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Comment by abainbridge | Hacker News Reader

Commercial traffic needs to drive - trucks and vans need cannot easily be replaced with public transport. I live on a busy road in Cambridge UK. At rush hour the traffic is about 50% commercial. I don't know what the proportion is in Paris, but my expectation is that the roads would still have lots of motor vehicle traffic even once you convert everything that can be to bike/public transport.

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> At rush hour the traffic is about 50% commercial.

Note that the removal of the other 50% of traffic would easily shift the road from a traffic jam (Level of Service E or F) to a free-flowing road (LOS C). Even if only a fraction of the overall traffic is removed, traffic would easily get down to LOS D.

This is exactly why encouraging other modes of transportation (cycling, walking, bus, train, etc) actually causes big improvements for all road users.

I would suggest that if people only used motor vehicles when absolutely necessary the roads would be blissful.

Why does commercial traffic drive during rush hour

Good question. I'm thinking of morning rush hour because that I did a traffic survey then. I noticed a lot of building trades vehicles. All the trades people seem to want to be at their site for the day by 8.30am. I guess that is so they can do a full day's work before it gets dark (which is at 3.30pm in winter). There is also a lot of food suppliers delivering in time for catering teams to make lunch in schools, offices, cafes etc.

I probably shouldn't have called it rush hour. The traffic is busy from 7am until 7pm on weekdays.

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