Ants May Solve Our Traffic Jams

You know that guy who tries to pass everyone on the shoulder of a road during a traffic jam? Even ants would think he's a jerk. A new study suggests that the tiny creatures have a knack for avoiding jam-ups when they're marching along together—and one of the rules is "no overtaking," per Interesting Engineering. Researchers at the University of Trento in Italy studied the way ants behave when proceeding in a long line—long being relative at 30 centimeters, or about 12 inches, according to a release at Phys.org. The line moved with the ants in perfect sync with each other.

"Ants are among the few species that can handle bidirectional traffic flows, much like our roads, yet they move seamlessly without congestion," says Marco Guerrieri, co-author of the study in the journal Transportation Research Interdisciplinary Perspectives. The lead ant lays down a pheromone trail the others follow, moving "in platoons with small gaps and no overtaking," explains Guerrieri. This might not have much relevance at the moment in regard to the aforementioned shoulder-passers—but it could someday if autonomous vehicles become the norm.

"In the future, traffic systems for autonomous vehicles ... could be inspired by ant behavior," say the researchers. "Just like insects communicate through pheromones, on smart roads, Connected and Automated Vehicles (CAV) could use advanced communication technologies to communicate with each other and with the road infrastructure management." Like the ants, the autonomous vehicles "could form coordinated platoons, moving at high speeds with close spacing across parallel lanes." (More ants stories.)