Why the @#$% is there so much traffic? - Benjamin Seibold?

Traffic happens because density fights against capacity. Imagine you have a giant hallway in your house that fits ten people walking side by side. If only five people are there, it is easy to move. But if fifty people try to walk through at once, they bump into each other. They slow down. This slowing down causes a "shockwave" where the last person feels the jam even if the hallway isn't full yet.

Think of your car like a bead on a long string of beads. When one bead stops suddenly to look at a red light or change lanes, the beads behind it must stop too. This chain reaction travels backward through traffic. It is not just about how many cars there are. It is about how they interact. A single car merging poorly can cause a huge backup miles back home.

People are unpredictable. Unlike robots that follow perfect rules, humans hesitate. We take longer to react when the car in front moves. We drive slightly too fast or slightly too slow. This variability creates ripples. Just like dropping one pebble in a pond makes waves, small human mistakes create big traffic jams. We all want to leave for work at the exact same time. This peak hour pressure fills the road until it overflows like a bathtub that is running too fast.