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So, Traffic Evaporation.
You& #39;ve heard about it, but don& #39;t believe it.
Let& #39;s consider how a busy road might cause traffic evaporation. I live near Barlow Moor Road. I must walk, cycle, or drive on it to get anywhere. It& #39;s a congested two lane road that& #39;s at capacity.
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You& #39;ve heard about it, but don& #39;t believe it.
Let& #39;s consider how a busy road might cause traffic evaporation. I live near Barlow Moor Road. I must walk, cycle, or drive on it to get anywhere. It& #39;s a congested two lane road that& #39;s at capacity.
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I personally know, that it& #39;s just not worth using the car between 4-7pm due to this, and I will NEVER drive between then. Even if I got a job I couldn& #39;t cycle to, I& #39;d ensure there was public transport, or I could work flexibly etc. That right there is traffic evaporation.
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There& #39;s talk about how LTNs might cause main roads like this to see more traffic. I posit that it physically can& #39;t take anymore traffic. It& #39;s already chokka for much of the day, it somehow manages to carry 18,000 motor vehicles a day!
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So if you filter all the side roads and stop them being a pressure release valve for BMR, and force everyone onto BMR, what happens? Well, the number of cars doesn& #39;t really go up: the road can& #39;t take any more, at least at rush hour
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So what happens? People make their car journey at different times, they walk or cycle instead, they consolidate multiple journeys, or they don& #39;t make the journey at all! That& #39;s traffic evaporation in action, and as established earlier, many of us already do it to a degree!
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It& #39;s the reverse of a well known phenomenon called "induced demand" where traffic will fill a road to its capacity, so if you widen a road and double the capacity, traffic volumes will double.
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The great thing is that this works in reverse, so if you reduce the traffic capacity of an entire area, by filtering side streets so they can& #39;t be used as pressure release, you also reduce the amount of motoring in that area.
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