Most of the traffic we’re experiencing is because we don’t build enough housing, not because we’ve added too much. What you’re seeing is cars coming from San Jose to Palo Alto, from Gilroy to Sunnyvale, from Fremont to Mountain View. Those commutes are happening because people can’t afford to live near where they work. If you contrast those commute patterns with the people who live in the same place where they work, what you’ll see is a ton of people walking, riding their bikes, and taking local shuttles to get to work. The weather’s great here, why not? If you live far away from work and work/home aren’t near a train station, there’s a 100% chance that you’re driving and you’re part of the traffic. If you live near work, there’s a non-zero chance that you’re walking or biking or taking a local shuttle.

Google spent more than a decade trying to get Mountain View’s permission to add housing on its own property, next to its offices. Do you really believe that such housing would have added to traffic instead of reducing it? I don’t.