🚀 go-pugleaf

In misc.transport.road John Lansford <johnl@vnet.net> wrote:
:>Yes, all cities experience congestion.

: Define what you mean by "cities" and "congestion". I can think of half
: a dozen small and medium sized cities right now that don't experience
: any significant amounts of congestion.

Heh. Back at you -- define "medium sized" and "significant!"

I know there are specific efficiency levels that transportation engineers
strive for; there was an excellent article in the Washington Post several
years ago that described the methodology in non-technical terms.
Unfortunately I have lost it. Anyhoo, I seem to remember that 40mph
offered the best mix. Any faster than that and the cars begin spacing out,
giving you a smaller number of vehicles/mile x speed. Slower than that,
and the speed factor drops too fast as the vehicle spacing compresses. And
when you get down to sub 20mph (I'm talking Interstates or Limited access
highways here, naturally) your efficiency drops below the street level
threshold. Remember, this is from memory and some kindhearted pro will no
doubt correct me.

So. "My" definition of congestion is when highway traffic drops below
30mph. The clock starts then. A "city" to means a town with a population
greater than 100,000. Metropolitian regions make towns part of cities, for
instance, Falls Church VA, despite having a population of only 10,000 or
so, is part of the Washington DC metro region, so to me it's part of a
city. Fredericksburg VA, an hour ^h^h^h^h 50 miles south, isn't. Again, no
doubt there are more "accepted" definitions, and I'll accept the pro's
definitions over my own made-up ones.

"Significant." Aye, there's the rub. I submit that any of my "cities"
experiences at least an hour of my "congestion" each year, if simlpy
because sporting events and weather and accidents cause traffic tie ups. I
can't prove it. But if Des Moines has a tractor trailer flip on day in
Decemeber, and it closes the road for an hour, that's really not what
we're talking about, is it? No, I think the important distinction is
consistency. The eastbound approach of the Woodrow Wilson Bridge is backed
up every day; sometimes it starts at 4:00pm, on Fridays it can start as
early as 2:30pm. And it's not because of bridge openings or truck
accidents, it's because it's a bottleneck. Now, to answer your question, I
have to say if there are similar bottlenecks in every "city." I don't
know. I suspect there are. So we have to hash this out a little to come to
terms. What are the six you're thinking of? I'll throw one out, that I
have a little experience with: Topeka. I never recall seeing stopped or
even slow traffic during my half-dozen business trips there.

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