But those divisions can also produce conflict, alienation and gridlock.

During the 1999 blizzard, ice and snow combined with Metro's constricted tarmacs, inadequate gates and jury-rigged concourse layouts to produce total gridlock.

A proposed shopping mall might produce gridlock on a local Main Street.

A similar logic produces intractable gridlock in the streets of Paris while the strike continues.

If Mr. Berlusconi were to succeed in producing parliamentary gridlock, he could force new elections.

Mr. McCain said he believed that an excess of bureaucracy at the Defense Department was producing gridlock that had left the detainees in unfair limbo.

The system produces eternal gridlock, in which each side blames the other for its persistent failures while the public can only look on in irritation or resignation.

Then again, the Administration officials said, so many different P.L.O.'s might negate one another, producing political gridlock and making any settlement with the Israelis impossible.

But unfortunately," he said, "some in Congress are preparing to slip unrelated controversial provisions into the bill, proposals guaranteed to produce gridlock and delay.

The success he spoke of has produced musical cacophony and human gridlock on the square, especially on weekends in the spring and fall when tourism is at its peak.