Traffic models shape the world we live in, but their opacity, complexity, and false assumptions on human decision making have made them an unchecked impediment to regional goals for safety, housing affordability, and climate change. In a recent CityNerd video, Ray Delahanty brings his years of experience with these models to illuminate how they are used, how they work, and how assumptions or bad modeling can create a self-fulfilling prophecy more suitable for the list of road widening myths that keep us trapped in a car car world. Conventional traffic models tend to ignore official climate and livability goals that cities and regions set to increase the share of people riding transit, walking, and biking.
In an Urbanist op-ed, I’ve argued that we need a more holistic traffic model that accounts for changing travel patterns as a region either sprawls out, or becomes more compact, transit-rich, and walkable. But maybe we just need to follow Ray’s advice, ditch the models, and do what has worked for other cities to create vibrant, dense, and multimodal cities.
Gregory Quetin
Gregory Quetin is a climate scientist and aerospace engineer with a PhD and bachelor's degree from the University of Washington. He advocates for a city full of housing, commerce, industry, and recreation as ways to increase resilience to climate change and reduce carbon emissions.