Chart of the Day: Induced Travel Hypothesis

induced-travel-hypothesis

 

All right, here’s a doozy for you. This is a chart that I pulled out of one of David’s engineering articles. I’m not sure I understand it. Maybe you can explain it to me.

The best I can do is that this chart shows that demand for travel (e.g. the desire to drive in a car down the road or freeway) is not constant, but shifts in relation to the supply of roadway (i.e. congestion). In other words, if we build more roads, people will drive more because it’s easier. If we build fewer roads, people will drive less because its more difficult.

This seems really important, somehow.

Bill Lindeke

About Bill Lindeke

Pronouns: he/him

Bill Lindeke has writing blogging about sidewalks and cities since 2005, ever since he read Jane Jacobs. He is a lecturer in Urban Studies at the University of Minnesota Geography Department, the Cityscape columnist at Minnpost, and has written multiple books on local urban history. He was born in Minneapolis, but has spent most of his time in St Paul. Check out Twitter @BillLindeke or on Facebook.