Context: i am in Europe so might be irrelevant to US.
I was thinking : we already have a usable solution to traffic jams. It’s called parking lots, as the ones in airports. You drop your car, then you take public transport to go anywhere. So imagine doing the same, but on daily basis. Build many such parking spots outside of the city , irrigate with public transport, make the price reasonable for daily usage (fuck you Charles de Gaulle Airport and your 14€/day fee). Boom, reduces your traffic by X% every morning.
As someone who drives regularly from Reims to Paris, I d be glad if such option existed, so I wouldn’t have to drive on Périphérique.
The two reasons I think it’s not used is “planning” and “politicians”. The latter isn’t good at former.
The problem with park and ride is that the math doesn’t easily check out. Think about how much space around a railway station, say, 30 spots take up. Now you’ve built a sizable parking lot around a railway station but only gotten rid of 30 cars, which isn’t a lot.
park and ride should be done where land is cheap, like at the edge of an urban area.
Then you just slap down a station and a cheapo parking garage and maybe a small convenience store/café and bamJust because land is “cheap”, that doesn’t mean it should be ruined.
