Road design, transportation and walkability

[danbrotherston]

Is this an opinion or something you're able to cite? Induced demand is a well understood, well-researched  phenomenon.

The wikipedia page has quite a bit of information: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Induced_demand

This article from 2014 is a pretty good discussion about the research and the effect: https://www.wired.com/2014/06/wuwt-traff...ed-demand/

Hi Rob,

  Thanks for the links.  While checking them out.  I also found some articles that attempt to debunk the theory.  I've included some below.  Until today, I've never read any articles pro or against this theory.  The theory just doesn't make any sense to me and I just form my personal opinion based on data and what I observe, and I feel that demand for driving is driven mainly by population growth and economics/choice ( the affordability of driving ). 
  Again, these are just a couple of articles.  I guess we can take from it what we will.  Thx Rob.

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/puncturing-the-myth-of-more-roads-mean-more-congestion

https://www.cato.org/blog/debunking-induced-demand-myth

General relativity doesn’t make any sense to me, for tens of thousands of years the idea the earth was a sphere didn’t make sense to people.

Just because something doesn’t make sense to you doesn’t mean it isn’t true. You have hundreds of 60s and 70s planners who also didn’t believe it.  Sadly they, and you are wrong.  This is very well understood, and accepted.  It isn’t worth talking to you about it because you don’t accept basic fundamental facts of the world. And yes, you can find some libertarian think tanks and angry drivers who want to deny these basic facts but it doesn’t make you edgy or ahead of the curve to believe them, it makes you unaccepting of basic facts, and I don’t have the energy to argue with someone about whether water is wet.

As for subsidies, it costs more to deliver services to suburban areas. That too is a simple fact.  There are more roads to service, more pipes, more fire halls, more ambulance depots, more libraries, longer bus routes, etc.  This is also well understood, dense areas of a city subsidize sprawling ones.