Widening Highways Doesn’t Fix Traffic. So Why Do We Keep Doing It?
www.nytimes.com
With billions of dollars available to improve transportation infrastructure, states have a chance to try new strategies for addressing congestion. But some habits are hard to break.

For critics of widening projects, the prime example of induced demand is the Katy Freeway in Houston, one of the widest highways in the world with 26 lanes.

Immediately after Katy’s last expansion, in 2008, the project was hailed as a success. But within five years, peak hour travel times on the freeway were longer than before the expansion.

Matt Turner, an economics professor at Brown University and co-author of the 2009 study on congestion, said adding lanes is a fine solution if the goal is to get more cars on the road. But most highway expansion projects, including those in progress in Texas, cite reducing traffic as a primary goal.

“If you keep adding lanes because you want to reduce traffic congestion, you have to be really determined not to learn from history,” Dr. Turner said.

  • kyle@lemm.eeEnglish
    36·
    1 year ago

    If you also consider the weather and politics, I would still much rather live in Paris.

          • hglman@lemmy.worldEnglish
            2·
            1 year ago

            Austin is not a better food city. It might be a better city, but not because of the food.

            • massive_bereavement@kbin.social
              1·
              1 year ago

              I was just being facetious; I spent quite some time in Plano and around Dallas and I don’t miss it due the whole commuting thing.
              I had to drive to Houston now and then it was a miserable experience, and made me bitter of the whole Americana road trip thing.

              That said, on last trip, we went somewhere down to Sant Jacinto (?) and I’ll gladly live there. I did had some delicious crawfish that later vomited somewhere along the I-10 East freeway.

              Edit: maybe I’m just mad nobody wears ten gallon hats.