Some bureaucrats in Mexico City tried this years ago.
An important ring road had two lanes in each direction. To increase its capacity, they didn’t actually widen the road; they just repainted the lane markings to turn two lanes into three, and claimed a 50% capacity increase!
Everyone immediately screamed about being crammed together just centimetres apart, accidents increased and the city officials quickly u-turned; they repainted to have just 2 lanes in each direction again.
But they then tried to claim that as that was a 33% decrease, and that because they had earlier increased it 50%, that meant they had achieved a net 17% increase in the road’s capacity!
Some bureaucrats in Mexico City tried this years ago.
An important ring road had two lanes in each direction. To increase its capacity, they didn’t actually widen the road; they just repainted the lane markings to turn two lanes into three, and claimed a 50% capacity increase!
Everyone immediately screamed about being crammed together just centimetres apart, accidents increased and the city officials quickly u-turned; they repainted to have just 2 lanes in each direction again.
But they then tried to claim that as that was a 33% decrease, and that because they had earlier increased it 50%, that meant they had achieved a net 17% increase in the road’s capacity!