The Real Reason You're Sitting in Traffic

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There's much more to traffic than you might realize

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Sources:
Highway and Road Expenditures

Transportation Spending

Cost of Crashes

Traffic Fatalities

IIHS Speed Variance

IIHS Crash Test

Chapters
What is traffic? 0:00
Time & Speed 1:10
Distance 2:17
More lanes 3:48
Cars 6:53
Changing Priorities 7:35
Brilliant 10:00
Money 11:08

[Streetcraft]

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[fogethereal]

I'm consistently impressed with how clear and thorough your explanations are of these very complex topics! The clear logical progression through how we got here along with the great visualizations makes this feel like one of the most effective videos I've seen on this topic

[EduMenaT]

Here's the problem with this video. Those that need to watch it, won't

[rob_nsn]

People seem to have a really hard time understanding that transportation is full of tradeoffs. The train of thought is most often "there's traffic, therefore more car capacity is warranted" - but this way of thinking doesn't consider the costs of road expansion. This video does the best job I've ever seen of visualizing what the relevant factors are and how optimizing only for one of them (like road capacity) comes at the expense of all the others. AMAZING WORK!

[dipanwitamandal]

There's a big point you missed about building a lot of lanes: Width navigation (with your car). Changing one or two lanes on a highway is pretty easy and cool but crossing six to seven lanes is a nightmare. With the hypothetical 100 lane situation, the words "keep right" or "keep left" would lose all meaning. You wouldn't be able to tell the edge of the freeway or exactly which lane you're on unless you're on the extreme lanes since there is road and more road as far as you can view. Imagine you're in one of the inner lanes in pretty busy traffic. Now you need to get to your exit. Without a massive interchange that separately serves both the inner and outer lanes, you would probably be screwed. Also imagine the pressure on the regular highways that intersect with these since they have to bear the traffic of 50 lanes.

TL;DR
Don't do 100 lanes.
It's a bad idea.

[globus]

Cars don’t create traffic, cars are traffic. I have never seen a bicycle backup. And even Pedestrian backups are rare (sport events maybe).

[gymkey_]

This is one of the few youtube channels that actually cite their sources. Kudos to you for doing that.

[alexanderbrown]

This dude is awesome and should be protected at all costs. This information it’s vital. I work for the Pennsylvania department of transportation and called a meeting to show them this video.

[brandonskeller]

I consume a lot of similar content and found this to be one of the most consumable AND comprehensive (difficult balance to strike). I like how you introduced induced demand without terming it.

[danieljk]

Awesome video! I just want to mention that decreasing speed does not always kead to slower travel time. It may reduce the "free flow" travel time (or as i like to call it, the "set google maps to depart at 2am" time) but it may not reduce the time during rush hour at all. In some cases, lower soeeds can actually lead to faster overall travel times.

[green]

My town is installing new round-a-bouts. I can tell that traffic isnt building up as much, but there is one major problem. Nobody knows how to drive on them. Some treat it like a 4-way stop while others ignore all yield signs. They need to start teaching how they work in drivers-ed

[YUMBL]

This is the best traffic/transit/urbanism channel on Youtube. Bar none. Very well done 😃

[AnaGomez-tzio]

I have not seen any other urbanist YouTuber that can break down stuff like induced demand and competing priorities like you can. And it's all super entertaining to watch!

[ProbablyJustJack]

I don’t think I have watched a single video of yours that was hard to understand or stay interested in. The visuals are amazing, and it’s nice how you give realistic solutions on how something could change. Amazing.

[AllTheUrbanLegends]

Really well explained. I especially appreciate how you explained that induced demand doesn't scale linearly forever. That point is lost on a lot of people. There is a point at which we meet demand, it's just a hellscape that no one wants to live in - And your explanation was on point.

[alexflosho]

I love how at the Apollo Beach exit near Tampa on I75, they extended the exit ramp for half a mile to “fix traffic” and it didn’t do anything

[BBGOnYT]

Love how this guy takes these topics in a realistic way. He is not just here saying "road bad bike good" like a lot of your urbanism youtubers do.

[toasterpastries]

*As a born and raised American, I hate my country for forcing me into the car-centric lifestyle without ever asking me. So much for "muh freedom."*

[Jacksparrow]

Nothing new for the seasoned urbanism, but very well put. Loved the talking about the different variables.

[ericwright]

Amtrak’s entire cumulative budget over the last 50 years doesn’t even add up to what is spent in a single year on highways and roads in the US. It’s shouldn’t be a surprise theres a ton of traffic, the deck is stacked in favor of roads and cars, of course transit isn’t viable when it gets zero funding.