Increasing highway capacity doesn't reduce congestion because it creates more commuters. As drive times shrink, population grows and more people use the roads -- reducing the drive times back to their original levels. It seems that people have an optimal level of commute time, and they just move further outside the downtown area if the roads are better.
Both of you make sense. I don't know what the answer is, but if more lanes were it, Atlanta would be a commuter's heaven instead of the shithole it is.
The answer is basic economics. Subsidize the behavior your want to encourage, and tax the behavior you want to discourage. Commuter rail should be close to free, and highway tools should be expensive.
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Date: 2007-08-16 07:39 pm (UTC)B
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Date: 2007-08-16 08:52 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-08-16 08:58 pm (UTC)B