All over metropolitan Atlanta, politicos are speaking a language their constituents want to hear.  “Add a penny to our sales tax and you can go right on doing what you’ve been doing all these years, be it driving, cycling or skipping to work, but faster!”, they announce.

OK, here’s an actual quote from an actual person…

“[Beltline projects] are worthy purposes for the city of Atlanta, but they are not related to relieving the Atlanta region’s traffic congestion,”

That’s Sandy Springs Mayor Eva Galambos, who went on to say that the Beltline doesn’t connect to the MARTA system, which is false and the topic of a different post, but really it could be just about anyone these days.

The way to sell a transportation tax to the populace is to talk endlessly about “congestion relief”.  And yes, if they add a few lanes to your interstate of choice, for a few months you’ll enjoy a bit more elbow (side-mirror?) room along your commute. But then suddenly…ok, gradually…something called “triple convergence” sets in.

An 2004 article from from Anthony Downs at the Brookings Institute entitled “Why Traffic Congestion Is Here to Stay…and Will Get Worse” describes this phenomenon as “the complex process of adaptation through which the various sectors of the metropolitan system adapt to changes in other sectors – specifically to changes in locations, times and modes of travel.”

Which means that if you’re city is appealing, and not DYING, any sort of “congestion relief” – especially when it comes to widening and building new roads – will eventually dissipate as more people discover this new, quicker route around your city.

But most political folk know this, yet they still call for it.  Why?

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