[nradov]

Widespread use of adaptive cruise control basically solves this problem. That's the technology where you can set the car to follow a certain distance behind the car in front, and then it accelerates or brakes as necessary. The systems use radar or stereoscopic cameras to measure distance. Once 20%+ of cars on a road segment are using ACC then everything smooths out. Now that the price of ACC has come way down I think the government should offer rebates for purchasing the ACC option on new cars. It would be more cost effective than building new roads or adding lanes.

http://journals.aps.org/pre/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevE.69.066...

[wbeaty]

ACC just imposes safe driving behavior: proper spacing for the reaction time.

So if just 20% of humans were safe drivers (spaced out properly,) then everything smooths out.

That, or perhaps 0.5% of drivers could intentionally go at the average speed.