Reduce Traffic

As our cities continue to grow and become more populated, the problem of traffic is only going to get worse.

We’ve already seen the effects of poor planning and lack of foresight in our current traffic situation, but what about the traffic of the future?

With the government as useless as ever, there’s no reason to think city planners are going to be doing a better job.

If we don’t act quickly, the traffic of the future is going to be an absolute nightmare. Imagine roads so congested that it takes hours just to travel a few miles. A sea of bumper-to-bumper cars stretching as far as the eye can see. That’s where we’re headed.

Reducing Congestion

There are all kinds of ways to reduce traffic congestion in America. But this is a complicated issue with causes that have built up over decades of neglect. There’s no one solution, rather many little things that collectively add up to less traffic and more efficient transportation systems.

Here are some ways to reduce traffic congestion

• Improve infrastructure – Make the transportation system more efficient and reliable. This can include wider roads, more lanes, improved public transportation, and better roads for cyclists and pedestrians.
• Bypassing major cities – The highway system should be reworked to bypass major cities and provide more direct routes between destinations. Figure out ways to divert traffic from having to deal with local highway traffic.
• Smart cities – Traffic lights and signage that move cars more efficiently, access to real-time data about traffic conditions, and autonomous vehicles that free up the roads.
• Encourage telecommuting – Fewer people commuting means fewer cars on the road. Finding ways to encourage those who can work from home (or within walking distance from home like a coffee shop or co-working space) reduces the number of cars. Businesses need to do their part and make sure their employees need to be on-site before forcing them to commute.
• Increase moving cargo by ship or train – for several reasons, the US moves way more stuff by a truck than we need to. We need to find ways to put more long-distance cargo on trains or boats to reduce the number of trucks.
• Optimize last-mile delivery – Right now we have a patchwork system where the US Postal Service, Amazon, UPS, and FedEx all have their fleets driving around, oftentimes to the same neighborhood. There’s got to be ways to reduce this redundancy.
• Drone deliveries – We might be opening up a whole can of worms here, but having more drone deliveries means fewer vehicles on the road.
• Public transportation – More train and subway lines, expanding bus routes, and investing in high-speed rail. We need to find ways to make public transportation better than commuting.
• Physical transportation – Promote biking, walking, and other sustainable forms of transportation. More pedestrian and bike-friendly streets to encourage people to leave their cars at home.

Of course, all of this will require significant investment and political willpower. But the alternative is a future where traffic is so bad that it affects every aspect of our lives. We’ll be stuck in our cars for hours each day, unable to get where we need to go. And that’s not a future anyone wants.

Let’s create a future where we can get where we need to go without spending our lives stuck in traffic.

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