Quezi

A Cairo traffic jam (photo by Walid Hassanein CC-BY)

Traffic Jams: we’ve all experienced them and all hate them. But when did this expression come into use? The first traffic jams probably occurred in the earliest civilizations when farmers carried their produce on carts to sell at the city markets and found themselves all trying to squeeze through the small city gates under the watchful eyes of the guards on duty. But what about the use of the words in print?

The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) states that both Traffic, meaning the passing of vehicles along the road, and Jam or Jammed, meaning things packed together unable to move, originate from early 19th century. But as to when the two words are put together, the earliest mention in print that I can find is from New York’s, The Sun newspaper, March 17, 1888, in the headline Traffic Jammed Streets. The article then goes on to use the words traffic and jammed, but not together.

Traffic Jammed Streets
There isn’t quite enough room enough to get around in yet
Source: Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers

The San Francisco Call of October 20, 1904, is the first reference that I can find to Traffic Jam in the body of the article.

It was in a traffic jam on lower Third street that Moses Isaacstein’s head was smitten with a whip in the hand of John Leonardino. Mr Isaacstein was diving a horse and wagon and when he “turned out” to permit the passage of a southbound car chockful of passengers his vehicle collided with a heavy dray hauled by two horses steered by Mr. Leonardino.
Source: Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers

The next references appear in newspaper headlines.
Fog ties up traffic, Jam at Grand Central – January 1905, New York Tribune; and, Traffic Jammed February 1906, The Sun (New York).

There quickly follows use of Traffic Jam in the body of the article in many newspapers across the US, with journalists obviously catching onto its use.

There may be earlier references and as online archives are opened up then I am sure these will be found.

Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers:
http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/

Related questions:

• Why do traffic accidents happen?
  The Department of Transport (D of T) in the UK produces detailed annual reports on traffic accidents where a person has been injured. When investigating a traffic accident, police will take report...
• How will self-driving cars change the world?
  Researchers at Google and elsewhere have been having great success with self-driving cars. These cars have already driven hundreds of thousands of miles without being controlled by a human driver. It...
• What's the Toyota iQ like to drive?
  The Toyota iQ is a very small car, whose carbon dioxide emissions are so low that it is exempt from road tax in the UK. I recently had a chance to drive one, and it was a much nicer car than I was ex...
• How have family cars changed over the past 50 years?
  Fifty years ago my family proudly owned a basic-specification blue station wagon made in Australia by General Motors Holden. Today the family car is a basic-specification white people carrier made in...
• What are the major components of a car?
  This is a guest post by moa. A passenger automobile vehicle, i.e. a car, is usually used for transporting people although small amounts of cargo can also be carried; specialized cars are used...