It seems like it would make perfect sense. If a road has a traffic problem, adding more lanes should make things better. More lanes means more cars can go through, and the traffic problem should be solved.
But because of the economic principle of induced demand, it doesn't actually work like that. By increasing the supply of something, in this case roads, it actually encourages more people to want to use the road. So, while expanding two lane road to four lanes should double the amount of space for the current traffic, it doesn't do as much good as it should when twice as many people decide to use the expanded road.
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| Adding more lanes wouldn't help traffic here. |
This effect also works in reverse, as taking roads away in a city has the effect of reducing traffic, not making it worse. Of course, taking an enormous road away will cause problems, and a big new road in the middle of nowhere will not fill up with traffic immediately. I don't know if I agree with the solution to this problem, but I wouldn't want to drive in a big city anyway, congestion charge or not.
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