Make it make sense

https://traffic-simulation.de/

This site simulates traffic flow and lets you play around with variables to see how traffic responds. It's pretty neat to see how traffic patterns emerge

Although traffic can be caused by something in the road, most traffic is caused by people driving poorly. You can think of traffic as waves.

To put it most simply, if you follow too close, you cause traffic, and if you leave a lot of space in front of you (think 5 or 10 second rule instead of 3 second rule), you alleviate traffic.

There are multiple reasons. Here are a couple. The harder you brake, the more traffic is caused, and if you have a lot of space in front, you don't have to brake as hard. Also, if you prevent other cars from changing lanes, that also causes traffic. By leaving space, you allow cars to move freely.

I believe traffic “moves” backwards around 12mph? So if someone slams on their brakes, it creates a ripple effect that is seen backwards at that rate, so you can calculate the distance/time of traffic to estimate when and where some incident occurred, even when there’s nothing there.

Shockwave traffic jam

That's why it's important to slow down as soon as you get there, don't want the other drivers to get lost.