I read a related article, I think in a Popular Science years ago. Basically, at a certain medium-range traffic density, traffic actually moves faster than either the densities below or above it. At the lower densities, people speed up to wedge into gaps, and you get standing traffic waves as described above. At higher densities it's standard gridlock. But at this special range, everybody's just moving fast enough relative to eachother to keep everything going at a good pace. The traffic-wave busting method described by no-joke is a way of developing this.
Keep an eye out for it, especially on the Deerfoot just before rush hours.
"Oh yeah! Plus, armed men are stealing my pop!"