Quote:
Originally Posted by Cirrus
They create poor urbanism. That's somewhat different than economics.
This is not really a subject up for debate. It's been a well established fact of urban planning for, well, decades. If you need me to explain it more I'll be happy to. But it's most definitely not merely one person's opinion. It's the prevailing wisdom of the contemporary city planning field.
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Webster on "urbanism"
1: the characteristic way of life of city dwellers
2a: the study of the physical needs of urban societies
b: city planning
Webster on "economics"
1a: a social science concerned chiefly with description and analysis of the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services
b: economic theory, principles, or practices <sound economics>
2: economic aspect or significance <the economics of building a new stadium>
3: economic conditions <current economics>
Google search of "freeways are great" = 5,690,000 results
Google search of "paved highways are great" = 12,400,000 results
Google search of paved roads are great = 46,200,000 results
Google search of "roads are great" = 272,000,000 results
Vehicles
Google search of "cars are great" =702,000,000 results
Google search of "trucks are great" = 192,000,000 results
Google search of "trains are great" = 173,000,000 results
Google search of "planes are great" = 157,000,000 results
Google search of "bikes are great" = 154,000,000 results
Google search of "buses are great" = 138,000,000 results
Google search of "public transit is great" = 61,700,000 results
Google search of "passenger trains are great" = 57,400,000 results
I can play that Google search game too
Worldwide new car sales according to consulting firm IHS Automotive.
2010 = 73.2 million
2011 = 76.7 million (4.7% increase)
2012 = 79.5 million (3.6% increase)
2013 = 82.8 million (4.1% increase)
2014 = ~86 million (3.8% increase)
Cars and trucks are still very and ever more popular every year!
At an average 4% increase every year, in less than 25 years the number of new car sales each year will double. That's the reason why "planners" wish to encourage "citizens" to use an alternate means of transportation, they don't want to build up to and maintain "twice" the amount of highway lane miles in the next 25 years. But if you look at past history, the number of motorized vehicles sales have increased around 4% per year for decades.
It's a double twister, the more highway lane miles you build, it appears that more cars and trucks there are to fill them. But the opposite is also true, more and more new cars are being sold every year, and the existing roads congestion levels are ever increasing. A moratorium on new highway construction hasn't slowed increasing new car sales. So the scenario that wider highways are encouraging more cars to fill them isn't true...it's just a coincidence....there are more cars anyways.