Quote:
Originally Posted by BenTheGreat97
If we shouldn't build/widen more roads, how would we deal with increasing numbers of vehicles on the roads? Be realistic; people won't start taking transit in large enough quantities to offset the traffic growth, so we need to do these things to keep on top of numbers.
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Every urban planning study says that widening roads and building more of them actually makes traffic worse and increases the number of vehicles on the roads. It doesn't even ease traffic as it is intended, and there are countless cities (L.A., for example) that tried to do this and only made matters worse for them.
What's more, as we construct more roads and widen them and highways, we end up spending more tax dollars for these projects and maintaining/ repairing them constantly. In tandem with suburb sprawl, this and having to extend resources, water, sewage, utilities etc. out to the suburbs means we (mostly people living in the city centre who pay more in taxes versus new developments in the suburbs) spend more money on something that is killing our cities and spending money that should be allocated to other things that we need.
We need to stop building cities for cars and motorists, and we need to stop (allowing) the construction of suburbs. We need to get more people living downtown and using other means of transit (walking, cycling, public transit that relies on renewable energy) and less on private vehicles that use fossil fuels that pollutes and disturbs out environment.
The interesting thing that we now know there is a correlation between number of vehicles on roads/ increased traffic and number of people walking and using public spaces. Adding more roads or widening them worsens traffic by adding more cars, but taking them away, making streets narrower and giving them back to people in the form of wider sidewalks, segregated bike lanes, piazzas, etc actually can reduce traffic and get more people out and interacting with other people. It saves city on money, people are healthier and happier, and tend to know more people. They save money and time.
In order to deal with traffic, we need to stop building/widening roads, begin narrowing them and give them over to people for cycling and walking. We need to eliminate parking (parking lots, garages, on-street) to discourage people from taking their cars. We need to improve public transit, but also enact policies to stop suburban sprawl. You can get more people living downtown and not using cars by doing things like these.
I would recommend you go watch the documentary
The Human Scale at the Bytowne (playing tomorrow, Thursday, Friday) to get a better idea of why what the city is currently doing is only going to make matters worse.
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