Modelling traffic flows

I don’t quite know why, but I’m pretty interested in how traffic moves on the freeway. The Washington Post had a nice article yesterday on the attempts to model traffic flow using physics and computers and such. When I drive on the freeway, I like to observe the flow of traffic…I guess you could call it a small hobby of mine. It never ceases to amaze me when I see a car speed past me only to pass the same car in the slow lane miles down the road. Slow and steady wins the race? Or nobody wins the race?