This is fascinating. The book Traffic [1] talks a great deal about how adding road capacity (e.g. more lanes) can result in zero change in congestion because more people choose to take more trips.

But this paradox appears to hold traffic constant, and uses game theory to show how more connections (not lanes) can result in worse congestion too.

It really is amazing how something as simple-seeming as roads and traffic, where it feels like simple common sense ought to apply, winds up being so deeply and fundamentally counter-intuitive.

[1] https://www.amazon.com/Traffic-Drive-What-Says-About/dp/0307...