Traffic Wouldn't Jam If Drivers Behaved Like Ants - Facts So Romantic

As someone so flummoxed by traffic I wrote a book about it, I have a near-clinical aversion to vehicular congestion. My global default strategy is to simply drive as little as possible, but there are times when I simply must put foot to gas pedal. Like many, I have become increasingly dependent on the Waze app, which, via each drivers' smartphone, turns an inchoate, undifferentiated mass of drivers into something resembling a collective form of networked intelligence. Waze, it occurred to me the other day while stuck in a bit of unexpected congestion (which had been duly flagged by at least 13 "Wazers"), is helping us turn into ants. Every time drivers travel down a path, Waze tracks their speed--information that can then be broadcast to every following driver.