system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
CMV: Most highway traffic is caused by poor driving, not the number of vehicles on the road

I've recently started working a job that has me driving on the interstate (comparable to freeways in my area) at peak traffic times in the morning and evening.  

I have found that I can shave about ten minutes off of my ~35 mile, one hour commute simply by wisely avoiding packs of slow people.  I often see a pack of ten cars in the left lane being held up by one slow person at the front.  

This seems to support my idea that driving "algorithmically" would fix most traffic issues.  If everyone in the left lanes were driving at or slightly above the speed limit, with slower drivers occupying the right lanes and leaving space for others to merge from on-ramps, then I feel like there wouldn't be stop-and-go traffic in metropolitan areas below a certain population density.  

Is this line of thinking flawed?
gpt
A highway can only accommodate a certain rate of traffic flow. Beyond that rate and either you must deny anyone from merging at later on-ramps or delay traffic in earlier segments of the highway. Either of these will cause traffic to come to a standstill somewhere.

When traffic begins to approach this rate, the most minor of mistakes, such as not moving over to an exit lane early enough, will cause a significant disruption and bring traffic to a halt. In other words, the category of driving that can be considered "poor" increases from causing an accident up to merely being on a given road as the number of vehicles on the road increases.

The two are not separate considerations.