Highway Boondoggles
Basics
‘Secretary Pete Can’t Save You’: FHWA OKs Houston Highway Expansion After Pause
"The lesson here is, Secretary Pete is not going to come in and save the day," said one highway opponent. "And he probably isn’t capable of saving the day."
March 15, 2023
Are Texas Transportation Commissioners’ Investments in Auto and Oil Fueling Highway Addiction?
“They’d discuss budgets, billions and billions of dollars — and it’s obvious who their interests are,” she says. “I was there every month and never once did I hear them say, ‘People who are living in their grandma’s home, that’s their inheritance — [we want to make sure they] are being paid equally as all the big businesses downtown.’”
March 10, 2023
Rest In Pieces, ‘Fix-it-First’: Biden Caves to GOP’s Highway Expansion Obsession
The Biden administration has caved to GOP pressure and will no longer push states to repair existing highways before building new ones, a move that angered livable cities advocates.
March 7, 2023
Freeway Fighters List Their Top Five Needs For 2023
so? Transportation for America and America Walks recently surveyed organizations fighting freeways all across the country to get a better sense of what they need to win, and the results are both inspiring and daunting.
March 3, 2023
TxDOT Chooses Highways Over Housing
The Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) is pushing forward with an $85 billion, decade-long plan to expand the state’s highway system, despite widespread opposition and even a federal lawsuit — even if that means tearing down housing.
February 16, 2023
Opinion: It’s Time to Embrace ‘Deinfluencing’ Car Culture — and Gen Z is Leading
“There doesn’t seem to be a lot of honesty anymore [on social media], it seems like a lot of things are run through money,” one social media user said.
February 13, 2023
Opinion: Stop Expanding the Damn Roads in Michigan
The recent announcement of a $105-million grant to remove I-375 in Detroit is welcome news. But it also raises the question of whether our broader road spending is leading to a future we want.
October 28, 2022
Highway Boondoggles, Part VII: Oregon’s Abernethy Insanity
In our final installment of our annual Highway Boondoggles series with U.S. PIRG., we look at bridge widening that circumvented the National Environmental Policy Act Environmental Impact Assessment process.
September 21, 2022
Highway Boondoggles Part VI: Martinsville’s Big Miss
The Martinsville Southern Connector is a classic waste of money that will hurt an historic community.
September 20, 2022
Highway Boondoggles Part V: Duluth’s ‘Can of Worms’
It’s sometimes said that Minnesota has two seasons: winter and road construction. In Duluth, an ongoing, multiyear highway project has sucked up millions of taxpayer dollars on a road that many residents believe shouldn’t even be there in the first place.
September 19, 2022
