Austin Points The Way: More Freeways AREN'T the Answer to Traffic

[ghettopalmetto]

I just told you how it would help, I sat in a non-moving traffic jam for 45 minutes.

Do you think that could have been the result of 65,000 people ALL riding in cars, leaving the SAME location at the SAME time? I mean, you're only dumping the equivalent of the daily traffic load of a *very* busy road onto one point on the network all at once.

A freeway lane has a capacity of 1200 vehicles an hour. In the event of a football game letting out, let's assume there are 3 people per vehicle. You'd need eighteen lanes of freeway just to clear that crowd in an hour. Which means even the addition of one lane wouldn't help squat. Forty-five minutes, you didn't do too badly.

We'll get MDOT working on your own private lane ASAP.