Infrastructure: less is more

There’s a strange contradiction that arises when governments notice that a highway, road or street, is constantly gridlocked and decide to expand it. The result ends up being an even bigger gridlock, evidenced recently by the biggest traffic jam in the world ever recorded.

It now seems an increasing number of governments and authorities are taking the opposite approach: although apparently paradoxical, it makes more sense to reduce road infrastructure rather than increase it. This is being planned and carried out in cities such as San Francisco, London and Mexico City, all known for their massive traffic problems, and where City Hall has decided to cut parking spaces as a way to discourage the use of private vehicles. Obviously, having no place to leave your vehicle after reaching the destination point is a major drawback, prompting many people to consider using other means of transport.

The idea that the solution to a problem may lie not in increasing investment to increase capacity, but rather in reducing capacity shows the unsustainability of the approach until now. Expanding access to cities, building more roads, more freeways and more bypasses encourages us to use our cars.

The so-called infrastructure paradox is well-known among academics who study traffic and transport solutions, who understand it is the key to the future for most cities. London is perhaps the most extreme example: entering the city with a private non-electric vehicle means not only paying a toll, but also, a problem when considering where to park it if you do not have a garage: Parking space has been reduced by no less than 40% since the change of regulations in 2004. Could anybody imagine Madrid with 40% less parking space and with much wider and clearer streets free of parked vehicles leaving public space to be put to other uses?

The legacy today’s local governments need to leave behind is not a city with broader avenues and more access lanes, but quite the opposite: places where the disincentive to use a car is such, that we would only do so under exceptional circumstances, while most of the time we would use more efficient solutions. When it comes to transport infrastructure, less is more. The time has come to start thinking about other types of cities: greener, more sustainable, and not designed for the car, but for people. When the problem is sustainability and our health, the convenience of parking outside our destination is no longer a consideration.

(En español, aquí)