How Insects Might Help Make Traffic Lights Smarter and More Efficient

"...this instinctual behavior has potential applications in our traffic infrastructure."

Will an instinctual behavior still be applicable if the creature is, say, fifteen minutes late for an appointment? I know a couple of fellows who (when driving) never defer to anyone, no matter the size of either group.

Can we learn from insects? Yes, I believe so. Lots of luck with that, getting the masses on board with the message.

I guess if the message could be successfully delivered, the need for red light camera enforcement would be reduced, huh?

This sounds like a great idea to me, but the software would have to be implemented uniformly among nearby signals, and would require multiple sensors for each incoming traffic stream.

There have been so many times I've sat impatiently at a red light while there was no traffic in the crossing direction. There have even been a couple of times when I decided the signal was stuck and intentionally proceeded through the red light. Of course I'll never know whether those signals were functioning or not.

I suspect that many of these signals currently have only a single sensor for each direction, or perhaps none, relying solely on time regardless of traffic. In that case, someone has to decide how much time to assign to each direction, and there will clearly be differences of opinion and ability among those assigning the times.