[Corndogger]

Originally Posted by leendert

Thank you for the armchair anecdotal analysis, but is it really impossible to imagine induced demand being true? If the cost, using measures such as convenience, price, time, etc., of a certain activity is lowered, then a normal response would be for that activity to be partaken in more frequently.

A more academic discussion of induced demand is available: http://www.cts.cv.imperial.ac.uk/doc...iccts00003.pdf

Regardless whether induced demand is true or not, not building the additional ring road was not option, given that the demand that arose from population growth in the areas served by these roads provided enough justification.

I've read the academic, social engineering inspired literature. If you read deeper into what these guys have written they even agree with me. Someone (I wish I could find the study) did an analysis of this using a whack of US transportation data and discovered there is no (0.01) correlation between new roads and increased traffic if you control for other factors. That's simple common sense. New roads do not cause vehicles to pop out of thin air and there's no real evidence they account for increased trips/person either. If there is I'd love to see some scientific-based evidence that isn't written by someone with an agenda.