This is the widest freeway in the world in Houston. After the freeway was widened, traffic got even worse
https://www.chron.com/neighborhood/katy/news/article/Bragging-rights-or-embarrassment-Katy-Freeway-at-6261429.php
This is the widest freeway in the world in Houston. After the freeway was widened, traffic got even worse
https://www.chron.com/neighborhood/katy/news/article/Bragging-rights-or-embarrassment-Katy-Freeway-at-6261429.php
Exactly. Everyone should spend the time to really understand induced demand.
Not only does it apply to roads and traffic, there are other implications too. This goes into theory territory, but for every technocratic solution to climate change there is, like electric cars, there is induced demand to use them more. There was a study on mice once that put a few breeding pairs in a massive enclosure with abundant food and they observed the population. It maxed out at about 1000. At that point, it was crowded and a lot of the mice stopped reproducing. Could it be the same thing with technology that makes our lives easier? Or technology that reduces carbon emissions? People and companies will just do more until the emissions (the stresses on our society) are the same again.
It's not really induced demand, it's pent up demand, the problem is that only trains are physically compact enough to alleviate the pent up demand. Each passenger takes up, what, 1000-2000 square feet? The wider road helped more people get places, but it's clearly run up against the upper limits of a highway.