Chapter Seven of William R. Black's Sustainable Transportation discussed urban sprawl and congestion. In class we also discussed this topic and induced traffic was brought up by the end of class. Induced traffic is the topic of an article posted by Professor Tawfik by the Seattle Time's Eric Pryne in his article entitled "When roads are widened, travel can rise drastically." Induced traffic is the basic theory of "if you build it, they will come." If a new lane or road is built, traffic may actually increase according to this relatively new theory. Pryne's article discusses the widening of a bridge on interstate 90 that has actually caused an increase in traffic congestion, not a decrease.
I have taken this information and have thought about a different yet very similar theory that was also discussed in class. The theory is that if you REMOVE a lane of travel, the number of trips could decrease and in fact decrease enough to cause less congestion. I think this is currently happening on Lafayette College's campus. With the current quad construction, the stretch of High Street/Sullivan Road near Acopian and Markle Hall is currently set at one way traffic into campus, but one must drive around South College Drive or down Sullivan Road toward the Fishers to get off campus. While one would think this can cause more congestion and traffic, it seems to have done the opposite. There seems to be less traffic on all roads. In my opinion this is an example of the opposite of induced traffic. Basically, since there are less options there is less of a demand.
I also think that once the Quad construction is done this reduced traffic will continue due to the lack of driving options around campus, especially since there is a lack of parking.
What is your opinion?
I have taken this information and have thought about a different yet very similar theory that was also discussed in class. The theory is that if you REMOVE a lane of travel, the number of trips could decrease and in fact decrease enough to cause less congestion. I think this is currently happening on Lafayette College's campus. With the current quad construction, the stretch of High Street/Sullivan Road near Acopian and Markle Hall is currently set at one way traffic into campus, but one must drive around South College Drive or down Sullivan Road toward the Fishers to get off campus. While one would think this can cause more congestion and traffic, it seems to have done the opposite. There seems to be less traffic on all roads. In my opinion this is an example of the opposite of induced traffic. Basically, since there are less options there is less of a demand.
I also think that once the Quad construction is done this reduced traffic will continue due to the lack of driving options around campus, especially since there is a lack of parking.
What is your opinion?
Carson,
ReplyDeleteI agree with you but I am also interested in seeing what the congestion is going to look like on campus for days where the college is overcapacity. What I mean by overcapacity is days that there is a surplus of people on campus with cars; days like Laf-Lehigh and Homecoming. I know these are days that would be considered rare (since they only happen a few times out of the year) but I am interested in seeing what the campus will have to do to accommodate all of these cars that will be trying to drive/park on campus with the lack of roads that are currently available.