Driving Antics of a Society

From observations to drawing up strategies.

In light of the recent relaxation of the curfew in Kuwait and hence the reappearance of traffic, an idea I had previously thought, has once again resurfaced.

Every morning as I traversed my usual route to university, which consists of traveling on the Arabian Gulf road, rerouting to get on the 4th ring road, and then it was a continuous straight road to my destination. Often times there would be congestions sprouting from their usual zones — noticeably at exits on the 4th ring road and after a certain time on the whole expanse of the ring road.

It is during these congestions, that I would ponder certain questions upon which they found their birth from observation over several journeys. Each day I would set a hypothesis on which lane was faster, or whether the swerving continuously from the lane-to-lane strategy was better than staying true to one lane, and many more hypotheses — only to find them debunked the next second, day or week.

Nevertheless in the whole mess of it all, one can draw similar attributes that can be originated at the behavior of the drivers — the constituents of traffic and to some extent randomness. On the macro scale, this randomness strangely boils down to some sense of seasonality. Yet all one needs is a single-car accident or a random shock, usually…