Myth #4: Highway building Relieves Congestion
Amongst transportation planners, the concept of induced traffic
is well known. This is how it works: A highway becomes congested, so the local
road-building authority decides to increase its capacity by either adding more lanes, or
building a new highway in parallel. On the day the new or improved highway opens, it is
less congested than the old one, and opens up new land for development. People respond to
this by moving their home or business to a location that is accessed by the new highway,
or by switching to driving from transit or walking, which have overnight become relatively
less attractive options. Before long, there are more cars on the road driving longer
distances to access the same services, and the new highway becomes just as congested as
the old one was. In other words, building more highways increases traffic congestion,
because it induces more driving. America spent the entire 20th century building roads, yet
traffic congestion continued to increase. Continuing this policy into the 21st century
will only result in more congestion, in addition to all the other problems associated with
the automobile dependency.
