Rush Hour Traffic

I want to talk for a moment about the problem of rush hour traffic. In particular – it exists. This frustrates me – because I believe (and based on the behavior of those around me, I think I must be alone in this belief) that rush hour traffic does not have to exist. Personally, I cannot stand stopping in the middle of a 65 mph freeway FOR NO APPARENT REASON. And I do not like having to slow down so everyone else can have a look at the accident that is ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE DIVIDER! I mean come on people; don’t you all have lives to get home to? In the interest of getting on with my life, I would like to put forth a few simple rules that I believe could rid the world of rush hour traffic.

Rule #1: BE NICE.

It only takes one Blockhead to ruin rush hour for everyone. One person cuts someone off, or won’t let someone merge so they have to slow down, which forces everyone behind them to slow down, which eventually leads to the aforementioned STOPPING IN THE MIDDLE OF THE FREEWAY FOR NO APPARENT REASON, which I believe I mentioned, I HATE.

Rule #2: Always follow the appropriate number of car lengths behind the person in front of you.

Remember, this is 1 car length for every 10 mph. So, at 65 mph, you should be 6.5 car lengths behind the car in front of you. Tailgating will not get you there faster. It will only increase your likelihood of getting in an accident or of being the Blockhead on the road (thereby violating rule #1). I realize this will mean people will be able to merge in front of you. And that leads into…

Rule #3: Allow traffic to merge in front of you.

Contrary to popular belief, this will NOT adversely affect your arrival time at your final destination. In fact, it will likely improve your arrival time because it will avoid the situation in which you are the Blockhead on the road who causes everyone else to slow down so that the car can merge behind you. Leading once again to the aforementioned: STOPPING IN THE MIDDLE OF THE FREEWAY FOR NO APPARENT REASON.

Now, having told you my three simple rules for ridding the world of Rush hour traffic, I am afraid I have some bad news.

It will never happen.

In support of this conclusion I present the following evidence from my introduction to psychology class in college.

Our professor taught us this simple two player game in which each player chooses a letter, either A or B, and based on the combination points are awarded as shown in the following table:

Player 1 Pick	Player 2 Pick	Player 1 Points	Player 2 Points
A	A	10	10
A	B	-20	20
B	A	20	-20
B	B	-10	-10

My professor informed us that generally, the players will get into a cooperative mode where they both choose A for a while and they both gain. However, eventually one of them will be unable to resist the temptation to choose B and gain twenty points. After that occurs the other player will retaliate and this will send the players into a spiral of both players always choosing B and losing. This spiral can only be stopped by one player making a huge sacrifice and choosing A many times while the other player chooses B. Let’s face it, that doesn’t happen much, so everyone loses.

Rush hour traffic is like this game. If everyone followed the rules we would all get home faster. We might not get to drive 80 mph, but we would go faster than 5 mph. However, if one person breaks a rule, they get an immediate payoff (followed by long-term pain, but that is not as easy to see as the immediate payoff). Everyone else in traffic pays the price for their actions! But even if we could get everyone to follow the rules for a while, eventually someone would be unable to resist breaking one, for that immediate payoff, and we would spiral back into the pattern of Rush Hour Traffic.

So, that is why we have this horrible thing called Rush Hour Traffic, and why we will never get rid of it. Even though the key to all our driving pleasure could be found in three simple rules.

I have to stop now, traffic is moving again.