Traffic

I suspect that Los Angeles Traffic is reflective of traffic throughout the United Stats (when it comes to other countries the situation is rather different for different reasons).  The introduction of Lyft and Uber services, as well as Door Dash, and other "gig" delivery services have turned traffic for the 9-5 types into a congealing mass of annoyance.  Population Density has also increased, and the sheer number or cars on the road or owned go up with that.  For every single family dwelling or two converted into multi-unit housing there is a corresponding increase in vehicle density.  And of course, no new roads are being built.  Elon Musk's Boring Company remains a pretty speculative solution, and even if it were to start today, it would likely take years, or decades to make an impact.  So, what happens is that you get a different sort of class divide again where the middle gets squeezed.  Those that have the wherewithal to avoid driving, and take advantage of newer driving services for their transportation needs shift the driving burden to those who scrabble to get by with the meager income provided by internet cabs and delivery services.  Just where the income level is where that becomes an attractive option probably varies, but the need to travel doesn't diminish.  However, if you can shift the burden of the annoyance that goes along with driving, you get more driving activity.  The fact that people use theses sort of Door Dash delivery services to deliver fast food cuisine, makes it seem likely that the income threshold may not be that high.  Someone may not want to hassle with the drive to their local fast food restaurant, but if someone is willing to take on that burden for a sufficiently low cost, then you get another car on the road.  Now there is an argument that this is still the same number of cars, which is technically true, but it yields an increase traffic.  Here's how it works.

Lets say a customer wants his fast food fix, and is willing to drive.  The drive is 3 miles round trip.

Instead, said customer will have a deliveryperson go and get their order for them and deliver it.  The round trip to the house is still 3 miles of course, BUT there is additional mileage for the driver who is making the delivery.  Even if it is only 0.5 miles additional (the delivery person is in the area after all, but half a mile isn't all that far), that is a 16% increase in miles driven on the roads.  That does not take into account the distance the driver will add to return to wherever their home is (to be fair, that should be distributed by the number of deliveries being made).  As this gets multiplied out, it should become clear that there are more cars on the road, and this is more likely to happen in denser population areas, since there will be more people that want to take advantage of such services.

Self driving cars will change this dynamic again, and hopefully for the better.  Odds are that we will see self driving cars with drones for the door delivery where possible.  That may not happen, particularly if a drone falls on top of someone's head early on, but if you want to deliver to an apartment building, they will either still need a person to go upstairs, or a drone will need access via a window.  Nearby trees could make certain areas problematic for that, so don't be surprised if there are "No drone delivery" zones.  The other option would be for drones to be curbside delivery, which is still better than you having to hassle with traffic.  But if you do have to use the roads, you will be competing for road space with all the other 9-5ers as well as the increased delivery services.  Your commute isn't going to get any better, at least not any time soon.

Welcome to the future...