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The solution is not to build more highways and roads, as much as many people hate to hear that. Basically as soon as it is made slightly easier and faster to dr

The solution is not to build more highways and roads, as much as many people hate to hear that. Basically as soon as it is made slightly easier and faster to drive, people will adjust by driving more. There are quite a few instances where an already large interstate has been increased in size and the traffic got /worse/ after the fact. Cars just aren't an efficient way to move people around for the money they cost. I'm genuinely curious if things are going to start swinging back in the other direction where there is more focus on other transportation modes outside of cars. There have been some small scale rail expansions in larger cities, some intercity rail lines opening (brightline) and being built (california high speed rail). It hasn't been enough to hit a sort of tipping point yet though.

asdff 5y ago
While it is true that commute times might go down when freeways get wider, that's only half the coin. The purpose of the 5 is not to facilitate commuters like many other local highways in SD and LA, but to facilitate international trade between the U.S. and the world. Speed goes down, yes, but throughput goes up. Throughput is what is needed when you are trying to move trucking traffic from Central America through the southland north up the the central valley of CA, or east along the 10. It is what is needed when you need to move trucking traffic carrying all goods ordered by Americans from Asia from the port of long beach or LA into the heartland, because the freight rail grades are already at capacity. It's like having a bucket of water with a few holes vs a lot of holes; rate of flow might be unchanged per hole (lane), but you are moving more water (trucks) in the given span of time with the bucket with more holes. Right now there are dozens of supercarriers anchored off the coast of Long Beach, waiting weeks to unload goods into clogged logistical networks. In a future where everyone takes a bus or a train or a bike to work, they are still ordering all their shit online from Asia and stocking their grocery stores with food from Central and South America, and there will therefore always be increasing demand for the movement of more goods over time as the population continues to grow.

asdff 5y ago

While it is true that commute times might go down when freeways get wider, that's only half the coin. The purpose of the 5 is not to facilitate commuters like many other local highways in SD and LA, but to facilitate international trade between the U.S. and the world. Speed goes down, yes, but throughput goes up. Throughput is what is needed when you are trying to move trucking traffic from Central America through the southland north up the the central valley of CA, or east along the 10. It is what is needed when you need to move trucking traffic carrying all goods ordered by Americans from Asia from the port of long beach or LA into the heartland, because the freight rail grades are already at capacity. It's like having a bucket of water with a few holes vs a lot of holes; rate of flow might be unchanged per hole (lane), but you are moving more water (trucks) in the given span of time with the bucket with more holes. Right now there are dozens of supercarriers anchored off the coast of Long Beach, waiting weeks to unload goods into clogged logistical networks. In a future where everyone takes a bus or a train or a bike to work, they are still ordering all their shit online from Asia and stocking their grocery stores with food from Central and South America, and there will therefore always be increasing demand for the movement of more goods over time as the population continues to grow.