Would the money be better spent expanding roadways in congested urban areas?
It has been proven in city after city across this country and around the world that expanding the capacity of urban roadways is not a cure for urban congestion. Many studies have shown that increased highway capacity induces additional development, sprawl, and traffic.8 Researchers from the University of California found that every 10 percent increase in new urban highway capacity generates a 9 percent increase in traffic.9 While there is no single solution to solving urban congestion, building wider roads in urban areas is definitely not the answer. This is not to say urban congestion should not be addressed. Rather than building wider roads, urban areas may need to implement a wide variety of solutions such as expanding transportation system management efforts, incorporating more technology such as ramp metering, eliminating physical bottlenecks, developing better public transportation systems, discouraging sprawl, channeling through traffic around urban areas, and promoting the migr
