I viewed traffic bunching and expanding as a Slinky. Your snake analogy is a bit harsher but equally accurate. I had seen the ring slinky before. The phantom intersection- seems to be a well understood phenom. I thought you were going toward [fewer people] and a population control blink. Or to tele-commute. But your final solution of TACC cars does seem to fit to the problem/solution cycle. Good job!!