Definitely has his grip on reality, this one
this post was submitted on 31 May 2025
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I drive. The biggest causes of congestion I see are…
Dumb driving because Americans aren’t taught to zipper merge and can be dangerously unpredictable due to do widespread emotional instability.
Bad car design. The customer isn’t always right, regular folks should not be driving tanks and should not have AI superseded user control. People die here all the time because of these things. Cybertruck is the most obvious example given its lack of bumper zones and tech that’s so cheap it kills it’s own users but the most common example is probably a Ford or GM pickup truck. I think the Japanese may have the best cars as I saw a compact van that seemed far more practical and safe than many American vehicles. China has some good looking ones too. Compact doesn’t look as sexy but is way better for everyone.
Bad road design. I have no problems with bike lanes or even less lanes if travel time is roughly the same. I love roundabouts and sidewalks full of trees to shade pedestrians and wide enough to protect them from cars. I love when corners give me good visibility going around corners. In the US this is rarely the case. We are plagued by construction contractors milking cities to do projects slowly and create problems the people will want them to fix in the future and lack of regulation to ensure all modes of transport are viable in all but a few cities.
I think it’s established fact that you can’t reduce congestions by adding more lanes and roads. Not because of bad road design but because the amount of cars will fill up those new lanes. So saying ‘cars cause congestions’ is pointing at the fact that regardless of how many roads or lanes we have the will be filled. Hence roads aren’t the problem, but cars are.
I mean, if it worked we would see the successes in all those giant freeway cities but instead the problem just grows.
If we just turn everything into road then nobody will have anywhere to go. It's the perfect solution
I think more lanes can be a solution but it has a more particular place than does now and there seems to be diminishing returns after about three lanes.
Another reason it doesn't reduce congestion is that lane changes are frequently the cause of accidents or hard braking, which creates traffic jams. And Americans' complete lack of lane discipline just makes it all worse.
Actually, inadequate lanes do contribute to congestion. The traffic will always be pretty much standard... the time of transit however is slowed so it may seem like there are less cars... but no, it is less road. Also, the curvature of the roads -- especially on on ramps can affect visibility of oncoming traffic and not providing for a properly lengthed merge lane is also a big problem. Some things that can help slow down (prevent speeding at merging areas/onramps) so it is easier to merge is having islands between the right and left lanes with greenery, more lights/slowdowns and providing a fast lane for carshares and buses. Building in service roads and bypasses also decreases the congestion.
pretty sure that mostly applies to mega cities that shouldn't have multi-lane roads to begin with
It applies to smaller cities as well as fat as you I’m aware, not just mega cities.