Article: What Pope Francis did for D.C. traffic

[wheelswings]

What an interesting analysis. Thanks for posting.
Knowing that such relatively small adjustments in traffic volume can have such impressive impacts on congestion, it makes you wonder what the roads would be like if we bicycle commuters were to all get in our cars and (God forbid) drive to work on a designated day. I’m not suggesting we try it, but I do wonder if it would help change attitudes. We might actually contribute to a giant DC-area traffic jam. I could imagine that even some of our detractors would be begging us to get back on our bikes.

[dasgeh]

The flip side (posted to FB)

Quote:

The Pope was in town last month. Lots of people teleworked, and everyone generally thought the roads were “empty”. So they’ve what actually happened and it turns out the reduction in number of vehicles was actually modest — 1% over the week, up to 4% total on the Pope’s busiest days — but the effect on congestion was pretty big — 27% during rush hours (when the decline in # of vehicles was only 2%).

I know people smile and nod and improvements in cycling, thinking that you could never convince enough people to bike to work to make a dent in traffic, but looking back at what happened when the Pope was here, it’s clear it doesn’t take very many people trading a car for a bike to really make a difference. In the DC area, about 4% of people already bike to work. If we can make that 6%, we could enjoy the 27% decreased congestion we had during the Pope’s visit EVERY DAY.

So JOIN WABA

[DismalScientist]

I have a hard time believing that traffic volume was only down by 2%, which the study claimed was at an average of 184 locations. I could not find the raw data online. When I biked in, the roads (I-395 and Independence Ave, a main alternate route) were almost empty.

[Author]

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