Widen and/or build more freeways - (30 Votes, 26%)
Add more carpool only lanes - (2 Votes, 2%)
Improve mass transit options - (25 Votes, 22%)
Encourage working from home - (9 Votes, 8%)
Limit new housing development - (50 Votes, 43%)
Related news article:
“Area traffic accelerates well past nation’s going rate”
http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2007/09/19/news/top_stories/1_1_000_18_07.txt
Why is this poll being Freeped? As I am sure the members here will have a myriad opinions on this.
ping
Mass transit combined with congestion charges make the most pure economic sense.
Highway space is a limited and expensive good. Building more for the limited period during the day when people are using full (or more than full) capacity is a very poor economic choice. Most highway capacity is unused for most of the time.
Therefore encouraging people to use unused capacity or discouraging use when capacity is full via higher costs is a legitimate and economically conservative way to solve the problem. Mass transit also makes economic sense as a good use of public money as an alternative to those who cannot afford high congestion feed.
More highways mean higher long-term taxes due to maintenance costs. The alternatives pay for themselves.
You cannot be a fiscal conservative and favor more highways that are empty most of the time (for those of you who wish to contradict, please be aware there are 24 hours in a day).
Nothing would be more effective at reducing congestion than the privatization of all highways -- or at least the implementation of a mileage-based system for raising revenue instead of the current fuel tax.
Reduce traffic? How about stop building highly dense cities?
Work at home.
The number of automobiles will expand to fill the space provided...
Raise speed limits. On average, each car will spend less time on the road, so overall traffic volume will be reduced.
We've subsidized the automobile long enough.
The only way to truly reduce congestion is for every car to cruise at exactly the same speed. Cars could cruise inches from each other in this scenario. Look around next time you are in traffic at the distance between cars (usually a safe distance mind you). That’s a lot of space to fill up.
I’m just speculating that some kind of pull system (like in a car wash) would work best. The downside is that most folks would be very wary of giving up control of the vehicle.
Absent that, more people ought to be able to work from home given the often inexpensive technology that currently exists to allow it. I'd do it two or three days a week if they let me. Right now, I do it about once a month.
Where is “ride a bike to work”??
Why not promote 3 or 4 wheel motorcycle style engined vehicles for commuting.
Especially since most commuters drive to work alone, a smaller vehicle is all that is necessary for commuting, grocery getting, or just FUN.
There are already very strong vehicles built for off road use, why not adapt them, and approve them for highway use. Special lanes, from existing multilane highway splits, would make them even more acceptable.
Most small cheap vehicles promoted in years past were ugly and slow. Motorcycle type vehicles can be quick, agile and
fun to drive.
Think about it.
Do not widen existing roads. Build new roads. Also, run the price of gasoline/diesel to $5 a quart.
| Widen and/or build more freeways |
|
| Add more carpool only lanes |
|
| Improve mass transit options |
|
| Encourage working from home |
|
| Limit new housing development |
Stupid question. Highway traffic grows as the population grows, and as business and commerce increase. It is stupid to cut back on the population and/or business activity.
Mass transit will help, and so will improving highways.