Induced Demand Traffic

This cluster discusses the concept of induced demand in transportation, where building more roads or highways increases traffic volume rather than reducing congestion, with frequent references to Wikipedia and related articles. Debates explore its implications for urban planning, infrastructure policy, and alternatives like limiting demand.

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Keywords

e.g IMO www.nber wikiwand.com citylab.com en.m wired.com i.e wikipedia.org induced demand roads traffic highway commute congestion road capacity transit

Sample Comments

Liskni_si Sep 20, 2018 View on HN

Yes, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Induced_demand

due-rr Apr 29, 2025 View on HN

Just like with traffic: you build more roads, but traffic stays the same. It's induced demand[1].[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Induced_demand

Tiktaalik Oct 5, 2016 View on HN

It wouldn't. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Induced_demand

Majings Apr 22, 2022 View on HN

Your feeling is generally observed to be correct. Induced demand [1] is a fairly well observed phenomenon.[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Induced_demand#Effect_in_trans...

baddox Dec 29, 2018 View on HN

Of course it’s true that people and cars are finite, but that doesn’t mean that new roads are satisfying existing demands. In fact, the term in economics is “induced demand.” Building more roads around a city often won’t decrease traffic in the city, it will just make more people commute to the city from further away.

pizza234 Jan 29, 2025 View on HN

This is IMO a spefic case of the induced demand concept (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Induced_demand).

toomuchtodo May 31, 2024 View on HN

Bad traffic will expand to fill the road you give it (induced demand). You destroy demand instead.https://www.wired.com/2014/06/wuwt-traffic-induced-demand/https://www.nber.org/papers/w15376

flukus Feb 9, 2017 View on HN

This is known as induced demand: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Induced_demand

lenocinor Nov 30, 2018 View on HN

Thanks to induced demand this is generally not true: https://www.citylab.com/transportation/2018/09/citylab-unive...

flukus Oct 10, 2016 View on HN

Were they talking about induced demand: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Induced_demand ?