Highway Expansion
Basics
Highway Boondoggles: Texas State Highway 45 Southwest
In a new report, Highway Boondoggles 2 (the original came out in 2014), U.S. PIRG and the Frontier Group teamed up to profile the most wasteful highway projects that state DOTs are building. Streetsblog will be serializing the case studies in the report. Today, we focus on a road project that risks contaminating the water supply in and around Austin, Texas.
January 21, 2016
Highway Boondoggles: Widening I-95 Across Connecticut
Last year Congress passed a multi-year transportation bill. Like previous bills, it gives tens of billions of dollars to states every year to spend with almost no strings attached. How much of this federal funding will state DOTs devote to expensive, traffic-inducing highway projects that further entrench car dependence and sprawl?
January 19, 2016
Lobbyist Holds Up Spectacular Example of the Futility of Widening Highways
Crossposted from City Observatory.
December 16, 2015
The High Price of Cheap Gas
At least on the surface, the big declines in gas prices we’ve seen over the past year seem like an unalloyed good. We save money at the pump, and we have more to spend on other things, But the cheap gas has serious hidden costs—more pollution, more energy consumption, more crashes and greater traffic congestion. There’s an important lesson here, if we pay attention.
November 19, 2015
Community Pushing Back Against Plan to Widen Interstate Through Asheville
Will the state of North Carolina and the Federal Highway Administration insist on widening an interstate highway through west Asheville to eight lanes? Right now, it looks like there's a very good chance of that -- and that's what frightens a lot of locals.
November 13, 2015
Arkansas Wants to Widen Highway, Eliminate Streetcar for “Safety”
Where to even begin with this?
October 26, 2015
Dallas Council Member: Texas Poised to “Compound Errors of the Past”
The entire Texas highway machine -- suburban real estate moguls, the construction industry, the governor, and the legislature -- is pushing voters to approve Prop 7, a constitutional amendment that would mandate spending $2.5 billion in state sales tax revenue on un-tolled roads. The highway interests are telling Texas voters in unison that this measure, if approved in November, will fix congestion and not cost them any extra money -- claims that don't stand up to the slightest scrutiny.
October 21, 2015
Will Texas Voters Enshrine Failed Transpo Policy in the State’s Constitution?
When Texas voters go to the polls this November they will decide an issue of enormous consequence to the future of the state.
October 20, 2015
Do Environmental Reviews for Road Projects Help the Environment?
It's been more than 40 years since the National Environmental Policy Act was enacted. In that time, America has built a lot of emissions-inducing, land-devouring highway infrastructure despite the environmental review process mandated by NEPA. It's fair to ask: When it comes to transportation infrastructure, does environmental review make a difference for the environment?
October 19, 2015
Here’s What a Billion-Dollar Interchange Expansion Looks Like
In case you were wondering what a $1.1 billion highway interchange looks like, feast your eyes on this rendering from the Georgia Department of Transportation.
October 12, 2015