Comment The Rolling Traffic Jam (Score 1) 198
The rolling traffic jam can be thought of as a queue. Cars are can enter the queue at any rate. However, cars can only leave the queue every 2 seconds. The reason is that if you were stopped behind another car, you wouldn't jam your gas pedal at the exact second the car in front of you does. You would wait until that car moves 20-30 feet before moving your own car. This delay adds up for every car in the queue (let's approximate 2 seconds). So if there were 100 cars in the queue you would need 200 seconds before the last car in the queue moves and essentially eliminating the traffic jam. However, if cars are entering the queue at a rate faster than every 2 seconds, then the queue is growing in size and the traffic jam will never end.
Further details and illustrations:
http://www.smartmotorist.com/traffic-and-safety-guideline/traffic-jams.html