> It occurred to me recently while driving in a high traffic area that (a) this area is congested every single day at this time and (b) if I shipped a piece of software that literally crawled to a stop for a two hour period every morning and a two hour period every evening that I would be deeply ashamed of myself and my work and that if I ran a department that did that I would have no priorities other than fixing this bug until it was fixed.
The hubris of the spotless software engineer mind.
We have a solution for the traffic problem but you won't like it.
There is no "traffic".
YOU ARE THE TRAFFIC.
Cars and roads for cars don't scale well past very rural or very small suburban areas.
The solution to traffic is extremely hard and it involves:
* you and lots of other drivers voting to allow densification of highly serviced areas (close to central business districts, public transportation, hospitals, schools, ...) - at least mid rise apartment buildings, 4-6 stories high
* you and lots of other drivers voting to allow funding of public transit
* you and lots of other drivers voting to allow funding of reduction of car infrastructure (fewer car lanes, fewer parking spots, fewer highways, fewer car only bridges, tunnels, etc)
* you and lots of other drivers voting to allow funding of safe bike infrastructure
* you and lots of other drivers voting to allow congestion pricing in ... congested places
* you and lots of other drivers voting to allow funding for anti bike theft measures (police training, bike theft prioritization, bike serial number databases, ...)
* you and lots of other drivers taking public transit
* you and lots of other drivers riding bikes for medium length trips
* you and lots of other drivers walking for short trips
I used to live near and work in Boston (near Fenway). My solution was a bit more radical than yours: passenger cars should basically never be allowed inside Boston proper. The city was not meant for cars and it shows. Instead, build moving walkways and fix the issues with for example the Green Line averaging 6mph (walking speed).
Truck deliveries can happen 3am to 6am every Tuesday and Thursday, or by paying $1,000/day toll fee.
Yes it is radical and yes people would get used to it and think it is superior after a time.
It is sometimes better to not ship a product at all instead of shipping a completely and fundamentally broken product.
The thing is, customers really want cars because they're like fast fashion or fast food: the benefits are obvious and the downsides are slow and insidious, while people selling them get repeat business worth huge amounts of money.
The hubris of the spotless software engineer mind.
We have a solution for the traffic problem but you won't like it.
There is no "traffic".
YOU ARE THE TRAFFIC.
Cars and roads for cars don't scale well past very rural or very small suburban areas.
The solution to traffic is extremely hard and it involves:
* you and lots of other drivers voting to allow densification of highly serviced areas (close to central business districts, public transportation, hospitals, schools, ...) - at least mid rise apartment buildings, 4-6 stories high
* you and lots of other drivers voting to allow funding of public transit
* you and lots of other drivers voting to allow funding of reduction of car infrastructure (fewer car lanes, fewer parking spots, fewer highways, fewer car only bridges, tunnels, etc)
* you and lots of other drivers voting to allow funding of safe bike infrastructure
* you and lots of other drivers voting to allow congestion pricing in ... congested places
* you and lots of other drivers voting to allow funding for anti bike theft measures (police training, bike theft prioritization, bike serial number databases, ...)
* you and lots of other drivers taking public transit
* you and lots of other drivers riding bikes for medium length trips
* you and lots of other drivers walking for short trips