How we can reduce traffic congestion • Hacker News Board

Re: How we can reduce traffic congestion

#371

Post by ctkhn » Thu, Jul 16, 2026, 2:35 AM UTC

breezybottom wrote: post #355

matwood wrote: post #201

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People also change and want different things at different parts of their life. Young and single - living in an apartment is amazing. Once someone is coupled up, has kids, and some animals, a SFH also looks much more appealing. Once the kids are gone, then an apartment/condo starts to look pretty attractive again.

Never in my life has living in an apartment seemed appealing. But I suppose that depends on the apartments you can afford.

Depending on where you are, there are nice middle class apartments that can be family friendly. I have friends not in tech in my same neighborhood with a three bedroom place for 1500. Granted this is the midwest and not SF but their place is near the train to get downtown for work and surrounded with a lot of parks for baseball, soccer etc for kids

Re: How we can reduce traffic congestion

#372

Post by chriswarbo » Thu, Jul 16, 2026, 1:15 PM UTC

tmp10423288442 wrote: post #359

chriswarbo wrote: post #238

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If every road were free of traffic, every destination had unlimited parking at the door, everyone already owned a car, and driving carried no direct or indirect costs, almost everyone would drive everywhere. Cars don't even have tables; let alone toilets, dining areas, sleeping cabins, etc. Even those which do (e.g. RVs) would require a solo traveller to stop in order to use them. No thanks, I'll stick to the train…

How long do you spend on transit that most of those are necessary? As for toilets, the new Caltrain cars, built by Stadler (from Switzerland, which has the best non-high speed rail train infrastructure in the world) were not going to include toilets at are - I don't believe they do in Switzerland - but were forced to add one by ADA regulations in the USA.

> How long do you spend on transit that most of those are necessary?

Toilets are useful immediately (speaking from experience!)

Tables are useful even on short trips of a few minutes; e.g. I usually have a notebook and pen in my pocket, and writing much easier on a table (even the little fold-out ones, if I can't get a seat at the proper tables).

I often eat on trains; though I admittedly tend to avoid the dining options, since it's much cheaper to bring my own food and eat my seat's table (fold-out or otherwise). If I'm with others, we can also drink alcohol together, without a "designated driver" having to abstain.

Re: How we can reduce traffic congestion

#373

Post by bravoetch » Fri, Jul 24, 2026, 5:29 AM UTC

_vertigo wrote: post #120

bravoetch wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I read the article and didn't see anywhere if they collaborated with city planners, or just ran this on their own. I get the techno-optimism of making traffic 'better' and also it may be concerning if trucks are being routed through neighborhoods where planners didn't build for it.

Do you think Google should get government sign-off on every change to its routing algorithm?

That's not a bad idea, since we pay for the roads, not Google.