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There's an additional problem: traffic congestion isn't caused by the number of lanes, but the number of intersections. You can widen the highway all you want,
by estebank 3y ago
There's an additional problem: traffic congestion isn't caused by the number of lanes, but the number of intersections. You can widen the highway all you want, but if the traffic still needs to be absorbed by a city with a handful of sliplanes into the city grid, the backup will continue to exist. When crossing the San Francisco Bay Bridge, the places where the highway has congestion is on the exits. You could even improve traffic on the bridge if you removed a lane and used that for buses, bikes or just emergency vehicles, because you're giving more time to the city to absorb the incoming traffic.
- trgn 3y ago> traffic congestion isn't caused by the number of lanes, but the number of intersections. I wish people understood this more. Parallel travel lanes really just create reptile-brained jostling for position, push-pull accordion effect. it's one thing on highways, but I absolutely can't stand it in city traffic. That constant rush to get to the next intersection, the weaving in&out of lanes just to gain a car length, that mindless churn that when there is a gap it needs to be filled. Like being surrounded by mindless automatons in a weird fill-the-next-gap game of life at best, by insecure typeA losers at worst. Drivers are a lot more calm and considerate when they just chug along in single file. And it doesn't even impact total travel time! The weird thing is. It is absolutely impossible to explain this to anybody. There's always the immediate reaction, but see more lanes, more lanes is better, more cars in more lanes. Intuition really fails here, it's an emergent property of drivers being 90% id the second they step in a car, and then throwing these dumb beasts in a system that doesn't curb their instincts.