Advocacy & Safety - New roads

"We need new roads and to widen existing roads. This will relieve traffic congestion."

Wrong!

Every time new roads are built, they are built for one reason: to add more traffic.

Experience always shows that new/wider roads simply attracts more cars.

Want more traffic? Just add more space for cars.

The funny part is, most of this new traffic is from somewhere other than your own neighborhood. Not only does someone want more cars, they want more cars from somewhere else to pass through your neighborhood.

(I wasn't born yesterday, you know!)

Yeah, tell me about it. A few years ago they built an 8-lane road between the Gold Coast and Brisbane. Within two years they were asking for a "second motorway". Note this is a whole new road, not merely an extension to the one they had just built. :eek:

The really amazing thing? No rational person would ever drive it if they had ever actually used the train.

There's an old saying: 'Building roads to solve traffic congestion is like buying a bigger pair of pants to solve obesity.'

They nearly did this in Toronto recently. The DVP, an expressway which runs into the downtown is situated in a river valley. There was a proposal to have it widened from 6 lanes to 10! As most sensible people realize (please note, this does not include most traffic 'engineers'), the only thing new/wider expressways do is generate more traffic. Still, I see that people in most cities are very slow learners.

Thankfully it was defeated, but not by a huge margin.

The area of town I work in is next to I-80 and is about two miles from the developed part of town. Until last year there was only one road that went out to that part of town. Now, they have built another road that pops out by the interstate. The reason? Yes, they wanted to alleviate traffic on the the original road. As far as I can see, what will happen is that more developement can now built as a result of more access to the area. The result? Yes, more traffic.

In London, one of the major bridges over the Thames was closed to car and truck traffic for structural reasons. People were worried that thie closure would put more stress on other crossing points. No-one could see where the traffic shifted to; it semed to just vapourise.

Originally posted by Allister
There's an old saying: 'Building roads to solve traffic congestion is like buying a bigger pair of pants to solve obesity.'

I love this. I'll have to write that down.:) :) :)


I swear Pete sometimes I don't get you. Build more roads, of couse, look at how nicely it's worked in Los Angeles. ;)
Actually, there's a phenomenom called "generated traffic". Engineers don't really know the cause but if you build more roads or widen existing ones the traffic will just expand to fill them up, just like buying that bigger pair of pants.

Bottom line: given the current situation, there will always be too much traffic and never enough roads. Time for a different solution. Any suggestions? ;)

Originally posted by roadbuzz
Bottom line: given the current situation, there will always be too much traffic and never enough roads. Time for a different solution. Any suggestions? ;)
I have one (my dad should claim credit for this solution; he inspired it: )

My dad made the comment that, when you grow bacteria in an enclosed dish, giving them an abundance of food, they multiply
very rapidly. But after reaching a certain point of overpopulation,
their waste products eventually begin to slow their growth. Finally, they die off, having either a) used up all the food, b)
been poisoned by their waste products, or c) both a and b.

Of course, this solution is not exactly practical for solving the transportation problems of our day.

Originally posted by Pete Clark
But after reaching a certain point of overpopulation,
their waste products eventually begin to slow their growth. Finally, they die off, having either a) used up all the food, b)
been poisoned by their waste products, or c) both a and b.

Of course, this solution is not exactly practical for solving the transportation problems of our day.

Well, I'd suggest that eventually fuel use will catch up with motoring primates. Heck, they fight enough wars over the stuff.

Originally posted by Pete Clark
Of course, this solution is not exactly practical for solving the transportation problems of our day.

Your dad failed to account for the survival instincts.

d) they battle each other for the remaining resources, hastening the self-destruct process.

Enough of this thread. I'm getting really depressed.

Originally posted by roadbuzz
Enough of this thread. I'm getting really depressed.
A comedian once quipped, "They built a freeway in front of my house. Now I have to leave my driveway doing 60 miles per hour."

Originally posted by Pete Clark

A comedian once quipped, "They built a freeway in front of my house. Now I have to leave my driveway doing 60 miles per hour."

Steven Wright.

That guy cracks me up.

Building more roads is a BAD IDEA. A new Freeway (if you can call it that) has just been opened in Adelaide
about 3 years ago, with the final section opening about Sept 01. The 3 lane road is reversible every 12hrs.
So in the morning it heads North into the city and in the afternoon it heads South out of the city. It's not too bad.
The only problem is now they are saying that there is a housing boom at the end of the Freeway
(where land is cheaper) so this in turn will create more traffic and eventually the need for
more Freeways, it doesn't make sense.

The only good thing about this project is the 20km bitumen bike path that runs parallel to the Freeway, separated by bush and plants.

CHEERS.