How much trust do you put in a stop light?

We spoke the other day in class about an idea called Game Theory, which is a way of predicting or manipulating people's actions by combining a limited number of options with assumed rational thinking (a more thorough explanation can be found in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy).

To demonstrate, many people use the Prisoner's Dilemma. Say two people, Bob and Alice, are arrested for committing an armed robbery. Each has enough evidence to convict the other, and the chief inspector give's them both two options: confess or refuse. If they both confess, they will both spend five years in prison. If one confesses and the other stays silent, then the confessor goes free and the other spends ten years in prison. If neither one confesses then they both spend two years in prison.

		Alice
		Confess	Refuse
Bob	Confess	5,5	0,10
	Refuse	10,0	2,2

The tendency for most people in this situation is to confess, because they want to play to their best strategy, which makes this a stacked game.

I noticed a connection between this and our global driving system. I've often marveled at how hundreds of millions of people have all been taught the same way to drive. Not only that, but for the most part we all comply with the same laws even though they sometimes may be a hindrance. What keeps people from running stop lights? Why do we drive on the right side of the road if no one's coming the other way? The answer is simple, self-preservation; the road system is there to protect us. A similar table could be drawn for this situation.

		Alice
		Run red light	Don't run
Bob	Run red light	0,0	10,0
	Don't run	0,10	7,7

In this case, a 0 represents a crash, 10 means getting to your destination as fast as possible, and 7 is getting to the destination but having to wait a little longer. Occasionally people do run red lights when they feel the risk of getting in a crash is very low. Add on to that the possibility of getting pulled over by a policeman and we have a rather reliable roadway.