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 ?