Rather than the doomsday scenarios envisioned by critics, recent results indicate that closing streets to cars can have a demonstrable effect in improving circulation.
"there remains constant misconception about closing streets to cars: chaos and congestion are imminent," says . "All those cars will just end up somewhere else. On other streets, in other neighbourhoods."
Madruga reviews the recent literature on the effects on congestion of both eliminating space for automobile and adding lanes for traffic and finds that "1) building more roads doesn't mean alleviating traffic flow but instead could even make congestion worse; 2) closing a street down to cars improves pedestrian and cycling share and the overall number of cars will be reduced, thus less congestion throughout the city."
FULL STORY: Closing Streets to Cars - for Good
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