This week’s tweet is a refresher course on one of the most basic laws of urbanism. A city is a place with a lot of people, and not a lot of space. The most successful cities are the ones that do the best job of embracing that fact.

Downtown Seattle by Henry Faber on Flickr.

Lindblom’s tweet never mentions the word “car”, but we all know that he’s talking about motor vehicle traffic. For better or worse, cars take up a lot of space. In a city full of cars — and where roads are free to use — congestion (or “traffic”) is the inevitable result.

Traffic is about demand as much as it is about supply. Seattle is a fast-growing, dynamic city, and all of those new residents and workers will need some way to get around. A city without transportation demand is a city without people.

And Lindblom’s tweet is also a reminder that we have the power to improve our own lives. Every time you walk or bike or take grade-separated transit, not only are you reducing the number of cars on the road, but you’re also freeing yourself from the stress and delays of roadway congestion.

Article Author
Aleks Culver
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Aleksandra (Aleks) is a software engineer who moonlights as a writer and copy editor. Aleks's love of cities started as a child, when she would ride the commuter rail into Boston with her family for day trips. Her mission is to share that love with the world, by ensuring that our cities have a place for everyone. Aleks primarily writes about transportation and land use. She is also the webmaster.