 Inspiration for the film came from penny arcades , where Bakshi would often spend his time playing pinball , sometimes bringing his 12 @-@ year @-@ old son Mark . Bakshi wanted to use pinball as a metaphor to examine the ways of the world . Heavy Traffic began a tradition in which Bakshi would write poems before beginning production on each of his films , starting with Street Arabs . According to Bakshi , " My background was in Brooklyn — my Jewishness , my family life , my father coming from Russia . All these things had to be somehow represented on film . " 
