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How we can reduce traffic congestion

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Re: How we can reduce traffic congestion

#161

Post by ChadNauseam »

trymas wrote: post #156

How we can reduce traffic congestion? 1. Extensive support of public transport: metro, tram, dedicated bus routes (separate from car traffic), dedicated paths for bicycles. 2. ... maybe whatever is this ... UPDATE: here's a good graph - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_transport#/media/File:P... , i.e. car traffic is often congested because of inherent low passenger bandwith. If google wants to manage traffic as…

We definitely need more metro, trams, bus routes, and bike paths. I especially want the latter because I bike to and from work every day. However, I have to wonder about the cost of these projects. In SF, we recently spent $346 million on the Van Ness Improvement Project, which added 2 miles of bus lanes. I just can't see how that's a good use of funds. If someone gave me $346 million and told me to improve society, I could think of many better options than adding two miles of bus lane. So a prerequisite to the whole idea seems to involve solving whatever is making these projects so expensive.

Re: How we can reduce traffic congestion

#162

Post by jdontillman »

pedrosuave wrote: post #21

Why cant we have smart stop lights. Nothing more annoying than sitting on a street with nobody coming and a red light for some arbitrary time period that's totally incorrect for the time period I'm currently in

I agree.

Startup Proposal: Intelligent Traffic Signals

https://till.com/articles/smarttraffic

Re: How we can reduce traffic congestion

#163

Post by fragmede »

ChadNauseam wrote: post #161
trymas wrote: post #156

How we can reduce traffic congestion? 1. Extensive support of public transport: metro, tram, dedicated bus routes (separate from car traffic), dedicated paths for bicycles. 2. ... maybe whatever is this ... UPDATE: here's a good graph - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_transport#/media/File:P... , i.e. car traffic is often congested because of inherent low passenger bandwith. If google wants to manage traffic as…

We definitely need more metro, trams, bus routes, and bike paths. I especially want the latter because I bike to and from work every day. However, I have to wonder about the cost of these projects. In SF, we recently spent $346 million on the Van Ness Improvement Project, which added 2 miles of bus lanes. I just can't see how that's a good use of funds. If someone gave me $346 million and told me to improve society,…

Okay, how would you spend $346 million?

Re: How we can reduce traffic congestion

#164

Post by wwind123 »

trymas wrote: post #156

How we can reduce traffic congestion? 1. Extensive support of public transport: metro, tram, dedicated bus routes (separate from car traffic), dedicated paths for bicycles. 2. ... maybe whatever is this ... UPDATE: here's a good graph - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_transport#/media/File:P... , i.e. car traffic is often congested because of inherent low passenger bandwith. If google wants to manage traffic as…

Also...allow people to work from home more. During the Covid pandemic, most white-collar employees work from home, and the commute and the traffic is usually not a big problem. But now more and more companies ask employees to go back to office, and traffic jam is becoming a headache again.

Re: How we can reduce traffic congestion

#165

Post by ChadNauseam »

fragmede wrote: post #163
ChadNauseam wrote: post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We definitely need more metro, trams, bus routes, and bike paths. I especially want the latter because I bike to and from work every day. However, I have to wonder about the cost of these projects. In SF, we recently spent $346 million on the Van Ness Improvement Project, which added 2 miles of bus lanes. I just can't see how that's a good use of funds. If someone gave me $346 million and told me to improve society,…

Okay, how would you spend $346 million?

If we had to stick to transportation-specific improvements, I would use the money to eliminate bus fare for a year. (muni generates about $100M in fare, so really it would be enough money to eliminate fare for ~3 years.)

Unlike subway fare, bus fare doesn't prevent n'er-do-wells from getting on the bus (they just ignore the fare and get on anyway), and it probably increases ridership and gets some people out of their cars, which reduces congestion (public benefit and therefore deserving of government subsidy).

Re: How we can reduce traffic congestion

#166

Post by fragmede »

asdff wrote: post #134
SilverElfin wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you have kids? I feel like apartment living as a family is worse than a spacious single family home and yard and all that. I suspect that preference holds true for most people.

Most kids are only into playing in the yard for a couple years really. Before long they are preteens living in their room, probably seething at the fact they need a ride from a parent to hang out with any of their friends. Apartments can also have stuff you could never afford that a kid would like, such as a massive pool (try pricing out a new build pool these days).

Community shared parks can serve the purpose that a SFH yard serves for kids, but you have to interact with other people and we can't have that.

Re: How we can reduce traffic congestion

#167

Post by lucumo »

lwansbrough wrote: post #150
Aurornis wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is possible if you’re not picky about where you live, where you work, your career options, how crowded your local vicinity is, or how much you pay for your residence. The more your preferences or financial constraints come into play, the more you have to give up. Most people settle in for driving because it allows them to pick from more job options than those that happen to be located near their house and more h…

This is like, a post-hoc rationalization. Most jobs, not all, can take place inside a city. If you build your cities densely, people can live and work within the city and have all their needs met without the need for a car (see: the great cities of the world) If you design economic hubs properly, businesses can be located within reach of homes without the need for cars. If you instead prioritize the need for, I don’t…

Since I've moved to my current home, I've had jobs in about 6 different towns and cities. I think for all of them I had colleagues that cycled to work and colleagues that drove for an hour or more.

All these jobs had homes and shops within walking distance. But they are not within walking distance of each other.

Re: How we can reduce traffic congestion

#168

Post by rob74 »

wwind123 wrote: post #164
trymas wrote: post #156

How we can reduce traffic congestion? 1. Extensive support of public transport: metro, tram, dedicated bus routes (separate from car traffic), dedicated paths for bicycles. 2. ... maybe whatever is this ... UPDATE: here's a good graph - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_transport#/media/File:P... , i.e. car traffic is often congested because of inherent low passenger bandwith. If google wants to manage traffic as…

Also...allow people to work from home more. During the Covid pandemic, most white-collar employees work from home, and the commute and the traffic is usually not a big problem. But now more and more companies ask employees to go back to office, and traffic jam is becoming a headache again.

Yup... hours of commuting time just to sit in Zoom/Teams/Slack/whatever calls while in the office instead of at home makes no sense at all, and is bad for the environment (even if you use public transportation, not going to the office still emits less CO2 than going there). But because RTO is just a way of trying to get rid of employees without severance costs, these and other points will invariably fall on deaf ears...

Re: How we can reduce traffic congestion

#170

Post by taneq »

fragmede wrote: post #163
ChadNauseam wrote: post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We definitely need more metro, trams, bus routes, and bike paths. I especially want the latter because I bike to and from work every day. However, I have to wonder about the cost of these projects. In SF, we recently spent $346 million on the Van Ness Improvement Project, which added 2 miles of bus lanes. I just can't see how that's a good use of funds. If someone gave me $346 million and told me to improve society,…

Okay, how would you spend $346 million?

Where I live, I’d spend it on increasing parking availability at train stations, and/or run a lot more local buses that do a small (few kilometres) circuit around the station and ferry passengers to/from the station. Taking a bus to the station currently adds an unreasonable amount of time to the journey. It doesn’t matter how good trains are if I don’t live near a station and I can’t get there.
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