Traffic Has a Perfect Solution. Humans Are the Problem.
Why Hacker News recommends it
HN cites it as a concise, well-illustrated explanation of traffic flow, in threads on congestion, self-driving cars and driving habits.
What it is
CGP Grey explains how traffic jams come from human driving behavior such as tailgating and reaction delays, and how leaving gaps and smoothing speed would reduce congestion. It also touches on self-driving cars.
Recommended by 6 HN commenters across 6 different months, 2016 to 2026.
What Hacker News said
Recommends heimatau · 2019-01 · on “Queueing theory: The science of waiting in line”
Stop/go is bad. Gliding is better for the collective and for your fuel efficiency. CGP Grey has a great video on traffic flow: [this video]
Recommends yreg · 2019-04 · on “Microsimulation of Traffic Flow”
[CGP Grey did a video on this]( [this video] ). Your goal, as a driver, should be to try to maintain equivalent distance between your car and cars in front of you and behind you.
Recommends Timpy · 2019-10 · on “Ants Are Practically Immune to Traffic Jams”
CGP Grey did a really nice, concise video on the topic of traffic and he addresses your point in the first 30 seconds. Coordination, not cars, is the problem. [this video]
Recommends mjevans · 2021-10 · on “AI predicts accident hot-spots from satellite imagery and GPS data”
CGP Gray's simple solution to traffic and good visuals. [this video] The real simple solution to traffic is no more monkeys driving cars. Also, implicitly, fully isolate cars from human powered forms of transportation.
Recommends pchristensen · 2024-08 · on “Robocars improve traffic even when most cars around them are driven by people”
This video illustrates the principle: [this video] Basically, people following too closely cause more braking, which cascades to more braking for an obstacle that was never actually there.
Recommends maerF0x0 · 2026-02 · on “Hard-braking events as indicators of road segment crash risk”
> You don’t own the asphalt in front of you. Correct, but you _need_ the asphalt in front of you for both safe driving and also to avoid cascading hard braking events. I also don't own the asphalt under me or behind me too, so it's kinda a silly statement tbh. This youtube talks about it: [this video]
Cites tstrimple · 2016-09 · on “Self-Driving Cars Must Meet 15 Benchmarks in U.S. Guidance”
The more human drivers that are replaced by software, the less congestion there will be on the roads. It's delays in human reaction times which cause cars to back up on roads and take forever to get through intersections. [this video]
Cites stcredzero · 2017-04 · on “Alphabet's Self-Driving Cars to Get Their First Real Riders”
what is the validation strategy to show where driverless cars can quantifiably improve? One big way in which automated drivers could improve traffic: By not being a jackass. I remember at one point driving down Westheimer, which is four lanes wide and one of the major thoroughfares of Houston, when I had to slow down for someone making a right turn to merge into traffic into a middle lane while their head was buried deep into the passenger side footwell looking through their stuff. Then, there are the people who feel like they have to tailgate you within 6 feet during rush hour traffic on the highway. Also, the people who won't let you in for some personal justice you can't possibly understa