I live in Los Angeles, and we have some of the worst traffic in the country. I’ve seen that one reason for carpool lanes is to help traffic congestion, but I don’t understand since it seems traffic could be a lot better if we could all use every lane.
Why do we still use carpool lanes? Wouldn’t it drastically help our traffic to open all lanes?
In: 406
The technical term is [induced demand](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Induced_demand). More lanes = more and worse traffic.
Closely related is [Braess’s paradox](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Braess%27s_paradox). Adding capacity actually slows down traffic.
The better solution would be to instead close the non-carpool lanes and put rail lines in their place. But this is America. Land of individualism. Nobody really wants it to be better. They just want more lanes of worse bumper-to-bumper traffic.
[Please stop adding more lanes to busy highways—it doesn’t help](https://arstechnica.com/cars/2021/08/please-stop-adding-more-lanes-to-busy-highways-it-doesnt-help/)
The technical term is [induced demand](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Induced_demand). More lanes = more and worse traffic.
Closely related is [Braess’s paradox](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Braess%27s_paradox). Adding capacity actually slows down traffic.
The better solution would be to instead close the non-carpool lanes and put rail lines in their place. But this is America. Land of individualism. Nobody really wants it to be better. They just want more lanes of worse bumper-to-bumper traffic.
[Please stop adding more lanes to busy highways—it doesn’t help](https://arstechnica.com/cars/2021/08/please-stop-adding-more-lanes-to-busy-highways-it-doesnt-help/)
Some people have mentioned it encourages carpooling, but the real reason is that it makes traffic worse, which over time will encourage people to take alternative methods of transport
If you build more lanes, travel times reduce, so less people carpool, so traffic increases, so travel times worsen, often worse than before
Some people have mentioned it encourages carpooling, but the real reason is that it makes traffic worse, which over time will encourage people to take alternative methods of transport
If you build more lanes, travel times reduce, so less people carpool, so traffic increases, so travel times worsen, often worse than before
If you reduce the number of vehicles on the road, you reduce the amount of traffic.
As an incentive to try and stop single-rider vehicles, the car pool lanes allow multiple-rider vehicles.
If you reduce the number of vehicles on the road, you reduce the amount of traffic.
As an incentive to try and stop single-rider vehicles, the car pool lanes allow multiple-rider vehicles.
the more lanes you add the more traffic you are going to bring to the road, which in turn just makes congestion that much worse. there is many videos on YouTube that explain this.
what would absolutly help is to bring public transit back into wide spread use
the more lanes you add the more traffic you are going to bring to the road, which in turn just makes congestion that much worse. there is many videos on YouTube that explain this.
what would absolutly help is to bring public transit back into wide spread use
They don’t. They are an incentive for you to carpool, saving YOU and your passengers time while also being more green.
They don’t. They are an incentive for you to carpool, saving YOU and your passengers time while also being more green.
Latest Answers