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Add link to induced demand video.

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voussoir 2024-02-05 19:31:06 -08:00
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voussoir.net/writing/not_just_bikes/not_just_bikes.md
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@ -49,7 +49,7 @@ When my family gathers around the dinner table, one topic that always comes up f
Another part of the problem is that it feels good to punish people. We are a sadistic species and we like to coerce people into crossing our boundaries so that we can feel justified in retaliating. It is not as fun to design boundaries that don't get crossed in the first place. We design roadways that encourage unsafe driving and then we put up signs justifying punishment. It's dissonance. Here's a big fat 50mph five lane road that runs straight for miles, but you'd better slow down to 25mph now because there's an elementary school here. Nevermind that the 25mph stretch of road is cut from the same cloth as the 50mph road -- it's the posted sign that makes the difference. Here's a series of traffic lights that don't coordinate with each other, and will stop you over and over again just as soon as you get going, but you'd better not run any reds and you sure as hell better not get stuck in the intersection during a light change because boy I'm gonna, um, honk at you, yeah that's what I'm gonna do, and you're gonna deserve it. It is difficult to convince people that car crashes are a symptom of deep, systemic design flaws affecting average people of average driving skill, rather than the fault of uniquely stupid individuals. Which is not to say the average skill level is very high, but even the people who'd like to opt out do not have a choice.
There is a freeway near me that is currently undergoing expansion, which is proven to [induce more demand](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Induced_demand). Smart people have known this for decades. The millions of dollars being used to put more cars on the road are not being used to improve walkability, bikeability, or reduce the need for driving in the first place by fixing our [wack zoning](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VVUeqxXwCA0&t=1m43s "How Suburban Development Makes American Cities Poorer") and just allowing a grocery to open on more corners.
There is a freeway near me that is currently undergoing expansion, which is proven to [induce more demand](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Induced_demand). Intelligent species have known this for decades. The ~~m~~[billions of dollars](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CHZwOAIect4 "More Lands are (Still) a Bad Thing") being used to put more cars on the road are not being used to improve walkability, bikeability, or reduce the need for driving in the first place by fixing our [wack zoning](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VVUeqxXwCA0&t=1m43s "How Suburban Development Makes American Cities Poorer") and just allowing a grocery to open on more corners.
Our zoning is the first thing that must change before anything else can happen. American cities are designed with huge contiguous swaths of land zoned as residential, especially R1 which denotes single-family housing. This is the zoning that prevents you from walking to the shop because there are no shops. This is the zoning that requires you to exodus by car to do absolutely anything except admire your neighbors' yards. This is the zoning for which every American deserves [forty lashes](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8JeLPUDj4uk "SpongeBob SquarePants - 40 lashes").