If you've been driving for a decade or more, you've lived through this story: highway is congested, so they want to expand it. It's under construction and nearly unusable for a few years, after which traffic is better for a year or two, then its right back to square one. This problem is called 'induced demand.' People will use the infrastructure that is built. Build more lanes and more people will drive. Build a protected bus lane that goes faster than traffic, and people will take that. People just want to the most convenient mode of travel.
I don't like driving every day, so I take the bus, even though it's in the same traffic That's induced demand. <sidenote> When you think "why is there all this traffic?," you arepartof that traffic. </sidenote> The state DOT's have always built and expanded highways, and they are stuck with that hammer, seeing every traffic problem as a nail. Just take a look at this page:three active projects, ALL just expansions.Adding lanes doesn't do anything, just allow more cars to create more low-density traffic. To help rethink these highway construction efforts, check out these projects:Rethink 35,Better Streets Chicago,Lid I5.
All the pictures that didn't find homes in the other two posts:
You've got to build bypasses
Didn't seem worth it
Fixed it
Yes it is
I like that the city I work in started leaving bikes around everywhere
I'm not making this an "official" post, no notifications are going out, but the first post of this blog went out about a year ago, and I'd like to thank anybody who has read up to this point and hope that you stick with me as I share my thoughts and pursue random questions into the future. I enjoy having this outlet, and I'm glad a few people get to share in my enjoyment along the way. Specifically I'd like to thank my dad for giving me the initial idea to write down these thoughts as well as providing the title. I'm always saying that phrase, I'm always excited when people continue to answer in the positive. Stay curious. Cheers, - Scott
When thinking about the force of gravity, it is tempting to think that it is a very strong force. After all, it seems to be quite dominant in our lives. Rockets struggle against it, it limits the feats of many athletes to fewer home runs, fewer field goals and fewer slam dunks. It is the force that in massive amounts can break the very fibers of spacetime with black holes. However, this force is minuscule compared to the forces at work on an atomic scale. In an atom, there are neutrons and protons in the nucleus and electrons that surround the nucleus. The neutrons repel each other and yet are held together by strong nuclear forces. If we existed at this scale, we would most likely not know about gravity. Gravity at this scale only accounts for about one ten thousand trillion trillion trillionths of the force you feel. That is 40 orders of magnitude. It begs the question: what forces are out there that we cannot detect at our scale?
