Over at I Am Seattle Traffic (where I co-blog) there’s a great piece about what exactly traffic is:
Something occured to me the other day and that may or may not be obvious to everyone else: Each day’s traffic is new.
Think about it. Traffic isn’t something that just exists and we join and leave it each day. It actually stops existing every night, and then the next morning it begins fresh again. We create repetitive traffic with our routines and jobs, so it gives the illusion of a constant problem.
We choose every day to create traffic. It is a decision we make to get into our cars (usually alone) and search for a somewhat-less-congested route to work. We are actively contributing to traffic simply by being on the road. Even if you are riding the bus to work, you are still creating traffic, albeit less than if you were driving.
It’s important to think about congestion: it’s the fault of all the people on the road, including you! They are the people who have created the traffic.
Imagine if you lost someone in that crowd…I hope they have cell phones. What do you think about creating certain places that are car-free? Seeing this picture makes me think this might be a better place to not have vehicles allowed due to high pedestrian volume. I would like to see that done in the Pike Place Market area. Allowing only Emergency and Delivery vehicles. Just a thought.
Yeah Pike place market is actually a little dangerous for both cars and pedestrians with all the walking across the street there. Years ago wasn’t Pine between 4th and 5th pedestrian only?
Seems that would be the case as the road is that nice brick layout. Although I am not sure because I only moved here 3 years ago.