The application to traffic queues had been amongst his earliest work with The single server queue in heavy traffic being published in 1961 and On queues in heavy traffic in the following year. Newell, reviewing this last mentioned paper, realised its significance at the time:
Ang application na ito sa trapiko queues had been sa gitna ng kanyang trabaho sa earliest Ang nag-iisang server pila sa mabigat na trapiko ay nai-publish sa 1961 at On queues sa mabigat na trapiko sa mga sumusunod na taon. Newell, suriin ito huling binanggit papel, realised kahalagahan nito sa panahon: