A Very Interesting Read on Bicycle Infrastructure
Posted by: Jarod at 9:30 am, September 10th, 2009
Why We Can’t Resist Bicycle Infrastructure.
I quite like the analogy towards the end of the article comparing traffic congestion to liquids and gases.
A part of this problem has been an assumption that traffic behaves like a liquid. A new paradigm has now emerged in which planners see the traffic as more like a gas. The difference is that liquids typically hold their volume, regardless of the space provided. Thus, the transport planner’s job has been seen as simply to provide the necessary volume of road space to achieve an “efficient” flow of traffic. Thinking of traffic as a gas recognises the way traffic works in reality, since neither is absolute — both expand and contract depending on the space provided.
