Spillback may not have caught on, but gridlock was an instant hit, and the word went from relative obscurity (appearing mainly in municipal planning reports) to being the descriptor of choice for people explaining why they were late. Increasing Commuting by Transit and Ridesharing, 1980 The fears arising from the recent transit strike in New York City of “Gridlock,” “Spillback” and dangerously unhealthy carbon monoxide levels underscore our concern about the inescapable relationship of mass transit, pollution and congestion. The initial sense of this word (which is still very much in use) was “a traffic jam in which a grid of intersecting streets is so completely congested that no vehicular movement is possible.” Although it may have existed before the 1980s, it was thrust into the public consciousness following the transit strike of New York City in 1980, when the subway and bus workers of that city walked off their jobs for over a week. Gridlock entered our language quite recently our earliest written evidence for this word comes from 1980 (although there have been reports that it existed as part of the jargon of urban planners for some time prior to this). Our earliest written evidence for 'gridlock' comes from 1980-though the word may have existed before then, it's still surprisingly new.
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