Yes, but if people sit in traffic in their private cars long enough, then maybe next time they'll decide to take public transport or adopt other green alternatives (cycling, walking, and/or living closer to your most common destinations). This would relieve the burdon far better than having everyone driving around in big hunks of metal by themselves in smoothly flowing traffic.
As long as you allow enough space and plan the roads well enough to have smoothly flowing traffic, then more and more people will want to drive. This trend will continue until there is so much traffic on these well-designed, large roads, that the traffic can again no longer flow smoothly. When it finally gets bad enough then people will again start to look for alternative methods again.
I think that most planners have realized that the number of drivers on a road will always continually increase until that road gets sufficiently busy to slow down the traffic, at which point it will plateau as people find alternatives. The planners cannot avoid this, because however large and well-designed they make the roads then more people will drive and/or drive further, resulting in the same situation as if the roads were smaller and/or less well-designed. The planners can only control the level at which this plateau is reached - whether it is with 50% of people getting around by private cars or with 90% of people getting around with private cars.
The solution is therefore not to build more, bigger, and better designed roads. It is instead to change people's attitudes to understand that driving yourself around inside a huge hunk of metal is a privilege and not a right. I believe that access to private cars every day should only be for those who really need it. Of course, deciding who these people are would be very difficult, but it could be done very easily by making driving WAY more expensive than it currently is. Why are cars, fuel, road tax, and car rentals so cheap that almost everyone can afford this privilege almost all of the time if they so choose? Triple the cost of these things and people would live in a much more sustainable manner. However, that cannot be done until most people's attitudes change significantly, and they stop believing that driving as fast as they want on traffic-free roads to wherever they want to go is a god-given right that should never be interfered with. All this extra money should be used to improve public transport and make it even cheaper.
If everybody moved to public transport then public transport would also become completely overloaded & the Greens would be lying in the street to prevent new routes being built.
Carrying the family shopping while walking is not possible & an overloaded cycle is dangerous.
I really do not want to move house every time I have to work in a new location or they build a new super store plus the costs of moving make it economically unrealistic.
That is many times better for the environment and the people living nearby than a road that is three times the size, stuffed full of cars.
In Holland, so many people cycle in some cities that even though the cycling infrastructure is very well developed, the bike paths get congested during rush hours. However, there is no comparison between the nuisance caused by a road full of cars and a congested bike path - the latter is a far more pleasant experience.
So rich young men in Maseratis will get to rip around town, taking advantage of empty roads to drive at 140 mph, while hardworking, middle- and low-income families have to struggle onto overcrowded buses with their pushchairs and shopping.
I do commute by train/bus and bike and use my car just when it is necessary ( carry big things, or many people ( they are big things too )
But, the highest deterrent to do so, it the price of public transport.
It is indeed very high, even with the 1/2 tax, if you do calculations, it would cost me less to commute by car that take the train. And it takes me twice the time by train ( 4 times by bike )
I still do it. but I am on a big minority. as you can attest in my company where probably +90% of the people here commute by car.
Those people who would like us to walk or cycle everywhere, and point to the patterns of the Olden Days, might also like to note that times have changed: 50 years ago, few people had cars, but women generally stayed at home and were able to go shopping every day for a small quantity of groceries.
These days it is necessary to go shopping once a week, or even less frequently - and have you seen the amount of shopping that is necessary to sustain even a small family of 3 for a week or a fortnight?
Sure we can go back to the old days, walk to work and the shops, but that will mean that women will have to stay home too.
Perhaps we should then also deny them the right to vote and the right to own property?
We can't turn the clock back. Cars are a necessary part of 21st century European family life. They might not be necessary for single blokes, but they're pretty damned essential for everyone else.
Totally agree - on top, grocery retail density in CH is very low, so it might take a long time to get to the closest shops. The closest Migros from where I live is about 3-4km away - really need a car to go shopping
I totally agree. I don't understand why driving is cheaper than public transport. Part of the reason is that people only factor in the immediate cost of the fuel they need for their car trip, and they do not factor in the other costs that go along with owning a car and it's initial cost. If these are factored in, then the cost becomes a bit more comparable. However, this definitely needs to be addressed - driving should be taxed more to fund public transport instead. Switzerland already does this to some degree, but much more cost balancing is needed.
I feel that the law should be changed such that it should be very very easy for people to obtain a 125cc scooter licence. You can see in other parts of the world that once it starts to get really busy people switch to scooters. Look at the far-east or even closer to home, Italy. Scooters take up less road space, already use 50% of seating capacity with one person (versus 25% for car), do 3L/100km, have possibility to carry shopping.
I have a 150 cc scooter and, together with my bicycle, it's the vehicle I use most. It's very fuel efficient, very nimble, can easely do 100 kmh (with 2 people !), automatic gearbox so easy to drive.
In my opinion a 125 cc licence should come free with a car licence or automatically after having a mofa licence for 2 years...
Sure, but keep in mind that I do have the car anyway, so use it or not, the investment and maintenance costs are already there.
I see somewhere the real cost of commuting by car ( including all the costs, lifetime vehicle depreciation, maintenance, oil etc ) is ~ 0.70 CHF per Km, so the 25 Km I have to do by car become CHF 17.50 including all. only oil it would be 2.25 lts as my car runs a little less of 9 lt/100Km so a total of CHF 3.27 one way too
A 5 Zone ticket full tax ( so no "initial investment" on half tax etc ) is CHF 9.80 !
Keep in mind that I can carry 4 people on my car or fill it with plenty of groceries and with that have saved 1/2 the time and had more comfort and no waiting time for the bus/train or short commute to the train station by bike.
There are two ways of making people buy your product.
1 - make the product good
2 - make the alternative unbearable.
Revolutioners and other extremists tend to prefer the second modus operandi.
I actually believe that the trait of wanting to own a "horse", ideally very strong and good looking and better than the neighbor's, is somewhere very very deep in the human brain, and I am not sure if this trait has to be taken away.
Personally, I prefer supporting creation of cleaner and safer cars, rather than questioning the sense of personal means of faster transportation.
Further to the previous post, I'd like to hear what practical solutions the walk/cycle brigade have to offer working families, regarding shopping/moving the children around?
It's all very well saying 'make it harder to drive by making it more expensive', but what do you propose to do to help ordinary people carry on with their lives in a practical manner?
Good grief, I nearly hit the groan button! What are you - some kind of communist? Do you really believe that restricting car usage to only those that somehow warrant it is the solution? And how would YOU decide who deserves this so-called priviledge?
I was not suggesting that everyone has the right to drive everywhere but let's list out a few points shall we?
1) Not everyone has good access to public transport - even in the Workers' Paradise of Switzerland
2) Not everyone has a simple a to b journey that can be accomplished easily using public transport
3) Not everyone is fit enough to either cycle or walk everywhere
4) removing perfectly good servicable roads that are already running at almost capacity is an insane or at best badly judged idea
5) Tripling the cost of transport would not enable everyone to live "better" or more "sustainable" - you seem to forget that almost every single item that you buy has been trasnported at some point before it reaches the point of sale - the tripled cost of transporting will make every single thing more expensive. If you believe that people should live in some sort of 17th Centura rural paradise then may I suggest you go and join the Amish.
In the meantime, I'll continue to moan about the stupid traffic system in this apparently civilised part of the world.
Never mind the opening hours, my local Spar and Volg and Migros/Coop close at 1830 and open at 0830. And they wonder why the Turkish open til 2100 does a killing.....