For decades, state and federal highway agencies have justified massive projects with traffic forecast models. But a closer look reveals a troubling pattern of exaggeration, manipulation and outright falsification in these models.
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In 2022, denying how highway expansions induce people to drive more should be considered professional malpractice.
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When engineers say a street must accommodate a high volume of traffic, what they really mean is, "The design of this street must prioritize the convenience of commuters over all else."
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Special guest Jarrett Walker shares his thoughts on the limitations of prediction.
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Fact: New roads always produce new driving. Say hello to “induced demand.”
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Oregon’s Department of Transportation is making phony claims that widening highways reduces pollution. Here’s why they’re wrong.
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Traffic engineers use projections of future traffic to make recommendations and decisions on transportation investments… The problem is, those projections are all wrong.
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We spend billions every year on our transportation network, large percentages of it based on traffic projections—despite the fact that we don’t accurately project traffic.
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Why do predictions of “Carmageddon” so often fail to materialize? Recent lane reductions on a major bridge in Portland may hold answers, if we pay attention.
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Put away the Excel sheet and go for a long walk.
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Why are we still surprised when a highway closes and fears of traffic pandemonium don’t come to pass?
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Big data should be used for problem solving, not propaganda and promotion.
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A mechanistic approach to city problems exposes us to two harms: one is that we employ the wrong solutions. The other is that we actually make things worse.
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The models used by highway engineers to analyze traffic congestion are woefully inaccurate and result in the creation of lanes and roads we don't need.
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The probability of the I-49 Inner City Connector creating 30,600 new jobs that would not have simply occurred somewhere else or are just being shifted from one now blighted place to the study area is precisely zero.
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A reader asks how traffic counts work and for how long they are valid, in the hopes of implementing a road diet in her town. R. Moses answers.
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It might be role of O'Toole, and those who would follow him, to simply serve as a warning for others. That's a useful role in society.
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