6 ms·

This isn't physics and it isn't an exact equilibrium, but within the range of highway sizes we actually have (not your 1000 lane hypothetical) it seems to hold.

• AnthonyMouse 6y ago
  That's because the existing demand is highly under-satisfied, as evidenced by the existing traffic congestion. In theory you could actually satisfy all of it by building a thirty lane triple-decker highway and it would work. Of course, that's still stupid, because what you should do is build a normal highway (e.g. add a lane or two) to absorb some of the demand, and absorb more of it in other ways, as with mass transit or increasing zoning density so that people can live closer to their destination.
  • anonymoushn 6y ago
    Increasing zoning density doesn't help much if it's still illegal to build a grocery store or a coffee shop anywhere near an apartment complex (and the other way around, too)
• iso947 6y ago
  A 1000 line highway would take tens of minutes, maybe upto an hour, to drive to the outside lane, it would have its own interesting traffic problems.
  • TeMPOraL 6y ago
    I can imagine you'd want to split it e.g. into 250 4-lane tracks, with the leftmost track being reserved for people going all the way to the end of the highway, rightmost track for people who're about to exit the highway, and the middle tracks for people traveling to various points along the highway path, sorted left-to-right by distance, descending. Otherwise it would be just one huge mess.