There's a story about American-vs-Russian ingenuity that claims NASA spent millions developing a pen that can write upside down, while the Russians merely used a pencil. Though false, there's a truth to it evident in this video of Russians defeating a traffic jam.


From what I can tell, the road crew has temporarily shut down the road in one direction in order to do some road work. This creates a jam on the other side. Rather than wait for the crew to pass, motorists merely start driving backwards in the direction they wish to travel to mimic forward-moving traffic.

It's one of those ideas that's so stupid it's genius.