People often think that other drivers are nuts. The Nigerian authorities have taken things a step further, now requiring drivers accused of going the wrong way down a one way street to get psychiatric exams.
posted by reenum on Jul 27, 2011 - 22 comments

10 years ago Metafilter discussed William Beaty's Traffic Wave theories about why traffic jams happen. Since then he's conducted some experiments that he says prove regular drivers can help stop them from happening. [more inside]
posted by Potomac Avenue on Feb 21, 2011 - 105 comments

The number of accidents at one intersection dropped by 95 percent , from 200 a year to about 10... "You can't deny the numbers," he added. "Half the world is eager to see what's going to happen with this program."

Apparently, people in India can handle it. (Surely you saw this on Reddit?)
posted by jaronson on Dec 26, 2007 - 63 comments

You're 18. You got your driver's license in February, and you just graduated from high school. Last Wednesday night you're zooming down Hwy 101 at 100 mph, racing another car, and you smash into the side of an SUV, killing all three people inside.Turns out two of them were Prince Tu’ipelehake and Princess Kaimana Aleamotu’a Tuku’aho of the Tonga royal family, the only royal monarchy left in the Pacific. Now an entire nation is is mourning and your bail is $3 million.
posted by gottabefunky on Jul 8, 2006 - 192 comments

never get stuck on the 405 again? serving los angeles, san diego, san bernadino and riverside counties along with san francisco and miscellaneous cities throughout california, sigalert.com will give you up to the minute traffic information on almost any freeway in california, including average speeds, closed roads, detailed info re: traffic accidents, etc.
(if you're living in LA county, the only con is that it doesn't have information on the canyons...)
posted by mgkaelen on Mar 12, 2005 - 24 comments

The Texas Transportation Institute released their latest figures on which cities are the most congested, and how many hours per year the average person spends in traffic. Or you can read The Big Picture. I find it amazing that New York City isn't in the top 25 cities. The reason being is that New York City has an excellent public transportation network. Even some Politians are realizing that public transportation is a better bang for the buck.
posted by LinemanBear on Sep 30, 2003 - 21 comments

traffic jam simulator [note: java applet]
posted by crunchland on Jul 2, 2003 - 20 comments

Traffic Waves [via /usr/bin/girl] I've always had a suspicion that traffic was a wave phenomenon. This is interesting theory. [more inside...]
posted by plinth on Dec 21, 2000 - 15 comments

Britain's Traffic Problems
Sounds like the UK is trying its hardest to catch up with the US in auto-dependency. The Highways Agency is planning to spend US$1.75 billion on "intelligent transportation" improvements, but local motoring organizations are pushing for more lanes as traffic continues to worsen. [more inside]
posted by daveadams on Sep 6, 2000 - 14 comments

Interest in traffic Web site no accident
after a dramatic increase in fatal accidents, the osaka prefectural police started posting the exact locations of upcoming traffic inspections [for speeding & drunk driving] on their website, and now they are logging record numbers of hits -- the idea being that the more people who know about their plans for traffic inspections, the better. the police feel that disclosing such information will help cut down on the number of deadly road accidents.
whether it has had a noticeable effect on traffic safety, however, is uncertain -- the number of drivers caught for violations is about 10 percent less than by this time last year, but the death toll on the prefecture's roads are about the same
posted by palegirl on Jun 8, 2000 - 4 comments