Have you ever seen an ant infestation and thought to yourself: “you know what, they might be on to something” right before reaching for that can of raid? Well you’re not alone. Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University also thought the same thing. In fact, they thought ants could actually be the solution to traffic congestion around the world.
Specifically, researchers are studying how thousands of ants are able to go marching in two by two without crashing into one another. They are all somehow able to manage their traffic flow quite well. The example that the researchers highlighted was with converging groups of ants. Apparently the smaller group of ants will always yield the right of way to the larger group of ants.
Since 2009, the Virtual Traffic Lights system, which is largely modeled against the ant model, has been in the research and development stage. They found that if we also allowed the larger group of of cars to go first then traffic congestion would be reduced by 40 to 60 percent which not only reduces wait times, but also reduces fuel consumption and carbon dioxide released into the air.
The idea has some good backing behind it too. The project has already received $2 million in funding and a company has already been created to help sell and market the idea.
Let’s not give ants all the credit though. Bees and termites have also been using a similar traffic system since the early ages of time. I would imagine that they’re not quite as pleasant to work with though.
[Gizmag]