Misconceptions & Reasoning
📋 What it is
Many “obvious” city ideas are wrong — like “more roads always fix traffic”; good planners check the evidence.
🗣️ Coach says
Some city “common sense” is backwards. Building more lanes can actually attract MORE cars and make traffic worse (it’s called induced demand). Beat a city myth the way you always do: look at what the evidence really shows.
🧠 Memory hook
“Obvious ≠ true.” More roads can mean MORE traffic. Check the evidence.
😂 Giggle
Why did the architect go to art school?
To learn how to draw people in!
😲 Whoa!
Widening highways often fills right back up with new drivers within a few years — a surprise called “induced demand.”
✅ Quick check: Why doesn’t simply building more road lanes reliably fix a city’s traffic?
Say your answer out loud first — then reveal.
More lanes attract more drivers (induced demand), so the new space fills up and traffic returns — the “obvious” fix backfires.
Evidence-over-intuition is the reasoning skill the whole strand builds.
🧪 Try it! (2 minutes)
Look up one “obvious” traffic or city fix and find out whether the evidence actually supports it.