Self-organizing traffic lights

The key is that this kind of control does not fight the natural fluctuations in the traffic flow by trying to impose a certain flow rhythm. Rather, it uses randomly appearing gaps in the flow to serve other traffic streams. According to their simulations, this strategy can reduce average delay times by 10%–30%. Remarkably, the variation in travel times goes down as well, although the signal operation tends to be non-periodic and, therefore, less predictable. You can’t say precisely how the lights will go on and off, but you can be sure your drive will be shorter.

So it sounds like if you’re in a dense group of cars, you’ll see more green lights, but if you are alone or in a sparsely bunched group, you’re likely to get a red, Which bunches you up, et cetera, et cetera. IOW, opposite of the way lights seem to run.