It seems to me like the article has it backwards: a single driver can mess up traffic for many people. I see nothing here to support the premise in the title.
You have to read the next article (it's the link at the bottom), which then describes in detail how one driver can indeed remove traffic jams. The first article explains how traffic jams form, so you can understand in the second article why a certain behaviour fixes the problem.
I always assumed it was just best practice to not drive up anyone's rear end due to the issue of stopping distance. I never thought about it as regulating traffic flow.
The TL;DR of that is: Something that is oscillating can be damped.