Some Japanese scientists recreated (for the first time apparently) a "shockwave" traffic jam. A shockwave jam is when one car slows down and all the cars behind it have to slow down. The congestion travels backwards through traffic like a shockwave. The video is pretty cool to watch, because you can actually see this congestion traveling:
A guy by the name of William Beatty has also determined that you can "swallow" the compression waves by leaving a lot of space in front of you and driving at a constant speed. The problem with that approach, however, is that as soon as someone in another lane see that kind of space they get all excited and switch lanes effectively killing your buffer. I like the idea though, and it's something I typically do.
(From Freakonomics)
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