Comment 54152

By Undustrial (registered) - website | Posted December 31, 2010 at 12:36:54

Examining accident rates from one-way vs. two way streets only tells a small fraction of the story. Other factors which must be taken into account are road size, intersection setups, traffic volumes and nearby uses. The issue of urban freeways goes far beyond the one-way issue.

These freeways are not safe, cheap or effective. High-traffic arteries like these consume resources like money and space like there's no tomorrow. But most of these costs are either borne as big lump sums (like insurance or ownership of a car) or collectivised capital costs like roads, or externalized costs like traffic accidents and torn up neighbourhoods. The problem is that none of these costs tend to show up much on a per-trip basis. So when I get in my car, I'm provided with the illusion that it's only costing me around $0.12/km in gas. A GO or HSR ticket, on the other hand, is required to embody far more of these costs, which is why bussing is often actually less cost-effective on a per-trip basis. This is a subsidy, and it creates more traffic, which leads to more costs of which more deaths are only one.

These just aren't issues which can be understood on the basis of a single road, intersection or policy.

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