The feeling of rush hour subway is actually like: everyone's transactions are lining up at the door first, and miners/validators pick the ones with higher fees to include first. Clicking "send" doesn't mean it will be on the chain immediately; during congestion, it will first get stuck in the mempool—others may outbid you to jump the queue, your transaction might get pushed to the back, or even expire and be replaced by you (replacing the same nonce with higher gas).

Now when I see the chain getting lively, I first think: is this transaction really urgent? If not urgent, pay less "ride fare"; if urgent, pay fully in one go, don't keep increasing the bid and ruin your own mindset. By the way, I also think about the recent criticism of the "compound yield stacking" in staking/sharing security systems, which is actually like transferring lines during rush hour... The more routes you take, the more congestion you get stuck in at a certain segment, slowing down the entire trip. The gains look attractive, but the waiting costs must also be considered.