• EldritchFeminity@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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    2 months ago

    I heard a city planner talk about why adding a new lane doesn’t help, and the term they use is “induced demand.”

    Basically, people are going to take the route that they consider the most convenient, and that usually comes down to time and effort. Traffic hurts both by taking more time and being more stressful to deal with. When you add a new lane to a road, people think that the traffic will be easier there, so they take that route instead of their normal one. So you’re just adding more cars to the traffic that match or exceed the throughput of your new lane, basically putting you back at square one but a few billion dollars more poor.

    You’ve essentially added a single lane one-way road to help ease traffic across the entire city.

    • Xavienth@lemmygrad.ml
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      2 months ago

      If you make driving easier than transit, more people will drive who previously took transit. The reverse is also true. One of these situations is more desirable for myriad reasons.

      As well, additional demand can be created by convenience. People will make trips they otherwise never would have if it’s easier to make them.

      • interdimensionalmeme@lemmy.ml
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        2 months ago

        Communist transportation will never ever ever ever ever ever ever be easier than driving.

        Because driving is “get in the car, go directly to destination”

        Public transport adds walk to transport rally point, wait, follow a compromise route to accomodate other travellers with many stop, consider all the strangers gazing and judging you, arrive at not your destination, walk 5 to 20 mins to your actual destination. Plus you must carry any object on your person while navigating the terrain (good luck hauling 50lbs of groceries).

        I am simply not interested in this nightmare, find a solution that isn’t horrible.

        And NOoo I don’t want Musks robot taxis from the “you will own nothing” dystopia.

        • Signtist@lemm.ee
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          2 months ago

          As much as I personally disagree with you, given that all you’re thinking about is your own benefit, and not any of the myriad of benefits to the city, the world, the people who can’t afford cars, etc, I understand that your outlook is shared by the vast majority of Americans, and can’t be ignored if we ever hope to have an effective public transport system.

          We’re going to need to somehow devise a system so convenient that it actually sounds attractive to the huge amount of people who spend 10%+ of their paycheck on car payments not because they have to, but because they want to.