Zero vision exposed.
Cities such as Portland have been implementing this idea for several decades, and the increase in traffic fatalities in those cities proves that it doesn’t work. Beyond that, it imposes huge costs on society: according to the Texas Transportation Institute, traffic delays cost Americans $190 billion in 2019, and deliberately slowing traffic merely adds to those costs.
Such simplistic planning also ignores the needs of freight movement. According to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics, highways in 2018 (the latest year for which data are available) moved slightly more than 2.0 trillion ton-miles of freight at a cost to shippers of 20.2ยข per ton-mile for a total of $410 billion. For comparison, the Bureau of Economic Analysis says Americans spent $1.2 trillion buying, operating, maintaining, and insuring personal motor vehicles in 2018.