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>> "Taxis generate undesirable congestion..." Jane Jacobs rolls in her grave when you say stuff like that. The overwhelming majority of transportation engineer
by avn2109 12y ago
>> "Taxis generate undesirable congestion..."
Jane Jacobs rolls in her grave when you say stuff like that. The overwhelming majority of transportation engineers will tell you that taxis alleviate congestion by raising asset utilization. And they also reduce the need for vast parking facilities and block-circling in search of parking (which turns out to be a large fraction of traffic in some areas). It's a triple-win.
- twic 12y agoYou're assuming that private cars are the current dominant form of transport. That's not always the case. Transport planners i've come across would probably start wittering about modal shift. If introducing more taxis into a city leads to a modal shift from taxis to cars, it's a good thing. But if it leads to a modal shift from buses to taxis, it's a bad thing. A Machiavellian transport engineer might even consider restricting taxis so as to maximise the available modal shift to buses (or rail etc), to make projects to introduce those easier to sell.
- avn2109 12y agoGood point---that's a subtlety that I had missed. Though it's perhaps worth noting that the dominant form of transit in the overwhelming majority of American locales is in fact the private automobile.