Thank you for the…

Thank you for the opportunity to comment on Bill 212 – Reducing Gridlock, Saving You Time Act, 2024 – Building Highways Faster Act , 2024

I would like to put forth my concerns regarding Building Highways Faster Act , 2024. To be clear, I am a motorhead, and rely on driving as my main means of transportation.

Despite this, I am putting forth my concerns with this Act as it has been criticized as something that does not address the issue of reducing gridlock. On an intuitive level, it would appear that building more expressways would help alleviate gridlock. However, this intuitive approach ignores a phenomenon called induced demand where the increase in road space dedicated for car traffic has a strong tendency to attract more people in choosing to drive. Often creating a vicious cycle where more lanes leads to more cars which leads to more lanes built to accommodate the additional cars which only further fuels the demand. Los Angels, California, USA is a prime example of such where despite being famous for its multi lane expressways, is also infamous for its traffic jams.

Instead of contributing to this vicious cycle, we should instead look into ways to encourage the use efficient forms of transportation (e.g. walking, cycling, and public transportation). This goes beyond gridlock. Effective transportation is what keeps the economic engine going and it is not possible to add more road space to allow everyone to drive. Reducing car dependency also means opening up the door to having apartment buildings with fewer parking spaces. This in turn reduces the costs of construction. The entire nation is facing housing crisis and one of the means of speeding up construction is to make it easier to have viable housing project. The last thing we need to make projects more expensive having to put in more parking as the residents will not have other options.

Furthermore, making alternatives to driving less attractive does a great disservice to people who have to drive. Increasing the number of cars on the roads simply adds to the congestion making the transportation network less efficient. It also means car enthusiasts do not get the chance to enjoy their prized cars like they are meant to be enjoy and instead every drive will be one through gridlock.

The bottom line is that favouring the use of the car at the expense of alternatives like active transport is a losing proposition for everyone regardless their preferred method of transportation.