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The article completely misses the point of public transit. Transit is NOT about reducing congestion. Induced demand (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Induced_dema

The article completely misses the point of public transit. Transit is NOT about reducing congestion. Induced demand (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Induced_demand https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Induced_demand) clearly means that some people will driving so long the congestion is within their tolerance level. Public Transit is all about giving choices to people AND enabling people to get to jobs that they couldn't get to otherwise because of congestion. For my family, I have been fortunate enough that the last 15 years or so I have been able to take public transit to my jobs. This has enable my family to use a single car and save tens of thousands. This is significant money for me and even more significant for someone making less than I do. Public transit enables workers to keep more of what they earn because they don't have to spend money on gas, car repairs, and they don't have surprise expenses related to driving all the time. Public transit is NEVER about congestion. If the goal is "solving" congestion then: * ban cars (Market Street in SF, 14th Street in NYC (https://ny.curbed.com/2019/10/18/20919729/new-york-transportation-bus-lane-transit-priority https://ny.curbed.com/2019/10/18/20919729/new-york-transport...) * have an economic collapse * reduce parking options * congestion pricing ... etc...

Forgivenessizer 7y ago
ban cars LOL. Do you have any idea what you are saying?
- dang 7y ago
  Could you please stop posting unsubstantive comments to Hacker News? You've been doing it a lot, and we're trying for a different sort of discussion here. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
erik_seaberg 7y ago
Adding capacity doesn't cause demand. "Induced" demand is just latent demand that became measurable when we reduced the backpressure in the system, and it ends as soon as we adequately serve all the latent demand we have. But that probably costs more per capita than a car, so we aren't voting to do it.
fuzzfactor 7y ago
Exactly. And I think it helps workers get to jobs that they couldn't get to otherwise because of being underpaid. Light rail in Houston increased the time spent in traffic since it was intended to bring people who can't afford cars or taxis into the central business district, it was built at ground level consuming right-of-way, and ended up noticably obstructing the flow of traffic that was there before. The rail was not built as any kind of a substitute for very many established automotive commuters at the time, and it still does not take many cars off the road. When waiting at a traffic signal for the train to pass, you notice how many fewer people make it across the intersection on the train compared to how many do it in their cars before you get the green light yourself.

Forgivenessizer 7y ago

ban cars LOL. Do you have any idea what you are saying?

dang 7y ago
Could you please stop posting unsubstantive comments to Hacker News? You've been doing it a lot, and we're trying for a different sort of discussion here. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

erik_seaberg 7y ago

Adding capacity doesn't cause demand. "Induced" demand is just latent demand that became measurable when we reduced the backpressure in the system, and it ends as soon as we adequately serve all the latent demand we have. But that probably costs more per capita than a car, so we aren't voting to do it.

fuzzfactor 7y ago

Exactly. And I think it helps workers get to jobs that they couldn't get to otherwise because of being underpaid. Light rail in Houston increased the time spent in traffic since it was intended to bring people who can't afford cars or taxis into the central business district, it was built at ground level consuming right-of-way, and ended up noticably obstructing the flow of traffic that was there before. The rail was not built as any kind of a substitute for very many established automotive commuters at the time, and it still does not take many cars off the road. When waiting at a traffic signal for the train to pass, you notice how many fewer people make it across the intersection on the train compared to how many do it in their cars before you get the green light yourself.