Wednesday, September 04, 2002
Traffic
Since 1970, the population of the United States has grown by forty per cent, while the number of registered vehicles has increased by nearly a hundred per cent—in other words, cars have proliferated more than twice as fast as people have. During this same period, road capacity increased by six per cent.
A long but interesting article about traffic trends in the United States (and New York City in particular) and it sounds like thing will get worse before they get better (if they get better at all).
I also believe that zoning laws also contribute to the traffic problem. Strict zoning (like the zoning down here in Lower Sheol) creates traffic problems since to get anywhere you have to drive. There are no closeby commercial areas to The Facility in the Middle of Nowhere (which is why I gave it that name); the closest is about two miles away whereas back in Condo Conner, there was a small shopping center just around the corner, and a major one about a mile down the road. Heck, the closest park is over two miles away, whereas my paternal grandparents lived right next to a park.
Don't get me wrong—I love my car and I certainly don't want to get rid of it. I just wish there were more places close by that I could walk to (then again, I would certainly settle for about a 60% reduction in the number of cars down here).
![[The future's so bright, I gotta wear shades]](https://www.conman.org/people/spc/about/2023/1023.t.jpg "The future's so bright, I gotta wear shades")