Concepts

Traffic Congestion

Also Known As Traffic jam · Gridlock

Road Concept

Citation Formats

General Reference

Transport Atlas. "Traffic Congestion." Accessed August 30, 2026. https://transport.interactiveatlas.org/concepts/traffic-congestion.

APA Style

Transport Atlas. (n.d.). Traffic Congestion. Retrieved August 30, 2026, from https://transport.interactiveatlas.org/concepts/traffic-congestion

BibTeX

@misc{transportatlas-traffic-congestion,
  author = {Transport Atlas},
  title = {Traffic Congestion},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://transport.interactiveatlas.org/concepts/traffic-congestion},
  note = {Accessed August 30, 2026}
}

A transport condition marked by slower speeds, longer trip times and increased vehicular queuing, arising when travel demand approaches or exceeds roadway capacity. It has grown substantially on urban road networks since the 1950s, and adding lanes is an ineffective remedy because added capacity induces more demand for driving.

Facts

Core Concern

Demand exceeding road capacity, slowing everyone in the stream 1

Cross-Tradition Connections

Exemplifies

Induced Demand

The congestion article invokes induced demand as the reason lane additions fail.

Source Wikipedia: Traffic Congestion

Part Of

Road Transport

Sources

1. Wikipedia: Traffic Congestion

WikipediaLead section

Quote, Lead section

When traffic demand is great enough that the interaction between vehicles slows the traffic stream, this results in congestion.

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