AN EXERCISE IN FUTILITY

Highway widenings don't work; assertions to the contrary are false.

"Expanding roads to reduce congestion isn’t working, and in many cases it is creating more traffic. We cannot afford to keep trying the same expensive and ineffective 'solution.'"

This story has played out time and time again all across America and we have the receipts. In a new report out today our colleagues at Transportation for America examine nearly three decades of freeway, congestion, and population data in the 100 most populous urbanized areas and reach one indisputable conclusion: Widening highways to eliminate congestion is an exercise in futility.

Every single urbanized area—from Brownsville, TX to Spokane, WA—saw an increase in travel delays (the measure for congestion in the report) between 1993 and 2017. In many areas like Charlotte, NC the population more than doubled during that time, but freeway lane miles more than tripled, and congestion rose by 326 percent. In some places like New Orleans and Detroit, population decreased while freeway lanes grew and congestion still got worse.

Join us on Tuesday, March 17 for a webinar where we'll expose the congestion con with our insights and talk about solutions that will actually work.

It's shocking and even puzzling—how can congestion go up when the population goes down? The answer is sprawl.

We have designed our communities as perfect little congestion-producing factories. Over the past few decades, as our communities have sprawled at an incredible rate, Americans have had to drive further to work, school, and the grocery store than they did years ago, and in many places driving is the only transportation option available. Compounding the problem are our disconnected road networks, which funnel everyone onto a few big roads, even for short trips, which inevitably end up congested.

The disease is sprawl; congestion is just a symptom. We'll never "solve" congestion by throwing billions at highways because they don't treat the disease itself. In fact, new highways just fuel more sprawl making the problem worse.

But perhaps "eliminating congestion" is the wrong goal. State departments of transportation (DOTs) have been put in an impossible situation—new lanes and new highways don’t solve the problem and DOTs don't control land use. The Congestion Con makes the case that it's time for a new goal: improving access.

Download the report today and share your favorite part (or least favorite as it may be) on Twitter using #CongestionCon.