I notice, when e.g. it rains enough for long enough, a lot if people get annoyed and start driving badly. You get some kind of contagion where everybody gets annoyed and tired because all other drivers are annoyed, tired assholes. Sometimes it even persists after the bad weather, especially if there was gridlock and/or end of workday. Humans do have a (lighter) version of collective bad driving.
that's one reason crash traffic happens and stays for hours after the original reason for the traffic to happen in the first place is gone. I remember reading that one person applying their brakes too hard can have a knock on effect causing a traffic pattern to emerge for a long time after the initial braking ever occurred.
Yeah, I wish this was emphasized more in driving school. I wonder how much traffic could be reduced just by making people conscious of their traffic-causing behaviors. (for example, using your brakes to slow down when there is nothing in front of you and others behind you)
