I recently read this article: http://www.bbc.com/autos/story/20160428-how-ai-will-solve-traffic-part-one

It talks about how going slower and keeping more space between your car and other cars can actually improve the flow of traffic when it's all jammed up. It also explains how autonomous cars will make this work much better, but also indicates that we can help improve things now by changing our driving behavior.

The article also explains how the highway patrol sometimes sends cars through traffic jams on the highway to break it up and re-channelize it.

If the Waze app could give users a target speed based on traffic conditions, and enough app users tried to keep to that that target speed and maintain proper distance from cars in front of them, perhaps we could collectively improve traffic flow in our communities, even without autonomous cars.