Nucleation in physical and non-physical systems

The aggregation of particles out of an initially homogeneous situation is well known in physics. Depending on the system under consideration and its control parameters the cluster formation in a supersaturated (metastable or unstable) situation has been observed in nucleation physics as well as in other branches. We investigate the well-known example of condensation (formation of liquid droplets) in an undercooled (water) vapour. The formation of bound states as a stochastic process is related to transportation science. We present a comparative analysis of nucleation to the probabilistic description of traffic congestion.