The psychotherapist Carl Jung wrote about everything, including traffic engineers:

All time-saving methods, to which alleviaton of traffic congestion and other conveniences belong, do not, paradoxically, save any time, but simply fill the time available in such a manner that one has no more time at all. The result of this is inevitable, breathless haste, superficiality and nervous fatigue with all the related symptoms like nervous hunger, impatience, irritability, distractedness etc…

I found this at a public transit blog. Also interesting is their most popular link, P.J. O’Rourke’s paean to the car in Give War A Chance (“…even if all these accusations are true, the automobile is still an improvement on its principal alternative, the pedestrian. Pedestrians are easily damaged. Try this test: Hit a pedestrian with a car. Now have the pedestrian hit the car back…. Which is in better shape?”).