aggressively) who get to their
destination first.

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oatmale
Kind of similar to the traffic in Saigon, Vietnam
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gKLWZjBu2iQ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gKLWZjBu2iQ)

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weeksie
I was in both of those places (Saigon and all over India) over the last few
month. That's the first thing I thought of when I read the headline.

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triplesec
Obligatory link to ants in Godel Escher Bach, where ants may somehow
constitute a brain (functionalism in theory of mind):
[http://themindi.blogspot.co.uk/2007/02/chapter-11-prelude-
an...](http://themindi.blogspot.co.uk/2007/02/chapter-11-prelude-ant-
fugue.html)

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davegardner
Yet another reason why self-driving cars will be an improvement over human
drivers.

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sandworm101
Yet another irrelevant analogue being trumped up as "evidence" of something
yet to happen. I'll convert once I see actual vehicles on actual roads.

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eru
I've seen actual self-driving cars on actual roads. But they are haven't hit
the market yet.

What do you mean by convert? Are you unsure whether they will happen?
Skeptical about whether they will improve on humans, or whether it's a good
idea in the first place?

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sandworm101
>>> I've seen actual self-driving cars on actual roads.

No you haven't. You've seen supervised cars with pilots ready to take over
when needed. No manufacturer yet has dared release a truly hand-and-eyes-free
vehicle onto public roads.

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eru
OK, if that's your definition, that's fine. (It differs a bit from consensus
definition, of course.)

Could you answer the spirit of the questions I asked about your `conversion'?
Thanks!

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cm3
In the Netherlands and Germany I've seen traffic jams develop due to drivers
slowing down to observe an accident on the other lane. I know this is illegal
to do in both countries, but it doesn't keep anyone doing so. I've never been
able to not slow down myself because the laws of physics didn't allow me to
pass through the observers. Stricter and more expensive ticketing might help.

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paulannesley
> Stricter and more expensive ticketing might help.

I doubt it, and… please no. Demerit points maybe. Fines disproportionately
punish the less affluent and incentivise the wrong attitude to enforcement.

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williamscales
Day fines could work.

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Someone
For those who don't know the term: it is using fines proportional to the
amount of money one has available for spending on a day, as they do in
Finland, where speeding tickets can go over $100,000 for the very affluent
([http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2015/03/finland-...](http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2015/03/finland-
home-of-the-103000-speeding-ticket/387484/))

Yes, you cannot hope to reach complete equality of the impact a fine has on
the drivers, but you cannot do that with demerit points, either. A driver who
needs his car to make a living will likely be affected stronger than a driver
who has a decent alternative.

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partycoder
Ants are not perfect though.

There's a phenomenon called "ant circle" in which ants form a self-reinforcing
circle of pheromone trails, causing their entire colony to collapse.

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mA37cb10WMU](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mA37cb10WMU)

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animal531
Or in cooler terminology, the circle of death. It can also happen with sheep
and larger herd animals, although they're at least smart enough to (usually)
stop and take a break when they get tired.

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bouchier
Yeah, gee. Too bad I'm not using my car to forage for food, and follow scent
trails.

Oh, if only...

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ams6110
I'm getting a 503 can anyone summarize?

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js2
[http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:A5xgOP4...](http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:A5xgOP4wdk0J:nautil.us/blog/traffic-
wouldnt-jam-if-drivers-behaved-like-ants&num=1&strip=1&vwsrc=0)

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sjg007
Instead of lemmings?

