4 ms·

100%. Usually it's not even clear to me why traffic is so bad... I just have a mental heatmap of averaged-out traffic shittiness and I stay away from the hot sp

100%. Usually it's not even clear to me why traffic is so bad... I just have a mental heatmap of averaged-out traffic shittiness and I stay away from the hot spots. Nothing has gotten better in the 15 years I've lived here, and basically everything has gotten worse, so I don't have much incentive to give the worst areas a second chance. It means a lot of my city (Seattle) is off limits unless I'm really "going out" and not just going out for a bite or whatever.

beerandt 7y ago
Because, as traffic and transportation research is starting to show, traffic is supply-side (capacity) dominated, given time to reach equilibrium in a growing region. It's a great example of a market with a fixed price (excluding some newer ppp toll schemes) and highly variable demand. (And where costs besides the direct price that end up controlling.)
- mikepurvis 7y ago
  > starting to show I mean, it's good that it's finally hitting the mainstream, but induced demand has been a recognized phenomenon for literally decades: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Induced_demand#History https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Induced_demand#History The reverse of this is what justifies a lot of ped/cycle infrastructure projects even in areas where there don't currently seem to be a lot of people out walking or on foot— "build it and they will come".
  - beerandt 7y ago
    That's true, but having GPS and being able to do studies that are based on actually tracking vehicles has been a game changer (instead of just point traffic counts or driver questionnaires).
enobrev 7y ago
Seattle's roads were most definitely not built for the amount of traffic they see. I remember watching from my porch as cars spent an hour inching their way through the mile to the 99 when I was living in Lower Queen Anne. This was five years ago. I went back recently and things were far worse.

beerandt 7y ago

Because, as traffic and transportation research is starting to show, traffic is supply-side (capacity) dominated, given time to reach equilibrium in a growing region. It's a great example of a market with a fixed price (excluding some newer ppp toll schemes) and highly variable demand. (And where costs besides the direct price that end up controlling.)

mikepurvis 7y ago
> starting to show I mean, it's good that it's finally hitting the mainstream, but induced demand has been a recognized phenomenon for literally decades: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Induced_demand#History https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Induced_demand#History The reverse of this is what justifies a lot of ped/cycle infrastructure projects even in areas where there don't currently seem to be a lot of people out walking or on foot— "build it and they will come".
- beerandt 7y ago
  That's true, but having GPS and being able to do studies that are based on actually tracking vehicles has been a game changer (instead of just point traffic counts or driver questionnaires).

enobrev 7y ago

Seattle's roads were most definitely not built for the amount of traffic they see. I remember watching from my porch as cars spent an hour inching their way through the mile to the 99 when I was living in Lower Queen Anne. This was five years ago. I went back recently and things were far worse.