Hate Traffic? You just wait. Traffic isn't going to get any better - unless something changes drastically. So how are we going to avoid our looming fate of Global Gridlock? The idea of the entire planet being stuck in traffic is one that none of us want to see happen. Like many of the World's bigger issues, there is no single solution. To really save our bacon, we need to combine a multitude of ideas and tools, on a variety of scales. Many are looking to electric vehicles to pave the way to a greener future. Unfortunately, cleaner cars may not be the solution here because electric cars don’t take cars off the road, and will still contribute to gridlock. 

“Frankly, four billion clean cars on the road are still four billion cars, and a traffic jam with no emissions is still a traffic jam.”

The bright side...

The millennials don’t seem too keen on buying cars like their parents did, giving some hope to reducing cars on the road. 

There are alternatives. Technology is enabling us to connect with our neighbours and share rides. Carpooling will help cut down on the daily gridlock and dependancy on individually owned cars. There are various options for carpooling depending on your location or trip type. For long distance, once-in-a-while trips, try Pogoride to find rides in the Pacific North-West. For your daily commute, there are services such as go2gether or carma that match you with commuters in your network, who are already heading your way. 

Carsharing services such as car2go, zipcar and modo car co-op allow people to have access to a car just when they need one, rather than using their car for every single trip. 

Traffic is a nonlinear phenomena, meaning that by reducing traffic by even a small amount can have significant impact (note that this also works in the opposite way). Something such as congestion charges could be the answer. 

Car sales may slow naturally, as more of the world’s population move into cities. Some new urban mobility modelssuggest that car sales will drop by 30% by 2020.