Abstract:
As Los Angeles nears the end of its road-building era, it turns toward schemes for increasing traffic flow on existing roadways. People want less traffic, yet want to travel faster. The inherent conflict in these desires goes unrecognized as the political process continues to favor efforts to expand mobility by improving traffic flow. The counterproductive nature of measures taken to free up traffic are described in terms of two central districts of Los Angeles. Conflicts between place and path can be resolved by concentrating population while reducing numbers of vehicles. Tools of traffic control can be applied to cause vehicles to travel at slower and more uniform speeds. Mobility can be maintained with fewer vehicles by better use of in-vehicle capacities. The Los Angeles correction depends on changing the goal of street management from traffic maximization to traffic calming. This means balancing and integrating land uses to make it possible to walk from one activity to another; giving priority to environmentally preferable modes of travel; basing traffic flow decisions on person flows; and reducing vehicle density where there is high population density.
Supplemental Notes:
This paper appears in Transportation Research Record No. 1305, Finance, Planning, Programming, Economic Analysis, and Land Development 1991. Distribution, posting, or copying of this PDF is strictly prohibited without written permission of the Transportation Research Board of the National Academy of Sciences. Unless otherwise indicated, all materials in this PDF are copyrighted by the National Academy of Sciences. Copyright © National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved
