Traffic study

[citivolus]

Reason has an interesting study about traffic congestion and how much it will cost to ease that congestion. I thought it was interesting and couldn't help but wonder how much of that could be relieved with alternative transportation like the Segway.

http://www.reason.org/ps346/index.shtml

One thing I don't like about the study is that it seems to be just a numerical analysis. It doesn't say where the new road miles are needed nor does it reflect the tendancy for traffic to increase in response to larger roads.

[JohnM]

Across the country, the study finds that traffic delays in large areas will increase 65 percent and the number of congested lane-miles on urban roads will rise by over 50 percent in the next 25 years. To relieve this severe congestion the nation's freeways will need 104,000 additional lane-miles of capacity (about 6 percent of current lane-miles) at a cost of $533 billion over 25 years.

To suggest that the cure for traffic congestion is to build more roads is like saying that the cure for obesity is to get a bigger belt for your pants.