Why Don't Ants Get Stuck In Traffic?

↓ More info and sources below ↓

References:

Couzin, Iain D., and Nigel R. Franks. "Self-organized lane formation and optimized traffic flow in army ants." Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B: Biological Sciences 270.1511 (2003): 139-146.

Fourcassié, Vincent, Audrey Dussutour, and Jean-Louis Deneubourg. "Ant traffic rules." Journal of Experimental Biology 213.14 (2010): 2357-2363.

Hönicke, C., P. Bliss, and R. F. A. Moritz. "Effect of density on traffic and velocity on trunk trails of Formica pratensis." The Science of Nature 102.3-4 (2015): 1-9.

Larson, Richard C. "There's More to a Line than its Wait." Technology Review 91.5 (1988): 60-67.

Maister, David H. The psychology of waiting lines. Harvard Business School, 1984.

Perna, Andrea, et al. "Individual rules for trail pattern formation in Argentine ants (Linepithema humile)." PLoS Comput Biol 8.7 (2012): e1002592.

----------------
It's Okay To Be Smart is written and hosted by Joe Hanson, Ph.D.
Have an idea for an episode or an amazing science question you want answered? Leave a comment or check us out at the links below!
Snapchat: YoDrJoe

Produced by PBS Digital Studios

Music via APM

[Missingstarspot]

"Do they honk and yell bad ant word?" best line so cute

[michaeldaugustine]

The problem is that lanes for people/ants don't have to be perfect. If two people or ants bump into each other it's not as catastrophic as if two cars bump into each other.

[Amy_the_Lizard]

Okay. Just saying: do we really KNOW that the ants aren't cussing each other out in ant?

[bob]

I feel like the focus is entirely off in this video. The problem with cars is they can only turn by rolling, they have to follow fixed rules, they can't squeeze by one another, and they have limited space. All these things are opposite for walking.

[luisalmodovar]

ants can also climb over each can't

[exquisitesquid]

My conspiracy
1.The world is bigger for them
2. Ants are savage and give 0 fucks so they just walk over each other

[robertsnekser]

we could literally improve human traffic issues by using (and funding) public transport!!!

[Darkknight-ywhf]

"awesome traffic system" the video you played literally showed like 5 ants bonk heads. And at 80 mph that wouldn't be a good thing.

[ketchupacket]

*if only humans were as coordinated as ants*

[goofybri]

There's so much more at play here, with dynamics you hardly touched upon. 1) All ants are about the same size. But the human is a fraction of the size of his vehicle, so his footprint on a highway is 10x what it should be. 2) Ants don't travel very fast. Humans; however, can race at speeds 5x faster than they can run which is probably not a safe idea. 3) Ants have an armor exoskeleton to protect them if they screw up and run into other things. Humans, travel in very fragile shells by comparison which can't withstand anything but the slowest of collisions without sustaining damage. 4) Ants don't have dozens of traffic laws to obey; meaning, they can climb right over others in their path or go off-road whenever they see fit. Humans don't have any of these options, being heavily restricting to a flat surface that must be mostly paved to be navigable.

[firstlast]

"When leaf cutter ants get stuck on a twig behind a heavily-loaded slowpoke ... they simply slow down and march behind the ant returning with the goods." That's literally the definition of traffic.

[allcarsukofficial]

Ants crawl on top of each other and have a vastly large space than say, a New Yorker. So the answer is monster trucks in New York. Just drive over each other. 👍🏻

[Tyneras]

I think you missed something. Those ants are all working together because they are unified. Humans in unified groups also do this and work together to minimize problems by sacrificing personal advantage.

Now, if you put thousands of different ant colonies (who have no shared identity) next to each other and forced them to use the same traffic lanes, you'd see traffic jams... right before the ants all tried to kill each other, because ants are pretty direct about competition like that.

[HannahZiad]

This video made me angry ! Lol
I never knew we waste that much time in traffic !! 😑😒

[seven]

Short answer : *because they have the same speed and Sam leg movement unlike drivers that gets distracted easily*

[Toxicflu]

Main problem with traffic is how many people are actually short sighted and dont actually know the size of their cars in the lane, and so there's greater distances between the cars. Put everyone on a motorbike, (or on foot) and you see how people interweave between one another better and keep the flow moving much faster. ants move at a walking pace and hitting one another doesn't hurt. Cars can kill with speed, thats a huge difference.

[besmart]

You know, everyone racing to be first is exactly what causes traffic to begin with…

[chaosrending]

Me: lets slow down and give space to the merging lanes and make everything move faster
Everyone: *bad ant words*

[morningcoffee]

It’s because they are walking. Ants aren’t cars, and ants aren’t in cars. They’re walking.

[Duyton]

"Bob move out!"
"Why?"
"Because you're holding up traffic!"
"George, this is the sugar jar. Start collecting already."