Measure VMT, not LOS

With the passage of Senate Bill 743 and official adoption of the measures into the 2018 California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) Guidelines, transportation impacts will no longer be determined using level of service (LOS), a measure of traffic congestion. Rather, projects will be required to determine transportation impacts based on vehicle miles traveled (VMT). This standard goes into effect July 1, 2020, though some jurisdictions may adopt VMT analysis sooner.

-https://dudek.com/measuring-transportation-impacts-using-vehicle-miles-traveled/

There is a saying: As goes California, so goes the nation. And in this case, I do urgently hope it to be tree. VMT is an excellent measure: of energy consumption, to pollution produced, to exposure to automobile accident. Combined with a road capacity metric, it is also a good way of measuring congestion. 

Level of Service is a garbage measure. Contrary to the school grading system it implies, LOS C indicates a road/intersection is actually at maximum efficiency: carrying all the capacity it is designed to carry. LOS A means an under-used road. And LOS F almost never happens: when LOS E hits, people divert to other routes, other times, and other modes. (My friend leaves his house at 515a to avoid traffic). The 'peak hour' is no longer an hour long. Reaching LOS A would mean doubling the width of every road out there, at a cost in billions, to ensure free-flowing traffic, everywhere, at once. And thanks to induced demand, it would last about a year. As the free-flowing traffic induced developers to build in ever more distant locations, where land is cheaper.

"It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends upon his not understanding it!" - Upton Sinclair.

I think it's time we recognized that most traffic engineering is deeply unethical. And that there is a whole structure built up, bureaucratically, to facilitate the construction of roads, and make efficient the movement of cars, regardless of the costs. Automobile travel both kills and sickens people. Why is we want more of it?