- Joined
- Apr 12, 2021
Induced demand is a misnomer for latent demand. It is a complaint that people actually use types of infrastructure that urban planners and transit advocates don’t like. If you expand a road and congestion decreases, people get to their destinations faster. If congestion stays the same, then more people are using it to get somewhere than before, which is a positive benefit.The U.S. already builds miles and miles of new highway expansions every single year, which also require constant maintenance. States pour insane amounts of money into widening roads, which don't even reduce traffic (due to induced demand) yet they keep thinking if they just built 2, 3, 4, or 5 more lanes the problem will solve itself. Additionally, the largest single use of eminent domain in the U.S. is in the construction and widening of highways.
Also, urbanists only apply induced demand theory to roads. Using the theory’s logic, why should we build more housing when it will just be filled up and rents won’t decrease? Why build another train line when the current one is so packed that you can’t move since a new line would be just as full in no time? Why build anything at all?
Induced demand is a stupid theory with no basis in economics.