Reply to Hogan(R) wants to expand highways, selling out to for-profit cos. Does he know about induced demand?

Forum Index » Metropolitan DC Local Politics

Reply to "Hogan(R) wants to expand highways, selling out to for-profit cos. Does he know about induced demand?"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]The induced demand may take 20-30 years. If it was such a big thing, where adding lanes make traffic worse, then why don't we reduce lanes? Let's make the beltway only one lane each way!

Look at the ICC. It opened about 10 years ago, and it's not a parking lot like 270 at rush hour. It has a steady flow of traffic, has a toll charge, and is useful. Who knows, maybe in 15 more years, it'll get backed up too, but that means it will have served a useful purpose for 25 years.

All the people complaining about the proposed expansion seem to have no alternative solutions. The county population has exploded in upcounty like Germantown and Clarksburg. Those people need to get around, and people need to get to there. How else do we solve it? Making MARC trains run all day (the only proposal I've heard) is a good idea, but we need more than that.[/quote]

Induced demand doesn't mean what you think it means.  Tolled lanes will always have fewer cars than non-tolled lanes since not everyone can afford to use them.  Induced demand means that more lanes makes the drive easier and since the drive is easier and faster, more people drive instead of taking the bus or train since they can get to work faster.  It also gets more people to move further out where land is cheaper since the drive isn't as bad.  As this all happens, the road clogs back up.  We need more density around Metro stations but Montgomery County has this moratorium system where they won't build new housing because the schools are full (real solution is building new schools!).[/quote]

Have you either 1) been to Metro stations or 2) looked at existing plans for high density housing?  Guess what, I live near a Red Line station, and almost all of those people also have cars.  They may use Metro sometimes, but they still have to go other places.[/quote]

And if they live in other areas they will always use their car for everything.  Is that what you’re suggesting is best?  If not, I don’t understand your point.  So they drive to Red Lobster therefore we need no Metro station?[/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics