😀🚲#Portland's Canyon Rd is basically the history of #inducedDemand and #transportation
YouTube
@LovesTha @andrew773 yes, those are the same story. Also #InducedDemand guarantees that the car lanes will be used, and removing some will decrease VMT. You can take away 90% of car lanes and 90% of the VMT will stop. If that's the requirement before removing the lanes, it will never happen except by phenomenal leadership (lead from the front.)
Shivaji Shiva
Brent Toderian“We found there’s this perfect one-to-one relationship. If a city increased its road capacity by 10% then driving in that city went up by 10%.”
Still one of the best articles on why building wider roads leads to more cars stuck in the same congestion.
Understanding #InducedDemand Via @[email protected]
What's Up With That: Building ...
What's Up With That: Building ...
What's Up With That: Building Bigger Roads Actually Makes Traffic Worse
The concept is called induced demand, which is economist-speak for when increasing the supply of something (like roads) makes people want that thing even more. Though some traffic engineers made note of this phenomenon at least as early as the 1960s, it is only in recent years that social scientists have collected enough data to show how this happens pretty much every time we build new roads.
“The phenomenon is known as induced demand. The result is an endless cycle in which congestion leads to highway expansion, which invites more trips, which brings back traffic…The pattern is so inevitable that economists have dubbed it the iron law of congestion.” Via @[email protected] #InducedDemand
It’s an American Obsession. It...
It’s an American Obsession. It...
@ascentale #BikeNite A8, Mt Hood yesterday, as seen from the landing strip that is S Naito between downtown and where it joins Barbur Blvd. Both #stroads from #Portland's mid century love affair with the motorcar. (Now excess lanes immediately next to six-lane i-5, and somehow still not allowed to have bike lanes 🙄 despite being the only flat and direct route from SW. #InducedDemand )
"close to bankruptcy … had to go with cheapest option available, which was cycling infrastructure"
> When it became clear that those investments were yielding environmental, health, efficiency and economic gains, the city doubled down …
> close to ⅔ of the city’s residents commute by bike at least several times a week, largely because it’s the quickest and easiest way to get around"
#InducedDemand #carsRuinCities
https://bsky.app/profile/brenttoderian.bsky.social/post/3mnw4fazal22n
Brent Toderian (@brenttoderian.bsky.social)
“When mayors in other cities ask me how #Copenhagen afforded to invest in its cycling networks, I ask them how on earth they have been able to afford highway projects. We invested in bike lanes because that was the cheapest option.” What the world can learn from Copenhagen’s cycling revolution. https://theprogressplaybook.com/2024/01/31/what-the-world-can-learn-from-copenhagens-cycling-revolution/
Ben FultonLower Thames Crossing has higher costs per mile than HS2
"Reeves and Alexander are both keen to press ahead with the project, which they have said is “vital” and will ease congestion on the M25.
However, the DfT confirmed it has yet to publish an “outline business case”, which would usually be produced before officials embark on large-scale works."
Bro just one more lane bro. One more lane will fix the traffic bro.
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2026/jun/08/extra-cash-spiralling-lower-thames-crossing
"even if drivers aren't aware of that being the purpose, it's just sort of naturally happening" = infrastructure shapes behavior (aka #inducedDemand)
Maybe this is supply-side economics: there is an infinite supply of driving to meet what your city's streets demand. #inducedDemand