Disappearing Traffic

I’m trying to do something about the traffic.

For this I am doing several things including:

• Chairing and leading the Ridesharing Institute, a non-profit registered in the USA and with an international group of participants, with a goal of reducing traffic by doubling the amount of ridesharing: that is, doubling the number of people traveling as passengers in buses, vans, or cars that are going anyway, this decade;

• Exploring existing knowledge that might help me develop a greater understanding of the congestion problem, and the approaches that have been/are being used to solve it, and developing new approaches;

• Attending meetings and conferences that focus on urban design, management of transport systems, and community development, in order to raise alternative views, and learn more about what people have been trying;

• Writing papers and articles about what I learn, sometimes focused on specific meetings;

• Working on the preliminary steps for writing a book about the challenges and opportunities that my work is uncovering;

• Thinking that some quite new approaches need to be developed and tested, and that we will need significant funding to bring this about.

You probably thought that someone was already responsible for ‘doing something about the traffic’, and that somehow your tax dollars were already at work fixing this problem. And that is true, but as you can see on your roads every day: the experts and tax dollars are not fixing the problem. The thinking that got us into this situation is not going to get us out of it. New thinking is needed.

The politicians and transportation engineers are doing a great job, but they are working with a limited set of tools. I think they really do want to fix the traffic, but they are influenced by some pretty strong lobbies that tell them how they should go about it, and unfortunately, disappearing the traffic would not make a lot of money for anyone, while building a new highway, adding lanes, building light rail, all have large price tags and create lots of albeit temporary jobs. Deep down, it seems, the decision-makers have a reluctance to encourage answers that reduce the need for these types of infrastructure projects.

And as Jeff Speck, author of Walkable City said recently: “As long as traffic engineers are in charge of traffic studies, they will predict the need for more engineering”.

I mention this because you might be wondering why I do not already have a stream of revenue to fund my activity; why I need to ask you to help me solve this problem, by becoming a supporter by clicking on that ‘donate’ button now. Quite simply it is because the decision-makers and allocators of funds do not have money to support truly new thinking.

Congestion will only go away when more people travel as passengers (or walk, cycle, or telecommute) more of the time. Each time someone travels as a passenger in a bus, van, or car that is going anyway, instead of driving, they create a space in the traffic. Enough spaces and the traffic will flow freely.

But just shifting people to being passengers is not enough. Something called 'latent demand' fills up the spaces that have been created. Other people who were not driving decide to drive because the traffic has become a little 'less bad' and it returns to its previous level. So we need to learn how to deal with latent demand.

Sometimes the opposite of latent demand happens. When highway capacity is reduced for some reason, such as a lane closure for road maintenance, or even permanent closure of a road, it has been observed that some proportion of the traffic disappears, resulting in fewer problems of congestion than had been expected. So the opposite of latent demand is 'disappearing traffic'.

I say that we need to work out how to get disappearing traffic without the lane closures. I say we should invest in research into socially acceptable methods to help people travel as passengers more, while deterring latent demand from spoiling the impact.

This cause is about supporting the work that I am doing to bring this message to all relevant forums, and building support for the cause by finding like-minded people to add their voices. The funds raised by this page (please click the 'donate button') will help reduce the net cost that I incur traveling to participate in such forums, and the cost of raising awareness about the opportunity for disappearing traffic.

Funds raised by this page will help me attend the International Roading Federation’s Asia Regional Congress, in November, where I have been invited to present a paper and to moderate a panel of experts discussing congestion management. I will report back to you about how I get on. I intend to keep pushing this message until the decision-makers get serious about 'Disappearing Traffic'.

Please click 'donate', or read on to learn more about the problem, and how I am trying to help solve it.

Let's face it; we have filled up the roads.

It is pretty predictable that there will be a traffic jam, even if all the strategies of the road builders and bus operators are in place.

I think we should do something about this, and most people I talk to agree - "someone should do something about the traffic".

If you know me, then you know that I have spent a lot of effort and personal resources over the past decade looking for what that 'something' is.

I need your help to continue to do that work.

My business partner (John Pearce) and I invented a solution that would make it easier for people to share rides. We have put a lot of personal resources into bringing that solution into being, and we have not succeeded. And the money has run out. We learned a lot about what does not work, both in New Zealand and overseas.

What we have learned is that the high-level conditions are not right for this sort of change. The people who make the decisions take the wrong things into account. They turn for advice to people who have a vested interest in the congested status quo.

My focus has now shifted to solving this political challenge so that at some time in the future (hopefully not too long) the conditions allow 'someone to do something about the traffic'.

I co-founded and am the chairman of the Ridesharing Institute, created to bring some momentum to finding ways to help reduce the traffic. We have a goal of doubling ridesharing (being a passenger in a bus, van, or car that is making the trip anyway) this decade. We are hoping to launch a 'Road Decongestion Lab' to focus on testing new ideas.

At some point we all need to stand up and say 'stop, try something else'. This is what I am trying to do, and I would like you to be by my side.

As well as the IRF Congress, I have a plan for a book on this same topic, and also plan continued awareness-raising of the potential, and the need, to disappear the traffic.

All funds raised will be applied to the ongoing effort - a cause that we should eventually win because with your support, "someone will be doing something about the traffic".

Thanks for reading and thinking about this cause. Please click to donate, even the minimum of $1 will help.

Paul Minett