This is Hidden Brain, I'm Shankar Vedanta.

If you live or work in a city, sitting in traffic is probably a big part of your life.

It's about 15 to 20 to 30 out in the inbound side.

We had about 20 minutes of life.

Here in Washington, DC, we take perverse pride in having some of the worst traffic in

the United States.

But on a global scale, DC has nothing on London or Istanbul, Rio or Mexico City.

On today's episode, we're going to explore all kinds of interventions that can make traffic

better.

We're also going to look at the interventions that are supposed to make traffic better,

but don't.

I feel like we should put together the international journal of unintended consequences and send

them to lawmakers all over the planet.

Before we get there, we want to take you on a quick trip around some of the world's

most congested cities.

Producer Maggie Penman reached out to NPR correspondent station in Asia, Africa and Europe.

She's also going to tell us about a little traffic culture clash of her own.

So a few years ago, I'm out in LA for a couple of days for work.

I'm driving a rented car, and I come up to a busy intersection.

And I'm trying to turn left.

I have my blinker on.

I'm in the left hand turn lane, and the light is green.

...