00:00time to talk about traffic right now
00:02we're in this weird moment where a lot
00:03of smart people agree that the current
00:05North American Street design is not
00:06sustainable they commute time and the
00:09fatalities are escalating but after
00:12reading these articles I wondered is the
00:15solution finally here
00:16so I took a deep dive into that question
00:18over the last few months not just into
00:20how they designed a road but how do they
00:22design their transportation Network
00:23trying to piece together the big picture
00:25here I actually ended up in the
00:29checking out the street Network myself
00:30the answer I found to whether the Dutch
00:33have solved congestion is yes it just
00:37doesn't look like what I thought
00:39in fact even at 50 autonomous adoption
00:42they believe the commute time will only
00:43go down by about six percent so the
00:46solution is in the Netherlands so that's
00:53on the way some context in cities car
00:57traffic will get slower and slower until
00:59it becomes faster to take transit bike
01:01or walk this is known as the down
01:04Thompson's Paradox you might think that
01:06adding an additional Lane will help and
01:08it does temporarily but then people
01:10switch to driving noticing that it's
01:12faster and the speed regresses back to
01:14the speed of the Alternatives this is
01:15known as induced demand
01:17pedestrian cyclists and vehicles can all
01:20coexist without conflict but only if
01:22they're all going the same slow speed
01:24this advances the principles of shared
01:35the Netherlands has implemented these
01:37Concepts to great effect
01:40in the 70s the Netherlands had the same
01:43car Centric Street design as the U.S but
01:45they found that by making it easier and
01:47safer to walk bike and ride Transit
01:50fatalities decreased and Street flow
01:52improved for everyone even drivers
01:55this required a change in priorities
02:04they prioritize Transit
02:08prioritize cycling and pedestrians
02:10and de-prioritize the car they also made
02:13a change at the network level they
02:15prioritized streets by mode and speed
02:17the basic concept is that higher speeds
02:20should form a perimeter around a network
02:21of lower speed access ways in laneways
02:24walking and biking will often be the
02:26most direct and fastest method at the
02:28superblock level this is what it
02:30basically looks like laneways artillery
02:32to pedestrians and low speeds
02:35access ways are tailored to pedestrians
02:38and cyclists and slightly higher speed
02:40these slower streets are designed with
02:42restrictions in traffic climbing so that
02:44vehicles are not allowed in certain
02:45areas or are forced to travel at cycling
02:50this approach advances the principles of
02:52shared streets which shows that
02:54pedestrians cyclists and vehicles can
02:56coexist as long as they are all going
02:58the same slow speed transit waves are
03:02tailored to pedestrian cyclists and
03:04Transit Boulevard to accommodate all
03:07different boats but you'll notice that
03:08Transit is given its own dedicated Lane
03:10and pedestrians and cyclists are
03:12separated from vehicle traffic
03:14and bike lanes and sidewalks are raised
03:16relative to side streets requiring cars
03:19to slow down when Crossing
03:23this is an insignificant contrast to
03:25North America where vehicles are given
03:26priority on all roads with no physical
03:28measures to slow them down
03:30there's limited accommodation for
03:32alternatives to the car just look at the
03:34Toronto bicycle Network versus the
03:36Amsterdam Network and Transit often
03:38doesn't get dedicated lanes and buses
03:40and streetcars get stuck in traffic
03:45to reduce intersection conflicts with
03:47cars the Netherlands provide protected
03:49intersections under passes and bridges
03:53to control vehicle speeds and ensure
03:56safety for all modes all streets have a
03:59host of traffic calming measures like
04:01raised sidewalks chicanes
04:04and speed UPS more generally beyond the
04:07super Block Level and as detailed super
04:09well in Jason Slaughters not just bikes
04:11videos the Netherlands has priority
04:14networks including traffic signal timing
04:16for cars bikes Transit
04:21and walking these priority networks are
04:25a further way to separate by speed and
04:26mode here's an example of a car priority
04:29as you can see it prioritizes cars but
04:32it still has a separated bicycle lane
04:33and this is a bicycle priority Network
04:35as you can see it has high quality
04:37infrastructure oftentimes you're
04:40completely separated from Cars on
04:42bicycle roads and you have priority at
04:44intersections so you can quickly and
04:46safely get across the city
04:50streets provide access to residential
04:53shops offices and as a result have lower
04:57speeds in contrast to streets perimeter
05:00roads have fast-moving traffic
05:03and have few accesses and other modes
05:06are completely separated North American
05:08cities mix streets and Roads called
05:11strodes which incorporate High rates of
05:13speed with other modes and accesses
05:16creating dangerous conditions in
05:19simulations with Dutch Street design
05:20applied at the super block level you can
05:27North American roads are obviously not
05:29working and it's pretty well known
05:30what's up with the traffic in Toronto I
05:33don't know how they figured this out so
05:35the Netherlands has figured this out
05:37in North America we just need to change
05:39the standards and things need to change
05:41at the political level too in the
05:43Netherlands when they go redo a road
05:45after its useful life they just
05:46implement the new standard we could do
05:48this in North America but if we keep
05:50building with the same car Centric model
05:52it'll only make the problem worse even
05:54with autonomous vehicles if you enjoyed
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