“We found there’s this perfect one-to-one relationship. If a city increased its road capacity by 10% then driving in that city went up by 10%.” Still one of the best articles on why building bigger roads leads to more driving. Understanding #InducedDemand Via @wired.com www.wired.com/2014/06/wuwt... - ThreadSky

brenttoderian.bsky.social • 100 days ago

“We found there’s this perfect one-to-one relationship. If a city increased its road capacity by 10% then driving in that city went up by 10%.” Still one of the best articles on why building bigger roads leads to more driving. Understanding #InducedDemand Via @wired.com https://www.wired.com/2014/06/wuwt-traffic-induced-demand/

Comments

chrispas.bsky.social•98 days ago

Ben Elton did a piece on this on a stand-up routine in the 80s. He explained it by using the analogy of a rubbish bin in the kitchen. It fills up quickly because folk are too lazy to empty it. So you get a bigger one and it still fills up…..,

fiona-h.bsky.social•100 days ago

Toronto’s 401 has the most lanes of any highway in North America and it’s so congested at ANY time of day that the provincial government wants to build another highway (and 2 others through sensitive green space) underneath it. Billions of dollars and it won’t solve traffic issues.

danushman.bsky.social•100 days ago

This is why I’m an advocate for 100 lanes in each direction mega highways. Build them so big and beyond reasonable needs that it’s impossible for people to create traffic even if everyone went for a drive at the same time

farnsworth100.bsky.social•100 days ago

Wonder why the same (unthinking?) rationale of spending on road building and car ownership that induces more car use, is not applied to public transport: so that spending on bus/tram services, lanes and frequency can induce more bus/tram use?

jenny-bone.bsky.social•100 days ago

For the UK this is not a good idea. We need better public transport not larger roads.

saintpalermo.bsky.social•97 days ago

A great example of “Jevon’s Paradox”.

coastalcyclist.bsky.social•99 days ago

A House of Reps study in the 70's showed that every road every built has had its maximum traffic on the day it opened. I suspect the same is true since then.

misterjones.bsky.social•99 days ago

📌

neginnazarian.bsky.social•99 days ago

And here is some visualization of that from Utopia, an Australian satire show that is often painfully close to the reality

https://youtu.be/xtO_rF-OQ7w?feature=shared

mirakkarim.bsky.social•99 days ago

Which is fine since cars will be CO2 neutral in the future

tallentire.bsky.social•99 days ago

Plenty of issues with traffic beyond just climate change though.

mirakkarim.bsky.social•99 days ago

True but not expanding any intercity roadways is delusional. I acknowledge I overstepped though a bit with that comment. Here in Austria pretty much any new main roadway was getting blocked the past 5 years. Even a highway that bypasses Vienna so that not all traffic has to pass through the city.

tallentire.bsky.social•98 days ago

Oh yeah absolutely, some of the fk cars people are absolutely delusional. There needs to be a balance. I don't know much of Austria but in the UK the bar for getting road projects done seems far lower than for rail though, NA is far worse. this needs tweaking.l.

mirakkarim.bsky.social•99 days ago

Which is why I've gotten kind of allergic to highways are bad kinda tweets. Public transport expansion is ofc a lot more important but roads will have to be expanded as well. In NA ofc a lot less. Rail expansion way more important over there. I'm yapping too much...

bahmutov.bsky.social•82 days ago

Nope. Public transportation expansion is a good thing while road expansion is not.

bob-the-blob.bsky.social•100 days ago

At what population density would roads with cars be able to work without traffic? And what is that figure for bicycle, public and pedestrian mobility?

michelpatrice.bsky.social•99 days ago

In Québec City, they want to build the Troisième Lien, a new bridge or tunnel, across the saint-Laurent river to connect Québec and Lévis.

It is insane and it will make traffic much worse.

collapsewatch3.bsky.social•99 days ago

This seems to be similar to jevon's paradox and perhaps an interesting example of why renewable energy won't work among other reasons.
@janevandis.bsky.social

mrsharleydee.bsky.social•100 days ago

Is the inverse true? If we convert parts of roads to cycle or tram ways? Would we decrease car use? Come on UK! Works in some cities like Cambridge.

lucycbt.bsky.social•99 days ago

Good illustration posted by someone else recently 👇

csandds.bsky.social•85 days ago

It's a self fulfilling prophecy

docbs.bsky.social•82 days ago

A good reminder that roadways are Club Goods (excludable but, within some range of demand, exhibit jointness of supply). I hate toll roads, but the obvious solution is to impose surge pricing. Tolls during high demand incentivize ride sharing, time shifting and mass transit use.

emiliafg.bsky.social•100 days ago

I hate roads like this.

bridgetkoan.bsky.social•99 days ago

📌

climatenick.bsky.social•85 days ago

📌

bigal56.bsky.social•99 days ago

That just proves that drivers of Motor Vehicles are truly stupid and lazy, most people can do just fine with an E-Bike rather than a Car, it's a fact , before Car's, it was the Horse, you can carry just as much by Bike as you can a Horse !!!

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