I’ve always heard it said that building more lanes doesn’t help but I still don’t understand why. Obviously 8 wouldn’t help anymore than 7 but 3, 4, or maybe 5 for long eways helps traffic filter though especially with the varying speeds.
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I think what gets missed in this discussion is the expansion of housing and commerce that happens with the expansion of roadways. Developers develop where there is more access or perceive more access. It’s not just that people drive because the road is there, they are going somewhere after all.
It’s a very meta question to ask when looking at a crowed highway – “where is everyone going?”
The more lanes you add the less traffic there is so more people drive thus creating more traffic. It’s called induced demand and it’s a fairly well understood phenomenon.
As with what others have said, I’ll also add that merging onto and off of the highway causes a lot of traffic. If you are in the fast lane and need to merge 8 lanes over to exit, you are far more likely to disturb the flow of traffic.
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