Why we can’t make nice places with no traffic

A new parking garage under construction in Glen Ellyn, Illinois

“Whether it’s an apartment building, shopping center, or a mixed-use project, ostensibly well-intentioned residents regularly cite worsening traffic as the reason to stop new development.”

In the article, Most efforts to control traffic don’t work. Here are four things that do by Bryan Barnett-Woods, he explains that even if autonomous vehicles live up to many of their promises (driving closer together, for one), they still take up physical space. He claims the only way to lessen the burden of traffic in a town is to reduce the number of vehicles. Here are four ways your community can achieve this:

1. Improve transit, walking, and bicycling infrastructure (hello micro-mobility)
2. Toll Roads (Chicago would probably find some loophole to grease a politician’s pocket but good idea)
3. Build more mixed-use, transit-oriented, and high-density development (Transit-Oriented Developments still need to meet extensive parking requirements, so this is a tough one to sell!)
4. Prioritize people, not vehicles (yes, yes and yes)

Read the full article here.