Traffic

As a late-comer to the world of driving, I never understood complaints about traffic. It was just more time to read. On a recent 14 hour drive, I discovered first hand how fucking frustrating it is to learn you've been driving 10/mph for eighty miles because there's a flower on the side of the road, or a rock shaped like a moose, or an interesting cloud pattern. Only assclowns rubberneck. Remember that kids.

I found it fascinating that Japanese scientists have begun to replicate and understand what causes these seemingly random traffic patterns. In the video below, you can watch the traffic jam move live a wave through the cars:

The article also talks about a way to "cure" traffic jams - "By driving at the average speed of the traffic around me, my car had been 'eating' the traffic waves." The only downside, of course, is that you still have to drive slowly, but at least you can feel virtuous in saving everyone behind you.

As if not gross enough already, the word traffic comes from the Latin trans + fricare: to rub across. No, not in the sense of what truckers do when looking down in your window, but in the sense of money being handled many times. Ultimately, this probably comes from the Arabic tafriq: distribution or separation. Tafriq is also the word for the third type of divorce allowable under Shari'a law, in which a court intervenes and separates the two parties.

My favorite traffic video on the internet is this stunning act of civil obedience. Watch the chaos that ensues when five people actually go the speed limit on the highway:



Thanks to Mental Floss for linking to me!.