Interprovincial bridge crossing discussion

[sonysnob]

Originally Posted by Aylmer

I'm sorry to hear that you don't like this particular aspect of reality.


However, it isn't just a "car thing":

When transit is made more enjoyable and convenient, demand is induced because it's easier, not because they have some innate preference for public transit.
If you had free, unlimited cell phone coverage, you would use it more than you would otherwise.
If you had an orange juice faucet, your demand for orange juice would be induced because it would be easier.

And if you could get from Gatineau to south of Ottawa in a free tunnel passage, people would do it much more than they currently need or want to.

You get the idea.


Induced demand isn't about what people's preferences, but about cost: monetary cost, cost in time, cost in stress, etc. People take their cars because it's less costly than the alternatives, just as people would take alternatives if it were easier than taking their car, as it is in a good number of cities.

The problem, as underlined in my post with the picture of the elephant, is that car infrastructure quickly becomes ineffective, unlike public transit or active transportation infrastructure and, as we have shown in the past sixty years, there is not enough money or space available in the world to spend our way out of this problem.

So no matter what we do, demand will be induced or discouraged, so we have to chose wisely what choices we make in order to not paint ourselves into a very expensive, very congested corner.

Transportation isn't the same as an orange juice fountain. And its a poor comparison to compare a number of things that are free to a form of transportation which is not free.

Transportation is determined by many factors such as job location, housing affordability, and desirability and location of schools and things.

The idea that highways shouldn't be built because people will actually use them is stupid. The demand for auto travel has a limit to its elasticity, and building a highway is not the same as building a perpetual motion machine for transportation demand.