Skip to Content
Streetsblog USA home
Streetsblog USA home
Log In

If there's a highway expansion debate raging in your community right now, here's a new item to add to the "con" column.

false

Shane Phillips at Network blog Better Institutions raises the point that when wider highways induce more driving, that's going to dump more traffic on local streets:

The problem here is obvious: unless 100% of the new highway users are bypass traffic--none of them using the highway to get into the city itself--local roads have to deal with a huge influx of additional vehicles. Many of those vehicles aren't bypass traffic, of course, so local streets (and their residents) are burdened with their presence and the congestion they bring. And while federal- or state-owned highways can sometimes afford to increase their capacity, local roads usually can't. Besides being a poor choice from a return-on-investment and livability perspective, widening local streets to cope with the increase in vehicles is usually physically impossible--city centers are already built out and, thankfully, few people support tearing down homes and businesses just to expand local roads.

The downsides for cities don't stop there, Phillips says:

Imagine this scenario: you live 20 miles outside the city and want to get downtown, so you take the freeway there. The highway part of your trip used to take 30 minutes, but thanks to the new lanes it now only takes you 20 minutes. The last mile of your trip has slowed since there's a bit more local traffic, but it only increases from three minutes to five. All told, your trip time has decreased from 33 minutes to 25--great!

Now imagine you live in the city, five miles from the city center. It used to take your bus 20 minutes to get downtown, but unfortunately as a city resident you don't reap many benefits from the additional highway capacity. Instead, your trip is entirely on local roads, so all those extra cars coming into the city only slow you down. The trip that used to take you twenty minutes now takes thirty. The suburban visitor/commuter saved about ten minutes, and the city resident lost about ten, and all it cost was a few hundred millions dollars in construction and millions more in demolished buildings and businesses that are no longer producing revenue for the city. Money well spent, right?

That's a really good explanation of how highway widenings can quickly become a social equity problem.

Elsewhere on the Network today: Bike Portland says folks in suburban Portland are already beginning to discuss "alternatives" to the Columbia River Crossing, a highway megaproject that met its demise last week. Mobilizing the Region reports that older adults in the New York metropolitan region are particularly vulnerable to pedestrian injury. And Transport Providence tells the story of a farm-supply business that replaced a gas station in the city and what they are doing to improve sustainable transportation.

Stay in touch

Sign up for our free newsletter

More from Streetsblog USA

Friday’s Headlines Turn Back the Clock

The Trump administration is undoing decades of progress on transportation emissions and safety — progress that many would argue was too modest to begin with.

March 14, 2025

Friday Video: Welcome to the War on ‘Woke’ Transportation

Overwhelmed by weeks of federal attacks on green and equitable transportation? Catch up with this explainer and plug in to the fight.

March 14, 2025

Talking Headways Podcast: The Annual Yonah Freemark Show, Part II

Yonah Freemark of the Urban Institute is back again for Part II of his annual "Talking Headways" discussion.

March 13, 2025

What if the ‘Tesla Takedown’ Is Only the Beginning?

Tesla's cars have become symbols of Elon Musk's controversial role in U.S. politics — but they're also instruments of a violent system that long predates his time in the White House.

March 13, 2025

Thursday’s Headlines Are Hard-Driving

To paraphrase Billy Idol: Get out of my car, get into my dreams. Wired shows us examples of cities cutting down on driving that most of us can only fantasize about.

March 13, 2025
See all posts