Like Schools of Fish

Berkeley and MIT researchers tracked 350,000 Bay Area drivers using their smartphones and found that a relatively small number of commuters are the source of most traffic congestion.

These commuters aren't necessarily slow or bad drivers. Instead, they come from a few outlying neighborhoods and travel long distances together in the same direction like schools of fish -- clogging up not only the roads they drive on, but also everyone else's.

Bay Area traffic seems to abide by the 80-20 rule (80% of the problem is caused by 20% of the cars), so solutions will be aimed toward managing cars coming from critical neighborhoods.

By targeting those drivers to reduce the number of vehicles on Bay Area roads by just 1 percent, drivers would see the time they spend fuming in traffic drop by 14 percent -- nearly 8 minutes saved per hour, the study concludes.

The civil liberty/privacy concerns are obvious. Yet, if tracking large numbers of drivers (without their consent) can knock off 16 minutes from a two-hour commute each day, many people would willingly pay the price.

O cruel, needless misunderstanding! O stubborn, self-willed exile from the loving breast! Two gin-scented tears trickled down the sides of his nose. But it was all right, everything was all right, the struggle was finished. He had won the victory over himself. He loved Big Brother. --Orwell, 1984