When engineers and city planners look at traffic, they often regard it as a river, a fixed quantity which comes rushing by, do what you may. It’s a problem of hydraulics: you can dam it or divert it, but you can’t stop it. But traffic is not a river. It is nothing but a lot of individuals who have decided to go somewhere with their chosen means of transport. If roads are too narrow, if parking is too scarce, if traffic moves too slowly, or if the road is closed altogether – well, they will reconsider their decision to go somewhere or use an alternative means of transport. And the rushing river suddenly becomes a trickle.
– pg. 156, Zuckermann, End of the Road
