I live in a fast-growing area that hasn’t addressed increased traffic congestion caused by rapid growth. In the Summer, our population explodes with the infusion of additional tourist traffic. The buzzword for politicians has become “Traffic Calming“. So far, efforts to “calm” traffic have slowed it but at the expense of increased congestion.
To avoid the bottlenecks, locals (because the tourists don’t know the shortcuts) have resorted to cutting through neighborhoods to get to where they are going. The politicians answer to that is to put up stop signs at every neighborhood corner… making it even slower to get anywhere by “calming” the traffic.
“Traffic Calming” is an oxymoron. Traffic going slower but increasing congestion does not create a calming effect. Slow does not necessarily equate to calm. Cars aren’t the problem…it’s the drivers! Cars don’t get Road Rage, drivers do…
Add cyclists and pedestrians to the mix and it becomes a real battle. Since the local political mindset seems to favor slow under the guise of traffic calming, I tried to imagine what their ultimate solution would be…
Bingo! An EXPRESS LANE FOR PEDESTRIANS! It might not calm down any drivers but it would guarantee they drive slower… Isn’t that the goal?
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