Self evident truth?

For some time there seemed to be a broad consensus that freely flowing automotive mobility is a good thing, an expression of freedom that supports individual choice and economic competitiveness. Congestion, therefore, is bad. 

But lately, the debate has become more diversified.  It makes sense that the perception changes whether one sees traffic through the car windshield, or as a walker, bicyclist or transit rider. But with the increasing cost of maintaining such high mobility, other divisions have appeared, such as rural versus urban, environment versus freedom, safety versus speed, or health versus convenience. have made traffic a much more contentious topic.

The vast majority of us experience traffic of some kind on a regular basis. This makes traffic a favorite topic in public meetings in cities, towns and villages alike across the urban rural divide, across gender and race and across all income levels. Everyone is an expert, everyone has an opinion and everyone is affected. Traffic and transportation defines in a big way how we live in America. 

Traffic is measured in many ways; statistics for number of trips, congestion levels, mode split and vehicle miles traveled are available without difficulty. But the fundamental assumption that traffic should flow as unimpeded as possible is rarely questioned. It is time to question some of the seemingly self evident truths, that have guided transportation engineering and policies for decades, such as that a high level of mobility equals prosperity or that congestion is always bad. Based on the credo of free-flow and mobility, congestion has evolved as the most popular metric. It is minutely measured across metro regions in America with annual reports that never fail to alarm politicians across the spectrum of geographies and political backgrounds. Congestion is also measured on the hyper local level to the point that a signalized intersection that doesn't let all cars through in one or two cycles is labeled "failing". A data based approach that meets with everybody's hate of being stuck in traffic, what could possibly be wrong? 

What we measure informs our solutions. Assuming a-priori that congestion is bad as a self evident truth, means .... READ FULL ARTICLE