In Seattle there are many people who commute across Lake Washington to get to work, where you have the 520 bridge, the I-90 bridge, or you can just drive around the lake. After reading this article I wonder if it would be effective to divide everyone who makes this commute into two groups. On even numbered days group A can use the bridge while group B must drive around the lake. On odd numbered days they would switch. Could such a scenario effectively reduce the overall time spent commuting for all drivers?

Highway 101 and 280 on the Peninsula in the Bay Area? :-)

It was a great read, I haven't seen a lot of work that talks about the extended Prisoner's Dilemma situations.

Most 'free markets'.

The very same thing happens around the world in many political elections; because people think that voting for a candidate perceived as unpopular is wasting their vote; so some candidates remain unpopular not for their ideas but for their perceived unpopularity.

People when are free to make decisions individually usually assume everyone else doesn't have group mentality so they themselves decide not to have one, making it a self-fulfilling prophecy.