Maxim Kats: "Transport"

“We don’t consider a bicycle, like a motorcycle, as a transport, but due to the lack of cycling infrastructure. Although it could take away 10% of trips for sure, and the center could be changed altogether if infrastructure and the Velib system are introduced there. We call this mentality , in fact, this is a lack of infrastructure... everyone understands that a wealthy person will not ride a bicycle or take a tram, some topics arise with self-esteem, such as, if you drive a car, then you are definitely not a loser, etc. It is necessary. understand - they arise because of the infrastructure. In New York, very rich people ride the subway around Manhattan, in Copenhagen, elderly architects with a worldwide reputation and a lot of money ride a bicycle - there it is acceptable because there is good infrastructure... the level of traffic jams. in the city it will always be approximately the same and does not depend in any way on the number of roads and the quality of interchanges. Citizens wake up in the morning, look at Yandex traffic jams, and if it takes two hours to get to the center by car versus 30 minutes by metro, then it takes 40 minutes. by car and 30 minutes by metro, then go by car. That is, it is clear that not everyone looks and chooses every day; some consider the possibility of changing the method of movement once a month, or once every six months, or once a year. But all this is not important - our 340 cars per 1000 people clog the city streets exactly to the point where travel time becomes unacceptable, and form the longest traffic jams that the average city dweller is willing to endure. If it is acceptable for the average person to drive two hours from the center to Shchukino during rush hour, then the traffic jam will be exactly like this on this route, no matter how many roads and junctions you build, no matter how many traffic lights and road paradoxes you remove: if you expand the highway and increase the traffic capacity by enormous 20%, then more cars will only become idle in this traffic jam for the same two hours. The size of the traffic jam itself does not depend on capacity, but on what regulates the number of trips. In a system where they are regulated only by the size of the plug, the size of the plug will always be constant. What to do? We need to ensure that some of these 340 cars per 1000 people (and in the future some of the future 600 cars per 1000 people) are not used for daily commuting, not only because there are huge traffic jams in the city. This requires comfortable, convenient and fast public transport with traffic priority, cycling infrastructure, pedestrian infrastructure on the one hand, and paid parking and control of their quantity on the other. Also, perhaps, there will be a paid entrance to the center... we’ll talk about that in another post.”