One would think Google Maps can be updated to ignore this kind of use case. Even the biggest busses don't care more than what, 50 people? Just ignore the signals when there are more than say 10 phones inside a three meter radius, with whatever values for those two variables are based on real data.<p>Kind of hilarious though that the artist dreamed this up.
The streets are deserted. I doubt this would work with actual traffic. I would hope the app would be able to see traffic quickly flowing around the "jam".
I believe Google uses this same functionality when it gives you an estimate of how "busy" certain restaurants are. And anecdotally, it can feel like their estimates underestimate the crowds at expensive places were most people have iPhones and overestimate the crowds at cheap places where Android user propagate.