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Comment by wklauss | Hacker News Reader

Several ways, including congestion taxes and more public transportation options, like it's been pointed out.

But, also, a 50% increase in housing supply means higher density of population, with higher buildings instead of single family homes and therefore more comercial space in large populated areas, meaning more jobs will be at walking/biking/short-bus-ride distance.

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Congestion taxes are a terrible idea, as they usually hit those who are least likely to be able to change the time they have to commute at, and are usually the ones least likely to afford it.

Sorry but you are totally naive if you think a 50% increase is possible in that time frame. You just can’t, or don’t want to do the math. What you are suggesting amounts to jail cells with no infrastructure.

26 years and 100% in Shanghai https://www.theatlantic.com/photo/2013/08/26-years-of-growth...

I don't think wklauss was expressing an opinion either way on whether a 50% increase is feasible, only what the effects would be with respect to transit.

He said the freeways can support 50% growth over 20 years. That’s lunacy. Look at the history of our freeway system. Ok, if you want to insist that flying cars will come in the next 10 years maybe. But to say congestion pricing is to say, roads for rich people, everyone else stays in their cubicle like happy inmates. Just unreal to see putatively intelligent people engage in such a discussion.

Buses could easily do it.

Jail cells? It's not polite to put rude words in others' mouths.

There are limitations on current build rates though; we'll have to massively increase the construction work force to do anything like this, as it's already not quite able to meet demand here.

You’re suggesting these people won’t drive anywhere. There’s no way to support that growth given the limitations in our roadways. Traffic is already terrible, imagine 4 or 5 hours to get from oakland to San Francisco.

This is a big change of topic. I had a different topic about allowing people to live without cars, if you'd like to talk about that, let's do it on that other comment thread.

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