Congestion Question

I've always considered myself fortunate to have never had more than a twenty minute drive to work, avoiding highways altogether.  In the summer, this time gets halved as it seems like once July rolls around, the school buses cease, educators are off the roads, and at any given time 10% of the population is on vacation. This usually makes for a smooth and pleasant commute, void of congestion.

The journey today, however, was anything but smooth and pleasant. While I'll admit that the road I travel on is only 2 lanes in each direction and a traffic jam on it would pale in comparson to what the average North American suburban dweller likely experiences, it was still enough to sour my early morning mood, as I inched along.

What could cause such a back-up on a normally free flowing route?  I didn't recall any construction on recent trips. Accident?  Traffic light out? Nope. It was another case of what I've come to dub, "cop-caused-congestion".  It would appear that the good officer found it necessary to ticket a motorist for a presumably minor traffic violation during the morning rush. The subsequent rubber necking and slowing by those judicious types who make nuisances of themselves any time a cop is around exacerbated the delay.

I appreciate the value of fines associated with tickets as a means of bringing dollars into city coffers, but what is the value of the lost productivity when 1000 commuters are snarled in traffic for thirty minutes? Certainly that handily dwarfs the $125 fine levied for an improper lane change. If only someone explained "the math" to Constable Fastidious.