Bicycle Austin forum

MichaelBluejay

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From: Austin, TX

Registered: 2008-05-26

Posts: 1,455

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Widening highways doesn't relieve congestion

Transportation wonks have known for a long time that widening roads doesn't relieve congestion.  (At least not long-term; it works initially, but all the gains are typically erased within five years.)  Of course, the general public is loath to believe such a thing because it's really counterintuitive.  I I biked from El Paso to Austin with a friend of mine once who couldn't believe it.

Here's a current NYT article on the topic, and a scientific paper which examines and measures the lack of success.

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/06/us/w … affic.html

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/a … 0X18301720

MichaelBluejay

Webmaster

From: Austin, TX

Registered: 2008-05-26

Posts: 1,455

Website

Re: Widening highways doesn't relieve congestion

A local group recently protested the I-35 expansion, with one holding a sign that read "MORE LANES = MORE TRAFFIC".

It's amazing to me how much things have changed over the years.  When I started bike/transpo advocacy back in the 90s, it was a pretty lonely space.  Now there's widespread agreement that more cars and more highways aren't the answer.  Similarly, I was vegan in the 80s ("long before it was fashionable", as I like to say), and back then I asked a waitress at Austin's (then) only (!) vegetarian restaurant whether something on the menu was vegan, and she didn't know what that word meant.  At a vegetarian restaurant.  These days you can't throw a carrot in Austin without hitting a vegan, or some plant-based product at HEB.

https://www.austinchronicle.com/news/20 … -the-week/