The humble ant could hold a vital lesson for motorists on how to manage traffic jams.

A study by collective intelligence expert Dirk Helbing from Dresden University of Technology in Germany, reported in the New Scientist revealed how ants move around their crowded colonies.

A team researchers from the university created two paths to a sugar syrup meal, one path much narrower than the first. The narrow route quickly became congested with ants. So when an ant returning down the narrow route encountered an ant attempting to progress up the narrow route, the returning ant would push it towards to second, wider route.

If information systems could be established to allow motorists travelling in opposite directions share information on congestion in the same way ants do, human beings too could well benefit from reduced traffic jams, the team believe.