Rethinking the Taylor propositions
In Rethinking Traffic Congestion, Brian D. Taylor makes an interesting point that traffic congestion could be seen as a sign of success rather than a failure. On the first page Brian gets my full attention, because of this-
“Conventional wisdom holds that traffic congestion exacts a terrible social and economic toll on society; expanding transportation capacity only makes things worse; and redesigning cities and expanding alternative transportation modes offer the best long-term means for reducing traffic congestion. I want to offer ten propositions that challenge these ideas and suggest how we might begin to think differently about traffic congestion. “
I’m curious as to why he would have the opposite perspective that I, and many others have about traffic congestion.
Taylor’s fourth proposition suggests that the hilarious analogy of buying a bigger belt to address weight gain doesn’t equate to the situation of adding more lanes to address traffic congestion. I have never heard this analogy, but to me it works perfectly, despite Taylor’s opinion. He points out the benefit of social interaction and economic transactions that driving provides. He argues that seeing driving as a bad habit is ignoring these benefits. He doesn’t consider that these benefits aren’t exclusively available to drivers. Transit riders and cyclists can also enjoy these benefits of travel, and in some cases, like heavily congested areas where parking is unavailable, alternative modes of travel can bring more of these particular benefits.
Proposition eight suggests that improving alternative modes of transportation would be less effective than decreasing the utility of driving. I would say that the two are intertwined because by making transit faster or cheaper, that would automatically make driving more costly and slower in relation. When transit is as fast as driving, the utility of driving is decreased in relation to transit. If driving a mile is cheaper than bussing a mile, lower the fare for the bus to a penny, and driving a mile becomes expensive. Whether you aim to make driving expensive or transit cheap, either change directly effects the other in relation.
Proposition ten states that “sprawl” can reduce congestion unless it is done in a way that clumps employment and commercial space in congested corridors. But this is not what he is advocating. Taylor points out that new technology and adroit capacity expansions are the key to short term solutions, and pricing is probably the best long term solution. This makes sense to me, but it brings me to question, why would we want to convenience travelers with faster travel times by reducing congestion, but then inconvenience them by charging more money to drive? I think the answer to reducing congestion is getting cars off the roads, not just the cars who cannot afford higher pricing to reduce congestion, but any car with one occupant. This is the solution with the most convenience vs. inconvenience.
While pricing is a good idea, I think that we should have other, more aggressive methods to reduce congestion as well. A ban on single occupancy cars seems very logical to me, but I imagine most people would not be on board with that idea. Taylor makes good points, and I don't mean to give the impression that I disagree with his points, but I just thought that some extra consideration would be helpful.
Wells Wait
10/23/2018
Edited by Anthony Tortorici
reference
Taylor, Brian D. "Rethinking Traffic Congestion" Access 21: p. 8-16. Fall 2002
Comments
Post a Comment