Traffic Travels in Herds

I ran out of gas on the Palisades today.

While waiting to fill up, I observed the traffic zooming by Northbound.

Have you ever seen herds stampede, or even just run?

I saw this when I was in Wyoming- a single buffalo will amble, shuffle, barely move.

When they travel together, they charge! Dust flying, nostrils flaring, a very noisy and swift event. And they all run really close to each other. So if one would stop to nibble a dandelion, or cough, he would be rear ended by the rest of the herd, and a pile-up would occur out on the plains.

That is what I thought of as I watched the cars zooming by. There were big gaps between groups of cars. Occasionally a single car would drive by.

Then, suddenly, there would be 7 or 8 or 12 cars all driving very fast and very close to each other. It looked like a herd hurtling down the highway. A herd of blue Camry and Corollas. I just kept thinking, what if one of the drivers decided to switch lanes to get a sandwich at the gas station??

The buffalo were way more interesting. But smellier.