Tailgating insights untangle torment of phantom traffic jams

Specifically, the team argues that if motorists kept an equal distance between the cars in front of and behind - an approach that MIT professor Berthold Horn describes as “bilateral control” – then journey times would improve thanks to fewer phantom traffic jams, which occur for no obvious reason.

“We humans tend to view the world in terms of what’s ahead of us, both literally and conceptually, so it might seem counter-intuitive to look backwards,” said Horn, who co-authored a paper on the subject of traffic congestion with postdoctoral associate Liang Wang. “But driving like this could have a dramatic effect in reducing travel time and fuel consumption without having to build more roads or make other changes to infrastructure.”

According to MIT, Horn understands that drivers themselves are unlikely to change their forward-looking ways anytime soon, so he suggests that car companies update their adaptive cruise-control systems and add sensors to both their front and rear bumpers.