How multimodal transit could untangle city traffic
If you live in a big city, you probably feel the tight squeeze of more people, more cars, and more traffic.
Your feeling isn’t wrong, here are the numbers:
- 68%: According to the UN, sixty-eight percent of the world’s population is projected to live in urban areas by 2050.
- 4.2 Billion: The urban population of the world has grown rapidly from 751 million in 1950 to 4.2 billion in 2018.
- 5.7 Billion: Ride sharing services have added 5.7 billion vehicle miles to nine major urban areas over six years, according to a study by Bruce Schaller.
Organizing transit in these areas doesn’t have to be complex, but it will definitely require a shift in our thinking to move away from the single occupancy vehicle (SOV).
Traditionally, road planning focused on SOVs, which encouraged us to focus on those vehicles and not on the people who need to get around. As we shift our thinking away from the throughput of vehicles on streets, we can focus on the throughput of people, which is the whole point of vehicles and streets in the first place.
By planning for and providing multimodal transit options that supplement larger public transit arteries, more people can be moved in less space.
When we focus on the people that need to move around the cities, a magical thing happens, and we can recognize that there are more options for transportation and solutions. This includes everything from sidewalks and pedestrian crossings to high capacity bus lanes and protected bike lanes. More importantly, to achieve this goal, our existing pavement doesn’t have to change, just the lane markings. According to a recent study by the National Association of City Transportation Officials, streetscape planning can easily use our existing roads to provide more options for transportation, and can move thousands more people per hour.
