Quote:
Originally Posted by anthonyk
The majority of people won't switch to transit or cycling unless it benefits them to make the switch. So, if we keep expanding the road network and making driving faster and easier, people will continue to choose to drive. If we want a major shift in mode share, we need to improve alternatives to driving at a rate that exceeds the expansion of the personal vehicle road network.
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Look at any city that you see as a model of urbanism, take Amsterdam for instance: urban freeways. Paris: urban freeways. Most of the bigger nordic cities: urban freeways. These are not mutually exclusive ideas. You need a healthy mix of all modes to have healthy traffic in a city.
AT and bike lanes, need
RT that isn't the asinine made-in-manitoba reinvent the wheel for no discernable reason, need
Proper urban expressway system that allows major heavy traffic to bypass the core but is still able to effectively manage traffic in and out, need
If you only want one mode of transportation to be viable in a city, then you will have major headaches, because the other modes won't disappear, but you'll have ignored a large part of the problem, the ostrich approach to infrastructure doesn't cut it.
All that to also say that if what you want is pleasant human scale planning, you are going to also have to have a way to manage transportation that is cognizant of the reality that many people still are going to want to or need to drive, and that transit and AT are inadequate to fully allow for effective transportation in a city.