The only way to get less traffic

Urban planners have known for ages that the only way to reduce traffic is to get people out of cars. The logic is simple: building more roads and adding extra lanes only encourages more people to drive. Providing viable alternatives: biking and walking for short trips, public transportation for longer trips creates fewer cars on the road. This is the ultimate win-win as there’s actual choice. You can drive if you want, but you don’t have to.

And real-wold data is proving this true with the 9-euro transit passes in Germany. The result of making Germany’s decent public transportation practically free has been the alleviation of rush hour traffic.

The strange thing about the car centric though is this still isn’t good enough. There are still plenty of people outraged that the government is so heavily subsidizing transport — even if the end result is that the roads are better for drivers.

Of course, let’s ignore that non-drivers heavily subsidize roads, parking and car-centric infrastructure.