Elon Musk hates 405 Freeway traffic, offers money to speed widening

Elon Musk hates 405 Freeway traffic, offers money to speed widening(latimes.com)

5 points by mynd 13 years ago | 3 comments

lutusp 13 years ago |

As it turns out, some road improvement projects change the pattern of route usage in a way that they paradoxically make the situation worse. It's called "Braess's paradox" and it stems from analysis of network topology and Nash equilibria:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Braesss_paradox

Also, a typical road improvement project costs between one and five million dollars per mile. Based on the mean value, Musk's $50K contribution would add capacity to 106 feed of roadway.

Nice gesture, though.

loceng 13 years ago | |

I imagine the gesture was meant as a way to perhaps incite others to put additional of their own funds into it (outside of the taxes they hopefully pay).

lutusp 13 years ago | | |

I think Musk's involvement will be beneficial more because of his name and his reputation for getting things done, than by way of his contribution.