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Talkin’ N.J. Turnpike Capacity Blues

“Man there’s an opera out on the turnpike,” sang Bruce in “Jungleland.” Seems like there may also be some more lanes, reports this piece in the Philadelphia Inquirer (which briefly mentions Traffic.

Predict and provide fait accompli? Check.

The goal of the wider turnpike is to accommodate traffic needs through 2032. By then, state highway officials predict, northbound traffic on the turnpike will be 67 percent higher than in 2005, and southbound traffic is forecast to increase by 92 percent.

Induced demand counterargument? Check.

“When you make those kinds of improvements, capacity gets eaten up very quickly. About 80 percent of the new capacity gets used up right away,” said Donald Shanis, deputy executive director of the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission. “Any time you make a trip easier, you encourage more auto trips.”

And what about the fact that traffic on the turnpike has actually been declining? See here.

In any case, it’s tough to imagine some latter-day Springsteen ever coming up with these lyrics: “This turnpike sure is spooky at night when you’re all alone.”

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 4th, 2008 at 5:51 pm and is filed under Cars, Cities, Congestion, Roads, Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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Traffic Tom Vanderbilt

How We Drive is the companion blog to Tom Vanderbilt’s New York Times bestselling book, Traffic: Why We Drive the Way We Do (and What It Says About Us), published by Alfred A. Knopf in the U.S. and Canada, Penguin in the U.K, and in languages other than English by a number of other fine publishers worldwide.

Please send tips, news, research papers, links, photos (bad road signs, outrageous bumper stickers, spectacularly awful acts of driving or parking or anything traffic-related), or ideas for my Slate.com Transport column to me at: info@howwedrive.com.

For publicity inquiries, please contact Kate Runde at Vintage: krunde@randomhouse.com.

For editorial inquiries, please contact Zoe Pagnamenta at The Zoe Pagnamenta Agency: zoe@zpagency.com.

For speaking engagement inquiries, please contact
Jenna Meulemans at the Knopf Speaker Bureau.

Order Traffic from:

Amazon | B&N | Borders
Random House | Powell’s

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Traffic UK
Drive-on-the-left types can order the book from Amazon.co.uk.

For UK publicity enquiries please contact Rosie Glaisher at Penguin.

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