New Road Order

-
New Road Order In my life right now, I do not worry about traffic congestion. I work odd hours waitressing and I have a bus right outside my apartment that gets me to school in 20 minutes no matter the time of day. However, the challenge of trying to reduce traffic congestion on a permanently and not simply opening the roads for more drivers has been taking up much more brain space then I ever planned. Watching more people move into Portland and attempt to navigate our limited road space is clearly going to be a pressing issue for years to come. In Brian D. Taylor’s “Rethinking Traffic Congestion” we are given some positive points to reflect on regarding congestion. First, we are reminded that congestion means at the very least the city, or surrounding area, is not in severe decline. More drivers on the road means more businesses are being patronized and therefore more workers contributing to local economic development. Taylor then explains that realistically, time spent on the freeway can come down to a fraction of a drivers total journey- it can just feel longer due to congestion. While I appreciate his positive spin to this dreary issue, Taylor ultimately lands on the idea that the best solution to congestion is to make driving more expensive and less reliable. Congestion pricing and tolls have been brought up several times this term as a solution to congestion, however this presents negative implications in terms of access and equity. Alternately, several terms ago I began reading about the city of Curitiba, Brazil and their former mayor, Jaime Lerner. Lerner was well known because early on in his career as urban planner to the city he suggested some initially very unpopular plans including closing major roads to vehicular traffic, and pushing for a Bus Rapid Transit system over a light rail, or subway style option. Today Curitiba is celebrated as a well planned and functioning city due to its miles of dedicated green space, effective bus system, and dedicated pedestrian streets all within one of the most highly populated cities in Brazil. While traffic pricing and acknowledging the role vehicles are bound to play in day to day life is undeniable, I also believe that re-negotiating who gets right of way is vital. Lerner has shown that attractive bus stations and dedicated bus lanes move more people faster, and create more space on the road over time for vehicle traffic. Congestion is going to take more than just one school of thought to solve. However, I do not believe that pricing out traffic is the only or best solution. Creating attractive, accessible transit that is given right of way over regular vehicular traffic is an option I find viable to increase transit use and reduce congestion. Edited by Lacey Clark

Comments

  1. UnknownOctober 24, 2018 at 4:53 PM

    Hey Sophie! awesome post! I have similar a similar bus time as you do to get to school but getting to my place of work is a whole other story. From what I have discovered, I can either take a bike or drive to get to work in under 20 mins. There is a higher appeal for me to drive over taking a bike because I've never biked in the city. I'm not 100% comfortable biking in the city because of the lack of safe route options. However, if there were safer and easy marks bike routes in the city, I would probably choose bike! I agree that it's going to take more then just making driving more expensive to decrease congestion. We need to invest other modes of transportation that are more piratical and safe than driving the car.

    ReplyDelete
  2. UnknownOctober 25, 2018 at 8:11 PM

    I like your perspective, that yes while congestion doesn't affect us all, we can still have a stake in problem solving. I think a lot of the appeal is in the phrasing we use around transit too. I think Portland is doing a GREAT job at making driving really hard...

    ReplyDelete
  3. AnonymousOctober 28, 2018 at 4:58 PM

    Nice post, Sophie! I think your point about the negative implications of congestion pricing is very valid. In Seattle, the Department of Transportation recently announced that they will come up with a proposal for congestion pricing by 2021. Since the city has a strong focus on racial and social justice, I am wondering how they will factor in these equity concerns into their pricing regime.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Jensen PerrickNovember 22, 2018 at 1:38 PM

    Great post Sophie! I too have spent more time thinking about traffic congestion lately than I anticipated. I'm an environmental science student with a particular interest in forest ecosystems so transportation policy and planning topics are not common considerations in my thought processes.

    Congestion pricing to me seems an "easy" route to decrease congestion, and quite honestly decreases congestion by increases barriers to access the roadway. I'm in support of following Curitiba's example, and shifting efforts to more robust infrastructure that is prioritized over personal vehicle use.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The worst congestion in the world

-
Image
While I was going to school at UCLA, the car-culture was very apparent to me. The city also felt incredibly spread out, and it would sometimes take me more than an hour by bus to get downtown. I did not own a car the entire time I lived in LA, and I felt very limited. I quickly became bored with Westwood, the neighborhood that UCLA is in, and the only neighborhood that was within walking distance of my apartment and I had to rely on my friends to drive me to the beach or other neighborhoods. I was surprised when I read in Sorenson’s article, “Moving Los Angeles”, that despite Los Angeles reputation for sprawl, it is actually quite dense when compared to the nation’s 14 largest metropolitan areas. In class, we talked about how Los Angeles is the only major city that has become denser since the 1960s. Los Angeles is not as dense as New York City, but it is quite dense at a regional scale. The suburbs are denser on average than suburbs in other cities. Reflecting on this more, I realized...
Read more

Uh oh. Does Vision Zero Reinforce White Supremacy in the United States?

-
Many US cities, including Portland, have adopted Vision Zero strategies as a response to pedestrian and bicyclist traffic safety needs. Vision Zero, a traffic safety approach which originated in Sweden, is a program that aims to ultimately reduce the number of traffic-related-deaths to zero (Vision Zero Network 2018). The program’s approach is multifaceted, using public education, street design, legislation and law enforcement to reach its desired outcomes (Elevbakk 2007, Trujillo 2014). Sounds like a win-win, right? Ah, but let’s not forget our mantra of equity: “who gets what when and why?”. There is often more to the policy than we see at first glance. Indeed, Vision Zero does have its critics. Critiques of Vision Zero focus on concerns related to equity – including issues related to location of infrastructural improvements, and racially biased enforcement of traffic related laws (Bliss 2016). In cities like Los Angeles, Chicago, and New York, mobility justice groups have raised c...
Read more

The age of automation

-
Image
Cities across the nation, including Phoenix, Boston, and San Francisco, have already begun allowing transportation network companies (TNCs), such as Uber and Lyft, to test out new autonomous vehicle (AV) technology. However, after the March 18 Uber crash, which resulted in the death of a woman, many cities put a halt to the testing. Despite this incident, cities have not terminated their plans to introduce self-driving vehicles onto their streets. Some cities, including Boston, MA, are gradually introducing AVs, starting with small driverless zones. Philadelphia, PA, has established a rigorous testing process. AVs must meet important standards, such as emergency braking and basic driving capabilities before the vehicles are released to the streets (Krauss, 2018) . Many cities are still excited about the potential benefits of AVs. The Boston municipal government argues that the introduction of AVs could lead to improved accessibility for people living with the aging population and ...
Read more