<story><title>Elon Musk is boring a tunnel to skirt gridlock</title><url>https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2017-02-16/elon-musk-is-really-boring</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>adamjc</author><text>I thought the current thinking was that building more roads means that there will be more roads to use, and therefore more cars on the road.&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;Induced_demand&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;Induced_demand&lt;/a&gt;</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>jessriedel</author><text>Induced demand often happens, but certainly not always.  It just depends on latent demand and network effects.&lt;p&gt;More importantly, the appearance of induced demand is not a general argument against building roads!  People get value out of getting to places.  If we build road B intending to relieve congestion on road A, but road A stays just as congested, we nevertheless have enabled people to get places with road B that they would not otherwise have been able to reach.  That increases utility.&lt;p&gt;All of this applies to mass transit as well.  The BART is currently at capacity during rush hour; if a parallel transit line was built, this would probably fill up with people without reducing congestion on BART, but it would still be creating value!</text></comment>
<story><title>Elon Musk is boring a tunnel to skirt gridlock</title><url>https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2017-02-16/elon-musk-is-really-boring</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>adamjc</author><text>I thought the current thinking was that building more roads means that there will be more roads to use, and therefore more cars on the road.&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;Induced_demand&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;Induced_demand&lt;/a&gt;</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>AYBABTME</author><text>Tunnels will be required on Mars to shield from radiation. Getting a head start on the technology while on Earth only makes sense. Pretty much everything he plans is in perspective of having a dual use: will it be needed on Mars - SpaceX&amp;#x27;s true goal? I hate to say the word but, it&amp;#x27;s all about synergies.</text></comment>