© Charles Chandler

 

While it wouldn't exactly be free to set up gates to throttle the access to highways, and to set up the central computer system that will control them, it sure would be a lot cheaper than widening the highways to relieve the congestion as the population in our cities continues to grow.

 

If this strategy proved effective, what we learn might be applicable to other situations in which ad hoc traffic throttling must be used. For example, evacuations that have been ordered because of impending hurricanes are always problematic, since it's not just rush-hour commuters involved — it's everybody. This alters the nature of decision-making for emergency managers, since they have to order evacuations far enough in advance to get people out, assuming that the cars will be traveling at 5 mph. If they could assume that the average speed is going to be 55 mph, they would have more time, and could make more informed decisions.