This unlocked a memory for me. In college my roommate and I took a late-night walk to a nearby diner, only a five minute walk from our dorm if jaywalking across one of the main streets in this town. Walking to the nearest crosswalk would more than double the trip, so patiently waiting for a break in traffic to safely cross was the norm.

On one weekend in particular, one of the other big colleges was having an event of some kind (homecoming or parents weekend, or some crap like that) that packed this town to the gills and turned the main street into a sea of cars as far as the eye could see in both directions. But don't picture everything at a stand-still... the nearby traffic light must have been shut off (or turned to a blinking yellow) because the sea of cars was moving at a slow but steady pace with no break whatsoever.

Walking the extra few minutes west to the crosswalk, and then a few more back east to the restaurant, would have been the best bet, but our experience told us it would be wasteful because there must be a break in the traffic coming soon. There just had to be. As the minutes rolled by more we were joined by more dorm neighbors and other hopeful crossers, and we all stood there incredulous at just how perfectly bad this situation was.

Just estimating here... we absolutely waited more than 20 minutes, possibly 30. And it's been so long I can't remember the circumstances that finally let us cross. Also, yeah, this is a great example of the sunk-cost fallacy.