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a particularly harrowing intersection, at Wilshire and Veteran Los Angeles Times

In China, it's Beijing; in Mexico, Mexico City. In the United States, it's Los Angeles that is the face of traffic jams and torturous daily commutes. Those who try to find detours around the packed freeways (an ironic term if ever there was one) inch along surface streets beside fellow drivers trying the same thing. Traffic's effects on physical and mental health, lost work hours and, therefore, lost income are legendary. In L.A., an underground traffic-flow control system seems to be having a positive effect. The city started installing this Automated Traffic Surveillance and Control system, or ATSAC, more than 30 years ago. It now controls 4,398 traffic lights: http://www.bbc.com/autos/story/20140516-to-live-and-drive-in-la