Stark (novel) on this novel, which was subsequently made as "Stark", a television miniseries. It was a joint production by the BBC and the ABC (the British and Australian national broadcasters). Ben Elton played the lead role, with Colin Friels as Sly and Jacqueline McKenzie as Rachel. There were some differences between the novel and the miniseries; some characters were renamed, and the ending was different. Elton's subsequent two novels, "Gridlock" and "This Other Eden", also deal with environmental themes and are set in a dystopian future. "Alternative 3", a 1977 British television hoax masquerading as a documentary, shared some themes with
Gridlock colleague gave the plan the thumbs-down, worrying that it would simply "lock up the grid". Schwartz was always struck by that image and titled his 1980 memo "Gridlock Prevention Plan". In another interview Mr. Schwartz said that he coined the term in the mid 1970s with fellow traffic engineer, Roy Cottam, who "was a little paranoid and thought he would be blamed for gridlock and so he gave me all the credit". The August 2010 traffic jam in the Beijing-Zhangjiakou highway in Hebei province, China, is considered the world's worst traffic jam ever, as traffic congestion stretched more than from