Welcome to Culture of Congestion! I’ll be posting quotes, ideas, and short essays relating to a book I’m writing, which I might describe as “What I have learned from the economic and social theory of Jane Jacobs.” My hope is to get thoughtful, informed feedback that will be useful in shaping the book.
Sandy Ikeda
The Latest at Culture of Congestion
Let’s Talk About Soundview
In New York City, one common argument against congestion pricing (or in fact, against any policy designed to further the interests of anyone outside an automobile) is that because outer borough residents are all car-dependent suburbanites, only Manhattanites would benefit. For example, film critic John Podhoretz tweeted: "Yeah, nothing easier that taking the subway from … [Read More...]
Agenda: Dynamic congestion pricing for autonomous vehicles
Autonomous vehicles work. They are already replacing full-time service drivers in Uber, Lyft, and taxis. Delivery vehicles might come soon. Corporate fleet vehicles. And the big jump, of course, will be when they're available as private vehicles. It's possible that the costs are high enough that won't happen, or won't happen for several decades. Let's assume it does. What … [Read More...]
Congestion Pricing: Traffic Solver or Sin Tax?
The goal of congestion pricing is not to penalize car trips but to smooth demand over a more extended time to reduce congestion. Unfortunately, many new congestion pricing schemes seem designed to ban cars rather than manage demand for car trips. This article appeared originally in Caos Planejado and is reprinted here with the publisher's permission. Congestion pricing … [Read More...]
The “outer boroughs” myth
One argument against bus lanes, bicycle lanes, congestion pricing, elimination of minimum parking requirements, or indeed almost any transportation improvement that gets in the way of high-speed automobile traffic is that such changes to the status quo might make sense in the Upper West Side, but that outer borough residents need cars. This argument is based on the … [Read More...]
An interesting complementarity in a city: rich & poor
Here's something I hadn't thought of in quite this way (but many others probably have): In a living city, space is cheap enough so that people with wacky (often "terrible") new ideas can test them out, while wealthier people in that city search for wacky new things to try out (because they've experienced a lot of other things). In "creative" markets, such as for art, the demand … [Read More...]
Ch. 1 What is a City?: Concluding thoughts & works cited
Viewing cities as spontaneous orders and not as works of art helps to explain the tradeoff between scale and order, as well as the role of time in softening the severity of that tradeoff. Complexity and creativity are at odds with scale and the comprehensiveness of design because increasing scale impinges on the action spaces where creative, informal contact tends to happen. … [Read More...]