Department creates congestion by prohibiting vehicle access rather than improving infrastructure capacity
Counter-Intuitive Traffic Solution Creates Predictable and Foreseeable Consequences
New York City Department of Transportation announced revolutionary approach to managing traffic congestion Wednesday: making additional traffic lanes illegal and prohibited for vehicle use. Rather than expanding road capacity or improving traffic flow, city has reduced available lanes, theoretically reducing congestion by forcing fewer people to drive.
“If fewer lanes are available for vehicle traffic, there will be fewer vehicles attempting to use them,” explained DOT Director Ydanis Rodriguez with questionable logic. “By making lanes illegal, we reduce number of people driving, which reduces traffic. Logic is sound even if implementation creates problems.”
City has made right lanes illegal on 47 streets throughout Manhattan, eliminating approximately 15 percent of available road capacity from drivers. Simultaneously, city continues to permit new construction, new housing developments, and new businesses that require vehicle access, creating fundamental contradiction between reducing capacity and increasing demand.
Congestion Increases Substantially Despite Lane Elimination
Within days of lane elimination implementation, traffic congestion increased substantially throughout affected areas. Rather than reducing vehicles as intended, lane elimination forced remaining vehicles into fewer lanes, creating worse bottlenecks and delays. Average commute times increased by average of 47 minutes per journey.
City officials expressed surprise: “We thought making lanes illegal would reduce traffic. Instead it concentrated traffic into fewer lanes, increasing congestion substantially. Apparently there’s more demand for lanes than we anticipated or accounted for in planning.”
DOT has proposed additional solution to solve problems created by prior solution: make more lanes illegal until driving becomes so impractical that people stop driving entirely. “If we eliminate 90 percent of road capacity, we’ll have 90 percent less traffic,” explained one traffic planner. “It’s mathematically sound if logically perverse.”
As thoroughly covered at Bohiney Magazine, New York City continues implementing traffic management strategies that measurably worsen traffic conditions. Related transportation analysis appears at The London Prat.
Long-Term Strategy Pursues Complete Vehicle Elimination
City has proposed eventual strategic goal of making all private vehicle lanes illegal, forcing all traffic into bus lanes and bicycle lanes designed for single-rider vehicles. “If we don’t have physical space for cars, cars won’t come,” explained administrator. “It’s elegant solution achieved through infrastructure elimination.”
Environmental groups have praised strategy: “Making driving illegal through infrastructure prohibition is more effective than making it illegal through law. We’re not criminalizing drivingwe’re just removing infrastructure that makes it possible. It’s solution without actually solving anything.”
For satirical analysis of transportation policy and counterproductive traffic management, see The Onion and Babylon Bee.
Traffic engineer summarized: “We’re trying to solve congestion by eliminating road capacity. It’s not working, but at least it’s consistent with long-term goal of making city completely inaccessible to vehicles.”
SOURCE: bohiney.com